He criticized fanaticism among the religious masses and the Obscurantism of the clergy. All extremism, fanaticism, and obscurantism come from a lack of security. The "dialectical" method is rejected as a form of Hegelian obscurantism. The second sense of "obscurantism" denotes making knowledge abstruse, that is, difficult to grasp. Jacques Lacan was an intellectual who defended obscurantism to a degree. Gryzlov has claimed that criticism of Petrik is modern day obscurantism. Other languages were seen as keeping the peasant masses in obscurantism.