Courage—The Missing Ingredient
We can have wide-ranging experiences, sound judgment, and great moral foundations, but unless we know how to act on an issue, all that is wasted. This article is partly from the book, The Art and Ethics of Being a Good Colleague, Amazon Press, 2020, pp 63, 82, 137.
Sometimes it is clear that we should act but we don’t, and there are reasons why we might not. This is where a very important ingredient, courage, comes into play. It is often the critical and missing factor in many problematic situations.
Can we develop courage? Yes, we can. Reasonable ways to develop courage are given in the book mentioned above. You can read about those showing courage and practice it, maybe in small ways at first. Many organizations include courage and obligations to others in their codes of ethics. There are ways to deal with the fear of acting on an issue.
Einstein and others have said that the world can be a dangerous place, not only because of evil doers, but also because of those who look on and do nothing. Courage is so important that we need to understand it better. Is it fearless action? Hardly. Courage is the ability to overcome (or accept) fear and act according to one’s values. It can mean accepting risk, and that can be a problem for those who only play it safe. Part of developing courage means accepting the circumstances and acting in spite of risk to us. In our culture, courage doesn’t seem to be stressed. In fact, the opposite seems to prevail. “Mind your own business and go along and get along” is what we often hear.
Should our culture modify its views on this point? Sometimes courage clearly exists but goes by another name. Members of our armed forces or civil servants like firemen believe in the idea of “no man left behind.” In other words, if a colleague is injured, you do anything you can to get him to safety. In doing this, we see acts of amazing courage, but when the heroes are questioned, they say, “I was just doing my job.” Or they might say, “I needed to be there for my buddies.” In these cases, it seems that the culture of these men and women promote acts of courageous heroism, even when it could lead to serious injury for themselves. Of course, in our day-to-day lives, we don’t face similar kinds of dangers; but the point is that if we can generate a culture of collegiality, then fear is less likely to prevent courageous actions.
Sometimes this culture exists, but much more could be done to promote it in our society. Interpersonal ethics would be a useful guide for building, utilizing, and expanding a culture of courage. Fortunately, courage is being recognized, at least a little. There are even prizes for courageous actions outside of law enforcement and the military. A web search brings up the Maddox prize and civil courage prizes. Perhaps we need more mechanisms for rewarding courage in everyday life. But decide carefully if you are considering some kind of martyrdom. Good luck.
Much of this article has been reproduced from the source collegialethics.com.
Some relevant articles for additional reading:
https://hbr.org/2020/05/how-to-find-and-practice-courage , accessed on May 1, 2024.
Lachman, VD “Moral Courage: A Virtue in Need of Development?” MedSurg Nursing Journal 16(2) (2007): 131–133. 5.
Lachman, VD “Strategies Necessary for Moral Courage,” The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. 15(3) (2010): manuscript 3.
https://www.nature.com/immersive/maddoxprize/index.html. accessed on May1, 2024.
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