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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 448501" data-attributes="member: 4937">Storminator:  Excellent post!  I've been trying to assemble my thoughts, and you beat me to it.  That was exactly what I wanted to say, and probably better than I would have ended up saying it.SHARK: I've said it before, I'll say it again.  I think you are enherently a lawful person.   I don't think that is bad.  I'm not passing judgement.   But I think that because of that, you are putting a little too much emphasis on the lawful nature of paladins (which is fine, because some people put too much emphasis on thier good nature).   I don't deny that Paladins could be organized the way you suggest (provided the universe exists as you describe it).  I think you are probably describing paladins on the lawful edge of lawful good.   But I do think that the situation you describe although it strongly encourages lawfulness, does little to encourage goodness.  Just as a Paladin with a poor understanding of pacifism could be tricked into foolish self-sacrificing behavior (not that it is always foolish to employ self-sacrificing behavior), so I think that your Paladins could be tricked into making too quick of judgements, and into rash and untoward violance (not that thier aren't times that call for immediate and unhesitating violence).So I think it likely that orders of Paladins will be made up of diverse individuals with personal beliefs lying somewhere between what you describe and the opposite extreme.Pacifism:  On the subject of Pacifism, I personally think that not all good people are pacifists, and not all pacifists are good people.  BUT, I do think that pacifism is strongly associated with goodness, and is a marker of a certain level of discernment.   However, there are alot of false pacifists in the world.  A false pacifist is a coward.  There is no other way around it but to be blunt about it.  99% of all people I've ever met who were pacifists were simpering self-centered, self-righteous cowards.  The other 1% were IMPRESSIVE.A real pacifist is courageous.  A real pacifist is the sort of person who walks calmly out onto a battlefield and picks up a fallen soldier and by force of his personality stares a machine gunner into taking his hand off the trigger.   A real pacifist walks right into situations of danger and does something incredible, like stopping to drunks from fighting.  A real pacifist I've known was attacked by a rapist, and ended up by force of personality stopping the attack and leading the guy to Christ.   They don't scream.  They don't whine.  They don't lead protests where people shout (an act of violence) and carry around signs (the visual equivalent of shouting).  They are very impressive people.   The only people who can be pacifists are people who are strong.   It is pointless for anyone who isn't strong to be a pacifist.   People who are weak and who are pacifists are called victims.And 99% of the people who think they are pacifists aren't.  They are just people afraid of violence, and afraid of having thier little secure world threatened and who like pampering thier egos by thinking they are 'activists' when really they are 'apathists'.There are some very very good movies Gary Cooper movies on the subject of pacifism that I highly recommend anyone who wants to be a pacifist watch.   Those movies are: "High Noon", "Sergeant York", and "Friendly Persuasion".</blockquote>

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