Intelligence is a virtue

The threat of mutual destruction as a method to keep order only works if both sides are intelligent enough and empathic enough to understand the assuredness of mutual destruction and the consequences it would entail for themselves.

So I guess that's why villains are so often ridiculously stupid in stories, even when they're intelligent enough to construct huge complex plans. They need to be so stupid, or in other words so certain of their own success, that they can't see the risk of mutual destruction or understand the consequence.

When some religious guidance says doubt is the sign of a healthy mind, perhaps this is what they mean. If you ever find something you're absolutely sure of, that's the time to take a long hard look at yourself, even if it's something you're sure is good... especially then.

It doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. I'm still not sure how you act in a world made of uncertainty, I think it has to do with fear and faith and hope, and it has to do with accepting your part in a universe too complicated for a human mind, and your place in nature, but I do wonder one thing. Has healthy doubt ever started any wars?


In the end, the breaking point isn't fear or faith or hope, or love, or any of those things they always talk about in stories, though. In this case, it's intelligence.

That is not the full story though. Nothing ever is.