We all see acts of courage every day in our lives such as the persons who quietly get on with their lives despite being terminally ill with cancer, the single mum successfully bringing up their children despite the odds, the have-a-go hero who foils bandits in the local post office and the soldier in Afghanistan killed whilst trying to save a comrade.  But have you ever considered what is the nature of courage and more importantly are you, would you ever be a courageous person?  

Expressing a commonly held viewpoint on the nature of courage, US President, John F Kennedy once said: ”The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.”   However, we first have to distinguish between physical courage where one typically overcomes physical pain and fear to achieve an unselfish act or just getting on with life in the face of adversity; and the moral courage typified by saying no when the more attractive and self indulgent option seems more attractive or politic in personal interactions.

Physical courage is a virtue that cannot be predicted and heroes and heroines come from all walks of life and from all ages.  It is most commonly associated with unexpected adrenaline rush events where a sudden decision with perhaps no time for rational thought, is required by one participant.  Nature has equipped us humans (and most of the animal kingdom) with a primitive urge to protect those you love (or your own species).  As this has to overcome the primal imperative for self-preservation, this leads to the classic “fight or “flight” conflict in our minds in dramatic situations.  As sentient beings, we humans are all blessed with free will which means that we can act against our natural programming.  

So what is the distinguishing feature that makes one person courageous and another who either runs away from the situation or freezes into immobility?  It would seem that the answer is that we don’t really know.  On the one hand, armed forces have long worked out that training and conditioning plays a significant part in gaining the required outcome to the point that each soldier will act in a similar way.  How would horrific wars such as the day-after-day slaughter of thousands in World War 1 have been possible without such conditioning?  On the other hand, the situation becomes far less predictable in terms of fight or flight in one-off dramatic events such as say a 7/7 bombings in London.  

For the general public, heroes certainly there were in the dramatic rescues deep underground at no thought to the heroes’ own safety.  There was no special training of course and therefore the reason why they did it is down to a mixture of instinct, compassion, and decency.  The dozens who didn’t respond heroically were no doubt in the main, decent people who, on the day, were not overtly courageous.  However, to say they were cowards would be a complete travesty; they perhaps had time to think and thought of all the reasons why they shouldn’t carry out heroic acts or indeed there was no particular way they could see to intervene to save others less fortunate than themselves.  Joseph Epstein, US columnist and author succinctly put the uncertainty of this situation into context by saying: “Courage is nine-tenths context.  What is courageous in one setting can be foolhardy in another and even cowardly in a third”.  

Now let us look at the nature of moral courage, which is something that touches everybody’s lives not only in moments of crisis but on a daily basis.  To some extent, moral courage, defines a person much more than physical courage does.  At one end of the scale, it could be that a husband has to choose not to fib to his spouse in answer to a query about his doings just for a quiet life.  Further up the scale, it could be that a son is covering up about his speeding ticket to his father, where the consequences for finding out may be to possibly severely limit his social life for a while.  At the upper end of the scale, it could be that a trusted employee has found out that his manager has been very unethical with his dealings with some client, which is anathema to the employee.  In this scenario, the consequences of blowing the whistle are most likely to damage the company and lose him his own job.  The alternative is to turn a blind eye as nobody is likely to be any the wiser.

The moral issues to these scenarios call for a level of courage to make the right decision.  To make the wrong decisions is almost always an easier choice.  The consequences will almost certainly be complicated.  It sets the decision-maker down the path of having to keep lying or to keep quiet to cover up the original transgression.  We have all heard the famous proverb: “Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first deceive.”  From this viewpoint, courage is very much a virtue and it provides the possessor with the means to live his or her everyday life with the least overall complications and the most harmony in human relations in the long run.  

So why do we keep making the wrong decisions and so unnecessarily complicate our lives?  It would seem to be a no-brainer as sentient beings, for us to think things through and then make the right decision as we know instinctively that the wrong decision will almost inevitably lead to heartache and difficulties down the line.  One answer possibly lies in a conflict between instinct and conscious thought when, for example, one is caught proverbially with one’s hand in the cookie jar.  It’s the fear of being found out that is dominant in one’s mind at that moment that leads us to avoid the situation in future.  It would seem therefore, that us humans tend to think short term in calculating options.  Plato once said: “Courage is a kind of salvation.”  How true!  The only way to avoid such conflict when an instant decision in relationships is required is to resolve to follow the old adage that “honesty is always the best policy.”  

How does this affect business dealings?  Can you live your personal life one way and your personal life in another?  Conventional wisdom says that we all sooner or later revert to type.  However in my experience, many people manage to keep their business or work dealings entirely separate from their private and family lives.  This can only be done at a cost; additional stress and difficulties in personal relationships.  In extreme cases this can cause increasing ill-health in advancing years.  This is especially true, in my opinion, where two different moral standards are adopted.