Courage
Value-based action despite temptation
Value-based action despite temptation
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You understand the dangers, you
feel the fear, and you find the courage to do the right thing. Strength and wisdom
combine as you ward off temptation and act according to your values.
Definitions
1.
Overcoming
Fear
2.
Grace under
pressure (attributed to Ernest Hemingway)
3.
Choosing
self respect
4.
Wise
endurance (attributed to Laches
 )
5.
Uncomplaining
acceptance of unendurable conditions (attributed to Eisenhower)
6.
Doing right
despite the fright
7.
Value-based
action despite temptation.
A courageous person understands
danger, and chooses to overcome their fear
and proceed to face the danger and act according to their values.
It is not fearlessness, recklessness, or rashness. It is a well considered,
wise, and brave decision to behave constructively despite the fear,
discomfort, or temptation. Courage is a strength drawn from a wise balance
between the weaknesses of cowardice and recklessness. It is the discipline to
act on wisely-chosen values rather than an impulse.
Because courage allows us to act
on our values rather than our impulses, its virtue has long been recognized.
Related
Terms
Synonyms for courage include:
bravery, valor, resoluteness, boldness, spirit, daring, pluck, gallantry,
intrepidity, confidence, self-reliance, fortitude, and heroism. It also
includes patience, impulse control, perseverance, endurance, integrity, and
discipline.
Courage allows for
cunning, it may or may not include rashness, but it definitely excludes
recklessness, thrill seeking, bullying, and stupidity.
Courage may be manifest as:
1.
Valor and
bravery - Often called physical courage.
2.
Perseverance,
industry, or diligence - often called endurance.
3.
Integrity,
genuineness, or honesty - often called moral courage.
Each of these manifestations
are described further below.
Manifestations
of Courage
The fear of violent and painful
death lies at the core of courage. In addition the fear of having to kill,
the strength and perseverance required to endure prolonged hardships, and the
agonizing and solitary decisions to risk ridicule and isolation to do the
right thing are also important manifestations of courage. Each is described
here in more detail.
Valor
and Bravery—Physical Courage
Aristotle believed that the
epitome of courage is facing noble death at the hands of the enemy during
your offensive attack in a just war for the people. Demonstrating physical
prowess, overcoming fear—especially fear of death, and launching an attack or
an offensive effort are often considered the hallmarks of courage. Examples
of physical courage are often drawn from military encounters such as the
heroic acts recognized by the US Medal of Honor
. This award
recognizes members of the United States armed forces who distinguish
themselves conspicuously by “gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of
his[sic] life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action
against an enemy of the United States.”
Consider the courage of Private
First Class Albert Schwab as just one
of the more than 3,400 recipients of the medal of honor. On May 7, 1945 Pfc.
Schwab was operating a flamethrower in World War II action against enemy
Japanese forces on Okinawa Shima in the Rykuyu Islands. Quick to take action
when his company was pinned down in a valley and suffered resultant heavy
casualties under blanketing machinegun fire emanating from a high ridge to
the front, Pfc. Schwab, unable to flank the enemy emplacement because of
steep cliffs on either side, advanced up the face of the ridge in bold
defiance of the intense barrage and, skillfully directing the fire of his
flamethrower, quickly demolished the hostile gun position, thereby enabling
his company to occupy the ridge. Suddenly a second enemy machinegun opened
fire, killing and wounding several marines with its initial bursts.
Estimating with split-second decision the tactical difficulties confronting
his comrades, Pfc. Schwab elected to continue his one-man assault despite a
diminished supply of fuel for his flamethrower. Cool and indomitable, he
moved forward in the face of a direct concentration of hostile fire,
relentlessly closed the enemy position and attacked. Although severely
wounded by a final vicious blast from the enemy weapon, Pfc. Schwab had
succeeded in destroying two highly strategic Japanese gun positions during a
critical stage of the operation and, by his dauntless, single-handed efforts,
had materially furthered the advance of his company. His aggressive
initiative, outstanding valor and professional skill throughout the bitter
conflict sustain and enhance the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval
Service.
Perseverance,
industry, and diligence—Wise Endurance
Sometimes the most difficult
obstacles are fatigue, boredom, and other chronic stressors such as
relentless bad weather, lack of food or shelter, disrespect, uncertainty, and other annoyances and
difficulties. Enduring in the face of these obstacles requires courage. Bike
Riders in the Race Across America
set out on
route of over 3000 miles, touching 14 states and climbing over 100,000 feet.
Solo racers finish in 9 to 12 days, averaging 250 to 350 miles per day. In
RAAM, once the clock starts on the west coast, it doesn't stop until each
racer reaches the finish line on the east coast. Racers ride about 22 hours
each day and get almost no sleep. In 1986 Pete Penseyres completed
the 3107 miles in under 8 days and 10 hours.
In a similar test of endurance,
the Leadville Trail 100-mile run
awards a
hand-crafted gold and silver belt buckle to the runners who complete the
course in under 25 hours. These amazing racers are enduring remarkable
hardships for the sake of their own pride;
the material awards are trivial, and these races don't specifically improve
the wellbeing of others. But courageous people sometimes endure hardship to
help others.
The book Three Cups
of Tea tells the courageous story of Greg Mortenson's
perseverance to keep his promise and provide a school for girls in a small
Pakistani village. Dangerously ill when he finished his failed climb of K2
mountain in 1993, Greg Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the
villagers of Korphe. In return, he promised to build the impoverished town's
first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has
since constructed more than 150 schools across rural Pakistan and
Afghanistan. Keeping his promise required Mortenson to sleep in his car for a
year to help save money for the project; survive an eight-day-long armed 1996
kidnapping in the tribal areas of Waziristan in Pakistan's North-West
Frontier Province; escape a 2003 firefight between Afghan opium warlords;
endure two fatwas by Islamic clerics angry at him for educating girls; and
tolerate hate mail and threats from fellow Americans opposed to him helping
educate Muslim children.
Ordinary people also courageously
persevere over fatigue, temptation, and hardship to benefit others. The
single mother who gets her children dressed for school each day before she
goes to work herself, the unskilled worker who endures a low-paying,
demeaning, and exhausting job to earn the money to send his children off to
college, and the alcoholic who never indulges in a drink are all choosing to
do the right thing despite the hardships.
Enduring
Disgust
Parents change the messy diapers
of their infant children, nurses empty bedpans, proctologists routinely
perform colonoscopies, veterinarians insert their entire arm into the birth
canal of large animals, and other courageous people overcome disgusting challenges to fulfill their duty and serve
others.
Integrity,
genuineness, and honesty—Moral Courage
Can firm minds and souls be
as courageous as firm arms and legs? In the nineteenth century Henry Sidgwick
first
defined moral courage as: “facing the pains and dangers of social disapproval
in the performance of what they believe to be duty.” The moral hero often
overcomes shame and humiliation, rejects conformity, risks
ostracism, jeopardizes career and status, and sets out alone to take an
unpopular stand and do the right thing. Moral courage is choosing to risk
embarrassment rather than tolerate injustice.
Rielle Miller describes these five
essential elements of moral courage:
While physical courage is
inevitably defeated by fatigue or age, moral courage can be strengthened by
repeated use. Moral courage allows people to act on their moral duty despite
real threats of physical harm, arrest, isolation, ridicule, and banishment.
Here are some prominent examples.
Women's suffrage activist Emmeline Pankhurst
was
arrested seven times before women gained the right to vote in the United
States. During her trial in 1908, she told the court: “We are here not
because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become
law-makers.”
Mohandas Gandhi led campaigns throughout India
to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious and ethnic amity, end
untouchability, and increase economic self-reliance. Above all, he aimed to
achieve Swaraj or the independence
of India from foreign domination. He ate simple vegetarian food and also
undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest.
Gandhi spent a number of years in jail in both South Africa and India. On
August 15, 1947 India
became a free republic. On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was shot while he was
walking to a platform from which he was to address a prayer meeting.
On December
1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, age 42, refused to obey bus driver
James Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white
passenger. She was arrested and unlike previous individual actions of civil
disobedience, Parks' action sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. After her
arrest, Parks became an icon of the Civil Rights Movement but suffered
hardships as a result. She lost her job, and her husband quit his job after
his boss forbade him to talk about his wife or the legal case. The U.S.
Congress later called her the “Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights
Movement.”
On 11 June 1963 Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burned himself to
death at a busy intersection on the road outside the Cambodian embassy in
Saigon to protest the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnam's Ngô Đình Diệm administration. As he burned he
never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure was in
sharp contrast to the wailing people around him. When U.S. President John F.
Kennedy saw the photograph of the self-immolation he said “no news picture in
history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one.”
The moral
courage of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Nelson Mandela, and the “tank man” who stopped a line of tanks during
the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 are all legendary. Three whistle blowers, Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley, and Sherron Watkins were selected as the Time
Magazine persons of the year in 2002.
Without risking imprisonment or making
headlines, you can exercise moral courage every day by being impeccable with your word,
doing your best, acting on your well-chosen values, and refusing the temptation to comply
with, assist with, or ignore: dishonest, unfair, coercive,
cruel, wasteful, or deceptive practices encountered during your everyday
activities.
Courageous
Women
Proving his courage was the
rite of passage into manhood in many cultures. Accusing a man of being a
sissy is a powerful and humiliating insult. What space does this leave for
women in the territory of courage? In many cultures while valor was central
to being a man, chastity was central to being a virtuous woman.
Furthermore, if the men were courageous enough to defend women from unwanted
advances, their woman would be chaste.
More recently, however, women are
respected for displaying physical courage. In addition to the many courageous
women already mentioned, Dr. Mary E. Walker was
awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for her role as a Contract Acting
Assistant Surgeon at the Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861. Valentina Tereshkova was selected to pilot the
Vostok 6 spacecraft on 16 June 1963 and become the first woman to fly in
space. Women have served as fighter pilots in the United States since 1993.
In 2006, seven women broke into one of Pakistan’s most exclusive male clubs
to graduate as fighter pilots. Maj. Nicole Malachowski is the first woman pilot on
the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team. Her first public performance
was in March 2006 and she spent the 2006 and 2007 air show seasons flying the
Number 3 (Right Wing) aircraft in the diamond formation.
Commitment
In June 1997 Julia Hill toured California’s “Lost Coast” and
fell in love with the ancient giant redwood trees growing there. She sold her
belongings, left home, and committed herself to doing whatever she could to
preserve these magnificent trees. Almost by chance she was invited to climb
and sit-in a 1,000 year old redwood in Humbold County, California. The tree
was named “Luna” by the Earth First! environmental action group that was protecting
it from Pacific Lumber loggers who were clear cutting the area. On December
10, 1997 in an act of moral courage she chose the name “Butterfly”,
climbed 180 feet up into the tree and stayed there with other activists. Soon
the others left and she became the lone activist living in the tree to
protect it. The stakes were high, her sit-in was costing Pacific Lumber
enormous sums of money while living high in a tree is difficult,
uncomfortable, and dangerous. Her physical courage soon became
apparent when the loggers hovered a huge twin-rotor helicopter directly
overhead in an illegal attempt to force her from the tree. She overcame her
terror, held on, and then worked with the FAA to get future close encounters
banned. Her endurance was tested everyday for the two years she
remained in the tree through cold winters, high winds, many disappointments,
and loneliness. Her commitment was manifest in each of the three styles of
courage on each of the 738 days she remained in the tree. An agreement to
protect the tree was eventually signed and 25-year old Julia Butterfly
returned triumphantly to the ground on December 18, 1999.
Semblances
of Courage
Aristotle was a stickler when it
came to acknowledging courage. He felt that for an action to demonstrate
courage it had to be pursued as its own virtue rather than to avoid the
negative consequences of shame, ostracization, disgrace or other
consequences. Furthermore, courage required “deliberate choice and purpose.”
He lists these five specific semblances
of courage are actions based on:
1.
Fear of
Shame or the desire for honor (which he calls civic courage)—not
desiring courage for the sake of its own virtue.
2.
Experience
or skill in facing the particular danger—Is the sword swallower in the
circus truly courageous, or a highly skilled performer taking only modest
risks?
3.
Spirit,
fury, or rage (although these lack reason they may be helpful accessories to
true courage)
4.
optimism
about the chances of succeeding and avoiding the danger
5.
ignorance of
the danger.
Aristotle felt that some aspect of
wisdom—the ability to deliberate, decide, and then act—is
absent from each. These are described in more detail below.
Fear
of Shame
If you were all alone, and could
back out of the confrontation unseen, would you still proceed with the
courageous deed? If the answer is “yes”, then you are acting to avoid shame
rather than to achieve the virtue of courage. Because of this distinction
Aristotle considers acting to avoid shame a semblance of courage rather than
genuine courage. One example is accepting an arbitrary dare rather than
having the courage to refuse the pointless challenge.
Experience
in facing the particular danger
Circus performers, paratroopers,
sky diving instructors, firefighters, mineworkers, mariners, aviators, police
officers, military, and many others face real dangers—existential
threats—every day. These professionals are experts at what they do, and their
skill reduces the danger of each encounter to a manageable and often
acceptable levels. Their increased skill results in decreased danger and less
fear at each encounter. However, the endurance these professionals
demonstrate in regularly facing risk demonstrates their courage.
Rashness
Aristotle defines rashness
as a manifestation of overconfidence, not as a result of fearlessness.
Teenage games of “chicken” are foolish, not courageous, regardless of the age
of the participants. Ignorance may be bliss, but it is not courage.
Bungee jumping, skydiving, running
with the bulls, and even riding the roller coaster are forms of thrill
seeking. If these are inherently safe, then they are simply high profile
forms of fun. However, if an unnecessary risk is taken,
such as unprotected sex, unsafe driving; abusing drugs, tobacco, or alcohol;
or careless use of guns or knives, the behavior is reckless, not courageous.
Rashness includes stupidity,
stubbornness, rage, haste, unnecessary risks, and ignorance including:
unfounded optimism, lack of awareness of the dangers, and taking risks to
pursue an unworthy goal.
Imposters
Bullies and brutes exploit a
substantial power advantage to cruelly harass or attack weaker victims.
Because of the power differential they have nothing to fear; they are
demonstrating cowardliness rather than courage.
Bluffs are more subtle. For a
threat to be effective the threatened person has to believe the person making
the threat has the ability and courage to carry out the threat. Credibility
of a threat may be the best measure of perceived courage.
Spoilers
Courage does not tolerate whining.
Criticize if you must, but never ever whine. Whiners are playing the victim
and acting like they have no choices, no responsibility, and certainly no courage. If
you must complain, restrict your complaints to the tyrant abusing power or the well-recognized enemy causing
the problems. Also, don't be a jerk—have the courage to overlook annoyances
and the courtesy not to become annoying yourself.
Conditions
for Courage
Balancing
Fear and Confidence
Differentiating courage from
cowardice or rashness requires examining a balance between fear and confidence.
Fear is the well-known emotion related to our assessment of
possible loss or other danger. In this context, confidence refers to both: 1)
the belief that I have the skills to persevere, overcome the obstacles, and
attain the goal, and 2) I believe the cause is worthy. Assessing fear
requires estimating the dangers that lie ahead. Assessing confidence requires
estimating: 1) our own capabilities, and 2) the worthiness of the goal. Each
of these estimates will be inherently subjective, approximate, uncertain, and error prone. Inevitably the
assessments may be accurate, inappropriately high, or inappropriate low.
Courage is the decision to act based on an accurate assessment of both the
dangers and confidence level. The courageous person has an accurate estimate
of the dangers, feels the fear, and uses their accurate assessment of
confidence in their own abilities and of the worthiness of the goal to move
foreword and persevere. Rashness describes deciding to encounter danger based
on overconfidence; an inappropriately high confidence. Cowardice is deciding
not to act based on unfounded fears. If both fears and confidence are
estimated as inappropriately low, ambivalence results and action is delayed,
perhaps indefinitely. If both fears and confidence are low, the person has
probably checked out, become apathetic, is paralyzed by learned helplessness, and declining to act. The
possible configurations of fear and confidence are summarized in the table
below:
Personal
Characteristics
Is courage a characteristic of the
person or of the event? Must a person be brave on all occasions to be
considered a brave person, or is one heroic deed sufficient to identify a
hero? If it exists at all, what characterizes the courageous disposition?
If you believe their threat, then
you probably judge them to be a courageous person, because who would believe
a threat made by a coward? A threat is most successful if it never has to be
carried out.
Heroes are not thrill seekers; in
one study [Levenson, 1990] they scored significantly lower than other risk
takers (e.g. rock climbers and drug rehabilitation unit residents) on
measurements of general sensation seeking and experience seeking.
The relative rank of Harris
sparrows is conspicuously marked by a patch of dark plumage on the breast and
head. Experimenters painted the feathers of low-status birds to provide them
with this badge of courage. Faking it, however, did not work. These
counterfeits did not advance in the dominance hierarchy until they were
injected with testosterone and genuinely became stronger and more aggressive.
Birds injected with the testosterone but without the plumage were also
ignored. Only the birds that looked tough and were tough gained
the respect of the other birds and were able to
make their threats believable.
Confidence—believing
in your own capabilities
The more you sincerely believe you
are capable of meeting the challenge the more relentless you will be in
meeting, persevering, and overcoming that challenge. Self-efficacy—your
estimate of your own ability to handle a challenge—is an essential
characteristic that predicts how much effort you will exert and how long you
will persevere to overcome obstacles and meet your goal.
Prior success with similar
challenges and an accurate assessment of your own strengths combine to
increase your confidence. Consciously recognizing your successful record in
overcoming similar challenges, and explicitly listing and reminding yourself
of the strengths you bring to the task can increase
your confidence and improve your chances for success.
Gaining experience in successfully
facing and overcoming risks also increases your confidence. Gradually taking
risks that are just beyond your comfort zone, feeling the fear, staying in
control, and persisting on to a successful outcome is an effective way to
practice courage. Exhilaration often lies just beyond the fear; learn to
enjoy getting there. Sports such as rock climbing, hang gliding, ski jumping,
sky diving, motocross, freestyle skiing, mountain biking, open water
swimming, surfing, kayaking, and other adventure activities can provide this
experience.
Repeatedly having the confidence
to apply your competence to increasingly difficult tasks, and succeeding most
of the time, will strengthen your courage. Seeing others succeed at similar
tasks also builds confidence.
Encouragement in the form of
genuine praise, highlighting strengths, and belonging to a group or community can also boost confidence. Being
cheered on can help if it is a genuine recognition and celebration of your strengths,
capabilities, and contributions. This must not be overdone however, because
courage requires an accurate estimate of capabilities so they can be
steadily maintained throughout the struggle as the dangers and difficulties
are actually encountered.
Will—Perceiving
a worthy purpose
Feeling a sense of purpose
increases your commitment to overcoming fear and acting with courage.
Recognizing your important contribution to a community can often provide this purpose.
Courageous
Disposition—Overcoming Fear
The worst fears are those that you
have no control over. Gaining control via increasing confidence, competence,
and experience helps to reduce fears. Courage does not come from banishing
fear, but through overcoming it enough to act. Courage requires conquering
fear, not eliminating or ignoring it.
Character
Experience
Professional daredevil Spanky Spangler
has
performed more than 22,000 stunts and holds 23 danger-related world records.
He often jumps from a platform or hot air balloon more 150 feet in the air
and free-falls onto an air bag on the ground. He says: “I do stunts for the
love of it, not for the records.” His longevity is testimony to his skill,
experience, and careful preparations.
Skill and Practicing bravery
(circus performers, paratroopers, fire fighters...)
Honor
Cultures
“Death before dishonor” is the
rallying cry of many honor cultures, including many military organizations,
World War II Japan, and perhaps the Mafia and street gangs.
Courage is almost as contagious as
fear. There is comfort, if not safety in numbers, especially when there is
someone you can literally lean on.
Death before dishonor, avenging
the wrongs, adolescence, street gangs, WWII Japan, Military
Events
and Opportunities for Demonstrating Courage
Situational Imperative
Threat, fear, risk assessment,
"Critical Distance" (can this hurt me, can I prevail?), physical
condition, value of the goal.
Fight = courage or rashness,
Flight = cowardice or prudence.
Heroes often say that they were
able to act courageously simply because they saw what had to be done.
When both engines failed on US
Airways Flight 1549 shortly after taking off from LaGuardia Airport on the
afternoon of January 15, 2009, Captain Chesley Sullenberger faced an urgent
and essential choice; he could demonstrate grace under immense pressure, or
155 people would die. He immediately applied his decades of experience and
skill and safely landed the plane in the Hudson river. After he checked the
passenger cabin twice to make sure everyone had evacuated he retrieved the
plane's maintenance logbook and was the last to evacuate the aircraft.
The situation revealed his latent
courage as a quietly competent man became a celebrated hero.
Opposing
Injustice—Anger
Tuskegee airmen, burning monks,
Rosa parks and other "moral courage" examples.
Noble
and Ignoble Values
Are suicide bombers courageous?
According to Aristotle: “It is for the sake of what is noble that the
courageous faces and does all that courage demands.” In other words, unless
the cause is noble the act cannot be courageous, regardless of the dangers or
other difficulties that have been overcome. Courage demands upholding a value
that goes beyond self-interest. Similarly, “in the Laches Socrates and
his interlocutors have determined that physical acts without the knowledge of
good and bad (morality) can never be courage.” [Moral Courage:] These ancient
Greeks were clear: courage loses its virtue, regardless of the resolve that
may have been required, when it is squandered on an ignoble cause.
But both Plato and Aristotle
defined courage in the context of battlefield courage—a warrior's victory in
battle. The nobility of the war itself was never brought into question.
However, from the vantage point of wisdom or simply human rights, the virtue of war
is always doubtful.
Marksmanship is a valuable skill
that is morally neutral. The marksman may be practicing at a rifle
range, engaged in battle, committing a crime, or protecting us from predators
or assassins. Resolve is similar to marksmanship in this respect; both are
morally neutral. However, the word courage is reserved for those
occasions when resolve advances a constructive end.
The
Moments of Truth
Defining moments in our lives, and
every day. Don't accept bribes, cheat on your taxes, or pad your expense
vouchers. Also, overcoming or at least controlling addictions is courageous.
Quotations:
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