Where is Our Passionate Intensity?

I do not care for W.B. Yeats or his poetry, but a few lines from his poem "Second Coming" (which I also do not care for all that much) somehow came to my mind today as I was thinking about possible topics for today's blog post. Before you start getting all uneasy, let me assure you - I will not be analyzing or interpreting "Second Coming" here. Everyone knows that has been done far too many times.

Instead, I merely want to drop a few comments regarding the lines that inexplicably popped into my head this evening, which were the final three from the first stanza of Yeats' two stanza poem:

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst   
Are full of passionate intensity.

As I mentioned above, I am no fan of Yeats, but I must give credit where credit is due - these are some powerful and poignant lines. When they appeared in my mind, I immediately thought about the two-century process building up to the crisis we face today. The worst during those centuries truly were full of passionate intensity, while the best utterly lacked conviction. If this had not been so, there would be no crisis today. 

Don't misunderstand, I am not lamenting the crisis. The crisis is necessary. Things are coming to a head. We all must face, endure, and hopefully overcome whatever will come. The only relevant question is - how will we face it? 

Will we continue to lack conviction? Or will we finally, after two centuries of being eroded and corroded, awaken and become passionately intense again? 

The best among us must be filled with passionate intensity again.

They simply must be.

I simply must be. 

You simply must be. 

It is the only the way the worst may begin to lose their convictions.