I’ve been thinking about violence. Not about committing it, but about the reasons why it is committed. I am not a particularly violent person, though I occasionally wish I was because it feels like some people just NEED to be slapped.

But rarely do I give the world what it needs.

I’m thinking about this topic because of a current event. I’m not going to mention that current event - partially because I think the reason some actions are committed is to induce another reaction, and partially because I don’t want anyone who happens to comment on this to default to prejudice.

So let’s say that I believe in a giant omniscient teddy bear in the sky.

My omniscient teddy bear has given me a rulebook, which is called ‘Teddy’s Rules’.

One of these rules states that you should never destroy a copy of Teddy’s Rules.

Another one says that those who are not part of the Teddy Movement are doomed, worthless, and probably shouldn’t exist in the first place.

There are ranges of how completely the followers of Teddy’s Rules believe in the rules. There are groups that take the rules to mean things symbolically, but not literally. There are other groups that believe, completely, that Teddy is infalliable, and that the words in the rule book are magical.

In fact, you might even say that the rules, wherever they are printed, actually contain bits of the One True Teddy’s fur.

This is a sacred relic, if you believe in such things.

And, in this example, I do.

You burn a copy of Teddy’s Rules. I, in turn, kill some people.

The world awaits a reaction.

On the one hand, you don’t believe in Teddy’s Rules, and therefore the rule about the words containing sacred fluff are the equivalent of believing in Santa Claus. In your mind, you had every right to burn Teddy’s Rules.

On the other hand, you know that I am not with you in that belief. You know that I believe that burning Teddy’s Rules is just the same as you murdering my family.

You can tell me to smarten up a bit. You can tell me that the moment you choose not to burn Teddy’s Rules is the moment the teddorists win.

But that doesn’t mean anything to me.

You going out of your way to burn the rules gives the book just as much significance as I claim it has.

You have, in fact, by knowing what would happen, forfeited lives in honor of this book that you claim is nothing.

The rule book must be very, very important if it was worth burning in the first place - if it was worth the lives you knew I would take in honor of The Teddy.

I claim that these are my beliefs and yours, rather than random third parties, for a reason.

If you were in the middle of Teddistan, would you burn the rule book?

Would you urge someone else to do so?

The thoughts that would lead you to burn the rule book are sane. If I believe in an omniscient Teddy Bear who lives in the sky, though, then I am not believing sanely. You would not confront a paranoid schizophrenic and tell them that they are right - the government really is watching them. Nor would you confront a paranoid schizophrenic who is in the middle of a break and insist that they are wrong - that they should just buck up and view the world from your sane, enlightened point of view.

Because expecting them to immediately be cured of schizophrenia is insane too.

It sounds like I am slamming all believers. But I’m not. I’m a believer, after a fashion.

It’s just that my particular beliefs don’t care what you think.

Your beliefs won’t send me to hell.

Your beliefs don’t make you worthless.

But if I thought that they did - wouldn’t you think to tiptoe?

I ask because I really don’t know the answer. I wonder if you do. I’m just pondering violence. Definitely, though, not committing it.