How to negotiate with believers

Malcolm Gladwell's retelling of the Branch Davidians and the Waco Siege lets a survivor, Clive Doyle, do most of talking.

They did not worship Koresh, the way you would a deity. He was just the latest of many teachers, in a religious delusion that dated back half a century. “I’m just a messenger of the truth,” Koresh would say. “I’m like a Dixie cup that dog will crumple up and throw away when he’s done with it.” Or, as his deputy, Steve Schneider, put it, “All of these places talk about a man in the last days that’s a sinner. He can do one thing, open up the words of the book, open up the seven seals. Can’t do any miracles, doesn’t raise the dead, heal the sick, isn’t a psychic but . . . if people have questions about life and death, eternal life, no matter what the question is, he will show it in context from the book.”

The argument that follows--that the FBI gave itself no meaningful way to communicate with true believers--is fascinating: "For those who don’t take the Bible seriously, talking about scripture when there is a battle going on seems like an evasion. For those who do, however, it makes perfect sense."