A Definition For Murder

I have written profusely about the destructive and anti-productive properties of fear, often even refering to it as the source of all “evil”. But like all other aspects of our experiences in life, fear has a purpose. So I should stress, that like all “evil” things, it is important to learn how to master and control fear, not eliminate it. Fear needs you to “be afraid, be very afraid”, in order to control your thoughts and behavior.
Our goal should be to feel fear without being afraid. Roosevelt would have been more precise (though less dramatic) if he had said, “The only thing we have to fear is being afraid.” All he was really saying, of course, was, “Let's not be cowards!” Isn't the definition of a coward, someone who is afraid of fear, and thus allows it to determine what they do, and, perhaps even more significantly, what they think.
When we let fear control our thoughts then we end up rationalizing our cowardly acts. The murderer thinks, “He deserves to die because...” It doesn't matter what excuse he invents, or even whether it is invented spuriously in the mind of a cowardly killer, or formally in the courts of a fearful society. All that matters is that the excuse justifies our submission to fear, so that fear can stay in control.
But what is a coward if not a child? Perhaps being afraid is the only way we can protect ourselves while we are still too immature to respond rationally (and without rationalization) to the threats we perceive. So maybe we should not be so quick to judge and condemn a coward, because doing so is itself a cowardly act. Instead, maybe we should see the coward for the child they are, whether that child be a 35 year old man, or a 200 year old social system. (Notice how only the young and immature social systems in the world still have criminal death penalties. The European Union will not even accept a country that still executes its criminals.)
If “being rational” means acting on reason, and “rationalizing” means inventing excuses, then how can we tell the difference? Actually, there is a simple test that the militaries of the world have used for thousands of years. They call it, “clear and present danger”. If you kill for any reason less than this, then you are only rationalizing a cowardly act. And, that makes you a murderer. But, don't worry. You'll grow up someday. I did.