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Radicalism is a force that has the power to completely destroy everything and anything currently around us. While in the past it has been used to cause good changes, the actually act of Radicalism is never beneficial or good. First, I must define Radicalism. Radicalism is the belief in one thing or idea or philosophy to the exclusion of anything else, and in one thing so deeply that no amount of evidence or persuasion can change one's mind. Radicalism, at least the form I am talking about, is not just an idea that is very far outside the mainstream. Such beliefs are not only beneficial but needed for a strong society. The radicalism I am talking about is the unified theory radicalism that sees every problem in society as caused by one uber-problem, and then that every fact or evidence against their position is "manufactured by the elite/burgeous/male/white hierarchy of authority" and can therefore be discounted.
Radicalism usually starts as a reaction to a legitimate problem. Feminism was justly concieved at a time when women were treated as second-class citizens legally and socially. However, often these movements succeed, but the Radicals they inspired do not die out but keep pressing for whatever ideals they may still have. For instance today feminists have turned their attack from the political issues, like equal rights and the vote, to social issues, like abortion, the glass ceiling, the family, and other issues. However, they still use the separatist language blaming the same people for these new issues. It is acceptable to use civil disobedience/protests to oppose unjust laws. It is not acceptable to use such civil/disobedience to protest fluctuations in society. The reason women lack men in earnings in the marketplace is probably because not every women has always expected to get a job and have a career, while most every man has. So, to fix this problem, the feminists could use education of women on the workplace issue, could work to provide free training for women in job skills and so on. Instead, however, the radicalism of previous generations of feminism lives on in the modern generation, attacking the "male hierarchy" of oppressing and opposing women's gains in the business sector. Now, I'm not saying that there is no sexism at all, and that it should be ignored. If sexism can be found in the work place, or discrimination towards women based upon their gender, then of course legal action should be undertaken. However, the blaming of all of society's problems on any single cause is absurd. The male hierachy, in case the feminists haven't noticed, isn't living like Gods all over the face of the nation propped up by the slavery of the oppressed woman. Men face problems just like women do, and so it is logical to assume that some of the causes of the problems for men might also affect women. So feminists can lay down their militant rhetoric and actually work to improve the lot of the woman, instead of attack man.
A hallmark of this destructive radicalism is the commiting of the logical fallacy of ad hominem. They attack all evidence or information, regardless of the actual source, as biased against their position. This actually takes the form of another fallacy, since by denying any evidence against a certain position for the fact that it is against that position, is a fallacy since therefore the truthfullness of the position can never be ascertained. However, even logic and reason, "linear thinking" and truth, are almost always under attack from the different radical positions that exist. By attacking reason, they can justify their unreasonable positions, by attacking logic, they can justify their unlogical positions.
Radicalism is ultimately destructive of everything and anything that it sees in its way. If it is successful in the destruction of what it sees as evil, but the problems it seeks to erradicate are still present, it will instead of apologizing and admitting error, will seek out a new target to attack, and so on and so forth until every institution has been completely destroyed that could exist as an obstacle of the radicalist position.
Radicalism also hurts its own interests by always completely rejecting whatever social or political construction it views as opposed to itself. However, often these constructions are so powerful, that little if any change is wrought. If instead the radicals would work within the system, change would happen much faster and more efficiently, and the construction would not have to be destroyed. Any "rational" observer could probably see that most constructions do in fact have rational benefits that could be kept by not destroying the institution.
Radicalism is not something to be honored or respected. Radicalism has the inherent intellectual justification for murder, genocide and anarchy. Hitler was a radical. Lenin was a radical. Both of these men caused millions of innocent lives to be terminated to fufil their ideaological agendas. Radical ideas, in the sense of being outside conservative thought, are welcome and useful, but the application of any idea to the extent of everything else is harmful and does no benefit to anyting.