How strong are you?

As I see it, there are three kinds of people, depending on how strong is their faith in their ideas. In two cases, their beliefs aren´t strong enough:

- Some of them, at least unconsciously, feel their ideas can´t compete with others in equal conditions, so they feel threatened, and usually fight back, violently. That, taken to the extreme, leads them to kill, even at the cost of getting killed too. Since their mistake is the same, the only difference is how far they´ll go, although they tend to escalate too. In short, I include in this group terrorists, religious fundamentalists, some nationalists, and everyone with a totalitarian political view, even in a democratic system. The end justifies the means.

- Others, under a misunderstood tolerance, don´t have a strong faith in any ideas, and despise people who do. It´s easy not to defend your ideas with the argument that no one should. And even easier when tagging your opponent´s ideas as totalitarian seems to inmediately legitimate your own. Nothing is right or wrong, so the end justifies the means. Spanish Government has been a great example this last weekend, criticizing victims of terrorism and their supporters, around one million people, who peacefully demonstrated in Madrid against negotiation with ETA murderers. They don´t seem to understand that some people would rather be killed by terrorists than live in a treacherous peace at the cost of giving in to the terrorists totalitarian goals.

This two positions aren´t as far apart as it seems. Some people even combine them: you shouldn´t have strong ideas if they´re different from mine, but I have every right to impose mine. That´s what do some of the nationalists in Spain, especially Basque and Catalan ones. Their very narrow view of the world is the following: Everyone against nationalism is a "dictatorial fascist", but they are entitled to say who is/isn´t a true Basque/Catalan based on their political ideas, impose a language in a bilingual region, verbally and physically attack their oponents, and so on.

- The third group of people, the one we´d all like to belong to, or the one we fight to belong to (we´re human and usually fall to one or both of the temptations above), it´s the people who have such faith in what they defend that they think it almost defends itself. Well, of course you have to defend it, and don´t hesitate to do such, but you don´t have to do it "against" anyone. You strongly believe it´s the truth and know that, in the end, truth shall prevail. So you don´t worry if you´re attacked, discriminated, killed... And you don´t go to extreme means like those to defend it because you are sure your ideas are true and right enough not to need it. Examples? Well, everyone who ever gave their life for a cause in an innocent way, everyone who thinks it could happen and are ready, and everyone (like me) who likes to think they´d be ready.

Wow, look what a drabble from such a small idea!