Our lives are shaped around organizing principles. When our structure is attacked, we either lift the drawbridge or reign fire and boiling oil.

It is easiest to see this reaction with religion and politics, but science, reason, and wealth are the modern castles we defend.

The most difficult to realize we are defending is “nothing.” (Nothing should interfere with us, or nothing is essential.) It is a cynical slide that allows rampant permissions, dismissing structure entirely for the freedom nothing allows.

But we should be able to ask: is this belief leading me to moralize more or treat people better?