Courage

Continuing with my article about the Nine Noble Virtues, I will begin my individual treatment of what each virtue means to me with the virtue of Courage. As I have stated before, I think it’s appropriate that Courage is the first of the nine virtues in Heathenry, as it takes courage in many cases to hold one’s self to the other virtues. When people look at the Nine Noble Virtues (NNV), decide that they will try to conduct their lives with the NNV as their ethical guide, and actually remain faithful to these virtues (even when it’s unpopular or dangerous to do so), courage is required….

That might seem a departure from our normal image of courage, of heroes leaping into the fray without sign of fear, of people setting sail across the stormy North Atlantic in wooden boats, or of mothers standing up against improbable odds to defend their children. Make no mistake, these are images of courage; but courage can and does exist in different ways and settings. The first thing we should look at is the difference between physical courage, ethical courage (often called moral courage) and social courage. I see physical courage as being the willingness to act (when necessary), in spite of fear of physical harm. Ethical courage, on the other hand, is the willingness to hold to one’s personal ethics in spite of fear of alienation or other form of personal loss. Social courage involves a group’s willingness to act or get involved in situations where societal wrongs are taking place, in spite of fear for physical or social harm. All three of these are treated briefly in Wikipedia’s entry on Courage. In all three of these kinds of courage, I use the phrase, “in spite of fear.” This is deliberate, as I do not view courage as a lacking of fear, I view it as a willingness to act in spite of fear, a willingness to overcome fear. A lack of fear is foolhardy heedlessness, and unwillingness to act in spite of fear is cowardice.

Ethical courage, then, is what I feel is required to uphold the NNV (or any other ethical guide) in one’s life. The US Army, in its pages dealing with Army Values, has an excellent anecdote on its Courage page, relating to the difference between physical and ethical (in this case, called moral) courage:

“Moral courage is sometimes overlooked, both in discussions of personal courage and in the everyday rush of business. A DA [Department of the Army] civilian at a meeting heard courage mentioned several times in the context of combat. The DA civilian pointed out that consistent moral courage is every bit as important as momentary physical courage. Situations requiring physical courage are rare; situations requiring moral courage can occur frequently. Moral courage is essential to living the Army values of integrity and honor every day.”

In many ways, I think this is why ethical courage is often overlooked and, at the same time, why it is so vital: it’s required in everyday situations, where it would be so much easier to cave in or not stand up for something we feel is right, where no one would really notice one way or the other, except ourself. Ethical courage, as pointed out in the above quote, requires more consistency than a moment of physical courage. In my own mind, I tend to think of physical courage being synonymous with bravery, while I see ethical courage as synonymous with fortitude.

This is not to belittle physical courage in any way, though. Physical courage could result in death, or living a life with permanent injury. An act of physical courage could mean we never see our loved ones again. As I mentioned above, physical courage is the traditional image of courage – soldiers, firefighters, explorers – I also usually see the mother grizzly, defending her cubs from a male grizzly half again her size and strength, as being a good picture of physical bravery. Also, employing the same logic I used for ethical courage, a reason why physical courage is so important, why it is idealized in so many cultures around the world, is because it requires uncommon courage: the situations that require physical courage are not mundane events. The people who exhibit this uncommon courage are often considered to be heroes, where people who exhibit common courage are often not remarked upon at all – or are sometimes remarked negatively upon.

Social courage is something that is often debated: is there really such a thing as group courage, or is this simply a group of people who exhibit personal courage? Does social courage include both other kinds of courage, or does it refer only to physical courage? I think these are important questions for any group to consider. My own opinion is that courage can, and should, exist on a group or social level. The above-mentioned Wikipedia entry has a very good example of what a lack of social (in this case, called civil) courage looks like:

“The death of Kitty Genovese in 1964, Queens, New York, is often cited as a classic example of civil-courage failure. It is said that during a half-hour long attack, Kitty Genovese was raped and murdered in full view of thirty-eight witnesses, while none interfered.”

The Wikipedia entry goes on to say that some witnesses claimed to have yelled or gone for help, and some witnesses claimed not to have known what was going on or heard or seen anything. But there are other stories similar to this, where groups of witnesses at a crime scene claim to have seen and heard nothing, in fear of reprisal or harm from the perpetrator, and I think it would be safe to treat a ‘hypothetical’ version of this story as a classic example of social cowardice. But what about social instances of ethical courage? What about Heathens who stand as a group for our gods, our traditions and symbols, in the face of social and perhaps even professional alienation and loss? Would it be appropriate to say that such a group is courageous? I think so – and I think Heathens in general are a courageous lot :-)

But courage, it should be pointed out, is not just a prized virtue among Heathens. According to the entry for Virtue in Wikipedia, it is one of the four Cardinal Virtues of Western civilization, and one of the Roman virtues (in fact, the Latin word from which virtue is derived, virtus, means courage). Courage is also among the seven virtues of Bushido.

There are a few other virtues I feel are implied by courage, chief among them is sacrifice. When we put ourselves in harm’s way physically, professionally, or socially, we are demonstrating by our actions a willingness to sacrifice of ourselves for what we feel is the greater good. In my opinion, this kind of sacrifice is greater than any other kind of sacrifice that we could offer. Love, although I feel it is implied more by other virtues among the NNV, is also implied by courage.

So, as we can see here, courage does come in many forms, and there are many situations (common and uncommon) in which courage is required to act appropriately. All are important, not just the traditional, uncommon instances. When viewed from the perspective of someone who lives his or her life ethically, in accordance with the NNV, courage isn’t just something that one has, it’s something one is committed to. In closing, I’d like to quote Tom Shippey, in his article, titled “Tolkien and Iceland, the Philology of Envy:”

“In some respects the Old Norse “theory of courage” might even be regarded as ethically superior to the Classical if not to the Christian world-view, in that it demanded commitment to virtue without any offer of lasting reward.”