Courage
The final building block of good character is courage, but, like responsibility, courage has no meaning unless it is built upon the foundation of the previous four values: honesty, compassion, respect, and responsibility.
Bill Maher famously said that the 9-11 hijackers, whatever else, were not cowards, and for saying it, lost his show on ABC. While Maher was no doubt correct in his observation, as far as it went, the terms of the discussion were muddied with the emotion of the time. However, I'd argue that those hijackers, while displaying macho, perhaps, in the face of death, cannot be said accurately to have exhibited courage, because what they did was built on dishonesty, a lack of compassion, misplaced respect, and a sense of responsibility to the load of nonsense which is fanatic religion.
Similarly, I'd have to say that "our troops," that sacred cow of today's public debate in America, might be macho, but also do not exhibit true courage, because, even if it's no personal fault of their own, their actions are not based on honesty (there was no imminent threat from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction), compassion (this war-for-greed has killed a portion of the Iraqi civilian population at least equivalent to the city of Philadephia, probably more like losing all of New York or L.A.), or respect (does the term Abu Ghraib ring a bell?).
Courage is exactly what Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, etc. etc. all lack, on three counts: One, they never even consider an act of sacrifice for themselves or for the powerful capitalists who are their puppet-masters. Two, they never engage in a fair debate that is based on the centuries-old rules of rhetoric and logic. Three, perhaps most damning, they are narrow-minded and conventional.
Courage was exemplified by Martin Luther King, Jr., not only because he knew he was at lethal personal risk for taking the stand he did, and not only because he was willing to argue his case with infallible logic as well as with passion, but most importantly because he was willing to transcend the rules of the day in pursuit of a higher justice that he could perceive and that he could flawlessly argue was based on the "ladder" of honesty, compassion, respect, and responsibility. He was willing to be jailed when be broke the laws of the day, hoping that his act would, as it eventually did, change those laws.
Bill Maher famously said that the 9-11 hijackers, whatever else, were not cowards, and for saying it, lost his show on ABC. While Maher was no doubt correct in his observation, as far as it went, the terms of the discussion were muddied with the emotion of the time. However, I'd argue that those hijackers, while displaying macho, perhaps, in the face of death, cannot be said accurately to have exhibited courage, because what they did was built on dishonesty, a lack of compassion, misplaced respect, and a sense of responsibility to the load of nonsense which is fanatic religion.
Similarly, I'd have to say that "our troops," that sacred cow of today's public debate in America, might be macho, but also do not exhibit true courage, because, even if it's no personal fault of their own, their actions are not based on honesty (there was no imminent threat from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction), compassion (this war-for-greed has killed a portion of the Iraqi civilian population at least equivalent to the city of Philadephia, probably more like losing all of New York or L.A.), or respect (does the term Abu Ghraib ring a bell?).
Courage is exactly what Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, etc. etc. all lack, on three counts: One, they never even consider an act of sacrifice for themselves or for the powerful capitalists who are their puppet-masters. Two, they never engage in a fair debate that is based on the centuries-old rules of rhetoric and logic. Three, perhaps most damning, they are narrow-minded and conventional.
Courage was exemplified by Martin Luther King, Jr., not only because he knew he was at lethal personal risk for taking the stand he did, and not only because he was willing to argue his case with infallible logic as well as with passion, but most importantly because he was willing to transcend the rules of the day in pursuit of a higher justice that he could perceive and that he could flawlessly argue was based on the "ladder" of honesty, compassion, respect, and responsibility. He was willing to be jailed when be broke the laws of the day, hoping that his act would, as it eventually did, change those laws.
Courage is at its most essential that crowning element in the values that constitute good character, because it is that within human nature which is able to transcend even those rules and laws that currently might embody humans' best attempt at a just system. Democracy might be better than monarchy, but a democracy in which only property-holding white males can vote is a system that must be transcended.
Of course, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, Scooter Libby, et. al., all lack courage of the everyday variety as well. As Al Franken has pointed out, these are all "chicken hawks" - cowardly bullies who send the children of the working class and poor into a war being fought to enrich Halliburton and Blackwater, and FOR NO OTHER REASON.
I'd love to have a chance to kick their ass.
Well, that's it: Honesty, Compassion, Respect, Responsibility, and Courage: Five Values Ann Coulter Lacks.
Learn these well: It makes Evil easier to spot.
Cheers!
