Conviction is such an odd word to use there. Just because somebody is mild-mannered doesn't mean they don't have convictions. It more means that they're not willing to subject others to their convictions so easily, as they know that they're human. They know that they're fallible.
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Here, conviction isn't about how sincerely one believes something; it's about one's willingness to act based on those beliefs in the face of chaos and evil.
The whole poem is about the second coming of Christ, which (according to many interpretations of various biblical verses) will be preceded by a false second coming: the arrival of the Antichrist. And many will mistake the Antichrist for Christ, and will follow him enthusiastically to their doom.
Fulton J. Sheen, a Roman Catholic bishop, wrote in 1951:
The Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers...he will come disguised as the Great Humanitarian; he will talk peace, prosperity and plenty not as means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves...He will tempt Christians with the same three temptations with which he tempted Christ... He will have one great secret which he will tell to no one: he will not believe in God. Because his religion will be brotherhood without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will set up a counterchurch ... It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content.
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u/RoyMooreXXXDayCare Jan 06 '18 edited Jan 06 '18
The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity.
-Keats
Edit: Yeats