[John Whitworth]

Has no-one a word to say for the sort of courage that goes into the burning building or faces down the gunman or wins the Victoria Cross? That's the sort I really admire because I have none of is myself, being timid by nature. Moral courage I can manage. It's much easier because there are always people on your side.

[Ed Shacklee]

I don't think Cruz is talking or thinking about courage, really. He's just talking, to play the rubes.

Words are among the things that power corrupts -- Orwell knew that and warned us, but I think some folk have used his book as a reference manual. One law is called the Patriot Act to mask how it takes away a big chunk of the freedom patriots died for not so long ago; another is called Right to Work so the middle class will vote to lower their wages and weaken their bargaining power. Religious freedom is invoked to empower religious oppression. 'All Lives Matter' is sloganeered to help ensure that black lives don't.

Sinclair Lewis wrote that when fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. He could've added that when cowardice creeps further into the American psyche it would be wrapped in declarations of courage. So, here's a daunting task, to give these good words back to themselves.

Best,

Ed

[Susan Breeding]

Well struck, Ed, pointing to Orwell and the craven co-option of "words" as a way of seducing people into voting for or tolerating policies that are harmful to them and the greater public commons. So, speaking a bit in the shadow of Kipling's "If," I think it takes strength and courage to keep one's head when everyone around is losing theirs in the glamor of doublespeak or as we're now seeing, out and out racism, hate, and incitement to violence by our own terroristic control freaks, which is what our current spate of fascists can be termed.

Even more important than not letting "words" change one's mind, is not losing one's humanity. IOW, heart and mind together working for and serving the greater good is what courage is all about. Being able to think well about others and oneself even when surrounded by chaos, violence, and insanity being justified or even marketed as something good by politicians and media tools basically owned by the corporate-fascist machine.

When it comes to opportunists like Cruz and Trump, there is no real mind and heart operating ... just a fascistic desire to rule for the sake of power and greed. They can wrap it in the cross and the flag, but it still has the stink of tyranny. And don't even get me started on Sinclair Lewis and the American anti-intellectualism that he satirized so caustically (especially in Arrowsmith), a brand of mediocrity Americans love to wear proudly, thinking as Isaac Asimov pointed out that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge," which is largely why doublespeak and rebranding of hate works, sad to say. Iam satis est.

Sue

p.s. -- Regarding the immigration kerfuffle, this seems just as good now as it was then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXLG...nnel=EdGreshko

[Gail White]

Andrew, I was always more like the Cowardly Lion in his "Courage" song:

"What makes the Hottentot so hot?
What puts the ape in apricot?
What have they got that I ain't got? "

Dorothy et al: "Courage!"

[RCL]

Thinking about the kind of courage John W mentions:

Courage is proxy self-defense? instinctive self-defense?

[John Whitworth]

I would have thought the instinct is to run away. Certainly it is mine.

[R. S. Gwynn]

I sometimes cringe at "brave" or "courageous" applied (usually in blurbs) to books of contemporary American poetry.

[Norman Ball]

I'd venture a definition of courage except I'm afraid I might leave something out.

[Julie Steiner]

Of course, the trouble with definitions of courage involving the willingness to sacrifice one's own personal safety, job security, social approval, etc., for the greater good...is that then you've got to define the greater good.

Which is as much in the eye of the beholder as courage is.

But I think we can agree that the willingness to sacrifice OTHER PEOPLE'S personal safety, civil rights, etc., for the greater good (however that's defined) is not courage.

[Anna M Evans]

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Agreed.