Courage - part 3

Lord Moran wrote:

Courage can be judged apart from danger only if the social significance and meaning of courage is known to us, namely that a man of character in peae becomes a man of courage in war. He cannot be selfish in peace and yet be unselfish in war. Character as Aristotle taught is a habit, the daily choice of right instead of wrong; it is a moral quality which grows to maturity in peace is not suddenly developed on the outbreak of war. For war, in spite of much that we have heard to the contrary, has no power to transform, it merely exaggerates the good and evil that are in us, till it is plain for all to read; it cannot change, it exposes. (The Anatomy of Courage (New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2007), p. 170.)

Moran based that assessment on his service as a medical officer with British infantry during the trench warfare of WWI and as Churchill’s physician during WWII. His intentional use of exclusionary masculine nouns and pronouns strike a discordant note in an era when women fight alongside men. Nevertheless, two of Moran’s points particularly intrigue me.

First, he appears to equate moral and physical courage, not only on the basis of this passage but a reading of his complete text. Is the courage to demand the best of one’s self in an athletic contest such as a marathon equivalent to the courage to speak the truth in a court of law at great cost to one’s self or a good friend? To the extent that courage involves emotion, the answer is clearly affirmative; humans only have a single physiology that produces emotion. Similarly, thoughts are in large measure a result of physical processes in the brain, processes that do not differentiate between the physical responses of speaking and running. Perhaps, the distinctions that some modern commentators make between various types of courage reflect differences in context more than differences in a person’s interior response to the demand for courage.

Second, Moran contends that courage is a habit that people can cultivate. To some extent this contention builds on Moran’s idea that courage is courage, regardless of whether the demand is for physical courage, moral courage or yet another type of courage. Militaries do not prepare for war by waging an actual war. If Moran is correct, a society can develop citizens with more courage by cultivating the habit of courage in youths in school. Parents can achieve the same result by cultivating courage in their children at home.

Unfortunately, much of what I observe in the United States today seems intended to have the opposite result. For example, developing courage requires that a person push him or herself to the very limit of their endurance, an endeavor that requires risking failure. Yet the United States is risk and failure averse. Too often a young person matures without having experienced the real possibility of failure, let alone failure. How can we expect that person to develop courage?

Conversely, some children are born into a world of high demands and an excessive intolerance for failure. Such an environment can result in the child developing an insecure personality and stress related problems.

Obviously, the capacity for success, for coping with stress, and, by implication, for developing courage, varies greatly from person to person. Individualized learning plans in the public schools are an effort to tailor education to the unique needs of each child. As well intended as the requirement for individualized learning plans may be, the formal requirement frequently produces more paperwork than actual results. Teaching children is inherently a profession that calls for the use of judgment by the teacher, a necessity that no amount of paperwork can codify or assure. Recruiting the best possible teachers, then honoring and compensating those teachers appropriately, represents the most promising option for creating the best possible school system.

Commenting on the public schools may seem a far cry from battlefield courage. Yet society rightly attempts to control very little of what happens in the home. Society also has a vested interest in have a courageous citizenry. The military, first responders, legal system, and most aspects of everyday life are better when peopled with courageous individuals. To some substantial although unknown extent, courage is a habit that we can cultivate in future generations.