Fandemic

   Here's a new word -- fandemic -- and let's define it as an epidemic of adulation. The reason for this outbreak of widespread, unquestioning support could be emotional, as in the popularity of a singer, actor or politician. It could also be rational, which can explain the success of an author of well written books.
   But widespread emotional support can also be non-rational, when crowds are caught up in a fever of support for a person or policy that defies logic and morality.
   Here we can define morality as how one deals with other people, compared to religion, which can be defined as how one deals with an entity in the spirit world. One of the teachings of religion is morality, but there are many non-religious people -- agnostics and atheists, for example -- who are quite moral.
   To mix the two, and to insist that there is no morality without religion, even as those who preach this are guilty of the very immoral practices that they so vehemently condemn, is hypocrisy of the first order.
   No person, of course, is perfect. At one time or another, everyone does something that violates his or her own moral beliefs. The best people can do is to formulate a moral code, try to live up to it, and be aware of their actions when they break their own rules.
   This is especially true in business, politics and government. The founders of the American republic deliberately kept religion out of the formative documents for the country's governing system, and specified that no religious system be established as official, that all citizens must conform to.
   Nonetheless, there have been and are many who believe that a specific church, religion or hallowed document be the source of guidelines and practices the political and government officials should follow in their public lives.
   Certainly they have the right to follow any spiritual system they choose in their private lives, and they are free to exhibit their practices in their public lives. But they may not impose their religious principles and beliefs on others.
   To do so is not only unconstitutional, it is immoral.
   In terms of a physical disease, an epidemic is a sudden outbreak, compared to endemic, which means a disease in a given area is long-term, and a pandemic, which is when an outbreak spreads worldwide.
   Historically, various countries have been infected with a fandemic disease, as when a politician spreads hatred of a target group and uses that to fuel his own popularity and support a rise to power.
   America is now facing an outbreak of a fandemic disease. Whether the citizenry recognizes this soon and vaccinates itself against it is something for free press physicians to recognize and publicize.