Being stubborn is not courage

 

Having strong opinions about something is not courage

 

Having contrarian opinions, saying “what you believe”, is definitely not yet courage

 

Believing is not courage

 

NOT fearing something is not courage

 

Courage is plain and simple,

ACCEPTING the risk

What is the risk?

It’s the risk of a SETBACK,

Which can be conceptual, or emotional

 

And,

why do we even take the risk?

To gain

OR to prevent a more undesirable outcome

Which, for instance, could be the COMPROMISING of one’s values

You can choose that compromising values is the worse outcome, and choose to prevent it

 

Now,

of course all we ever do — is to gain something

(even if we fail to gain anything — it still is motivated by the belief in some gain, or at least prevention of the loss)

for ourselves, or for our community, or for some greater ideal (all of those arguably being solipsistic)

So it’s not like it’s so COURAGEOUS, that we fucking scratched our fucking ass

The difference is in the risk

 

But here’s YET another catch,

IS IT REALLY a risk?

WE defined risk as the possibility of setback

But the same risk for one person may not really be a risk for another person

Because situations differ

For one there is the present danger of meaningful setback — while for other it’s all just part of the routine,

or maybe the setback is altogether precluded, maybe there’s only upside

 

And why is courage even a virtue?

Because it’s hard to move without taking risks

You become a bit more dead

You compromise, in fearing the danger

You decay, morality decays

 

BUT

This is only true ONCE you get to that point — at which you can NO LONGER MOVE — without TAKING THAT RISK

Otherwise — just keep doing what you’re doing, if it’s benefiting yourself and others

It’s only when it’s no longer working, is when you have to do something different,

Is when you have to maybe THINK different

And in doing so — RISK destroying what you already have

THAT

is courage

 

As with fucking everything, we learn how something looks — then OPTIMISE for that appearance

We learn how success looks — then pretend we are successful, next to some juvenile toy, like a 5 year old

We learn how happiness looks — then smile like fucking cunts, like clowns

We learn how virtue looks — then repeat those WISE AND VIRTUOUS WORDS, with 0 comprehension

And of course — we learn how COURAGE looks — then parrot “courageous” takes, STUBBORNLY, with a pompous look on the face

 

But of course the THING is NOT it’s appearance

AND optimisation for one metric — destroys it as a metric (Goodhart’s law)

The people who yap about fucking courage have often as much to do with it as door-to-door salesman have to do with good products

 

So no,

It’s not courage, if it no longer involves risk

And it’s not risk — if it can’t meaningfully hurt you

Again: NOT everyone NEEDS to exercise courage, at given moment

But when that moment comes — is when it matters

 

Indeed perhaps the most ironic is: that which was courage yesterday — is COWARDICE today

Your “based” opinion yesterday is mainstream today

Your risky startup yesterday is just a boring corporation today

Your independent journalism and ideas and advocacy yesterday is a profitable business today

You’re no longer exercising any courage

You’re no longer taking any risk

 

…but you may yet have to!

You may yet have to be COURAGEOUS again

In DENOUNCING what has become of your work,

of your opinions,

of your beliefs,

of your associations,

if it’s small faults, flaws — it already takes courage. In owning up — you’re taking significant risk for small gain (of integrity)

and if it has entirely jumped the shark — then you’re of course risking everything now, for what is only principle, and a chance for a new start

THAT is courageous

Not you standing with a brave face pretending everything is going so amazingly — and that this denial and dishonesty is COURAGE AND PERSEVERANCE

 

It’s not

Intelligence is to ever stay vigilant,

Never fully believe something, lest it turns to dogma,

Always willing to adapt,

And COURAGE is to THEN adapt, to change, to change course,

Once your realised that this is indeed the RIGHT thing to do

 

And of course, it won’t look like courage

Those around you know you for what you are NOW — not tomorrow,

And DEFINITELY if you’re a public figure — you’re known for your past and present — NOT for what you want to be

Those folk are only interested in you because of what they think you are

Once you change it — they’ll think you’re a coward, actually

Unless they already thought you were a coward and a loser — then they’ll think you’re a coward now

They’ll think you’re abandoning what you used to be about because you’re scared

Because you lack principles

Because you can’t stomach the risk, the danger

Because you lack courage

 

So yes, the REAL courage, will often look like cowardice, to people judging you

 

Except, real courage obviously also means you DON’T GIVE A FUCK what others think

That’s another risk you quickly learn to take, if you actually have principles

But well, maybe the brave warriors online, and the brave warriors at your table — maybe they are NOT as principled as they said they were

Not if those principles look identical to someone else’s principles

But I digress

 

Don’t let what looks like courage blind you to what courage actually is,

For that reason best not even think about courage, and who the fuck is courageous and who’s the coward

Your time will come, to do the HARD RIGHT THING

I pray you have courage then