With so much time and energy spent killing, maiming and generally abusing one another, you would think that Northern Ireland's distinctive brand of absolutists might feel they have enough to keep them occupied without seeking to add to their workload, writes David Adams.
But then, that would be to seriously underestimate this society's enthusiasm for identifying difference and then attacking it.
Endless struggle with a traditional foe doesn't mean that the search for new enemies is ever relaxed. Like rust, absolutism never sleeps.
Just a few weeks after a survey identified Northern Ireland as the most racist part of the United Kingdom, along comes another this week to prove that we are the most homophobic as well.
A study by the Institute for Conflict Research has found that around 55 per cent of gay people here have been victims of homophobic violence, while 82 per cent have suffered some form of verbal or physical harassment (I suspect the remaining 18 per cent have escaped attention only because they remain unidentified).
These figures, together with the earlier findings on racist attitudes, make depressing though not surprising reading. They provide further evidence, if more were needed, of how we as a people have little tolerance for those who stray from the norm - as we define it.
Of course, such prejudice is hardly a problem unique to Northern Ireland. What probably is unique, however (at least in a supposedly civilised society such as ours), is that this extreme homophobia and racism marches arm-in-arm with a religious, political and cultural intolerance of at least equal proportions.
And, as if that weren't enough, we also have an unfortunate tendency towards using extreme violence against those we disagree with.
But these attacks upon members of the gay and ethnic communities are symptomatic as well, of a far deeper malaise, and one that is largely ignored in case it interferes with the "bigger picture".
Within both major communities the boundaries of discussion and debate - beyond which it is advisable not to stray - have, over the past number of years, become increasingly contracted until they now encompass a very narrow piece of ground indeed.
There never was much room for the dissenting voice within either community; now there is almost none.
Those, particularly in working-class areas, who do openly express an opinion that doesn't chime with the acceptable view are one way or another soon made only too aware of their mistake.
Violence and intimidation which were at one time almost exclusively directed outward now, as often as not, are directed inward at dissenting members of the community from which they emanate.
To be considered ideologically unsound is not a particularly healthy position, so acquiescence or just keeping your head down makes for an altogether quieter and more trouble-free life. Hence the politics and social attitudes of the lowest common denominator generally hold sway.
This deliberate suppression of new ideas - and of any challenge to conventional attitudes - within whole sections of our community is doing untold damage to the political, moral and intellectual well-being of our people as a whole.
Is it any wonder then, in such an inherently violent society, obsessed as it is with conformity and fixated on finding enemies both within and without, that such easily identified "non-conformists" as gays and ethnic minorities are subjected to a high level of abuse?
The abnormal has in many respects now become the normal, so we have the paradoxical situation of various individuals and assorted groups of people being physically or verbally attacked for not fitting into what passes for the norm within a manifestly abnormal society.
I'm not quite sure what constitutes a healthy society, but I am absolutely certain that, at this point in time at least, Northern Ireland wouldn't pass the test.
Of course, we are still in the transitional stage between violent conflict and a peaceful resolution, with the residue from 30 years of strife still very much a factor. (It was never going to be a simple matter of stepping from the darkness into the light). And, of course, the suspension of the political institutions has created a vacuum that others are only too eager to fill.
However, while the reinstatement of the political institutions would undoubtedly be a good thing in itself, it would be difficult to argue that our political representatives, whether in office or out, set much of an example where enlightenment and tolerance are concerned.
Further, and far more importantly, there is absolutely no guarantee that political stability at a macro level will automatically lead to an easing of conditions for those on the ground floor. During previous periods of stability, far from dissipating, absolutist power and control positively thrived. The fear must be that unless this problem is recognised and then tackled, it will continue to thrive irrespective of how things might develop on the larger political stage.