Without saying much more, I'll observe that absolutists have a harder time finding satisfaction.

It's hard to feel satisfied when this is what happens to the things our friends and neighbors value.

For any country, bombs are probably better than boots on the ground, if it means their people are out of harms way. Yes. As a whole, the world is getting less violent every decade. Yes. With the exception of a few hiccups here and there, international dialog keeps progressing and part of the driving force behind that is the sense that the world is becoming more and more connected, economically, culturally, etc.

For absolutist though, every bullet fired, every bomb dropped, is a source of shame, failure, and regret. Every bridge blown up, every building leveled, and every life lost is a tragedy that's impossible to really quantify or qualify.

It's good that absolutists are unsatisfied, because that lack of satisfaction is hopefully what drives us as a whole to strive for better and better. It's good to say "Hey. We're fuxking up less. Let's give ourselves a pat on the back." It's much more important to say though "But we're still fuxking up, and in the end, that's unacceptable. Let's work on that."

After all, in almost every aspect of life, progress is driven by a constant desire to be better today that we were yesterday, and to hope to be better tomorrow than we are today.