Defining, understanding and identifying courage eludes most

Courage is as difficult to define as beauty.

It is something that has been on the minds of many following the tragic deaths recently of five Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Courage - as difficult to define as beauty.

Notwithstanding this, danger awaits anyone who questions the popular idea of courage and dare suggest they were not courageous rather, just doing their job, a job they the knowingly and willingly signed up for.

What is courage? Where and why does it emerge? Why is a soldier, whose prime task, when all the finery is stripped away is about killing other people, more courageous than the soul down the street who wrestles with life’s daily dilemmas?

The institution that is our armed forces removes many of life’s risks and so in essence the only thing a soldier is gambling with is his or her life.

Our symbolic soul “down the street” gambles not only with their life, but also, particularly if they question the status quo, their broader wellbeing, and that of their family, without having the vast and resourceful infrastructure of our armed forces to support them.

Enlistment is a clear indication of person’s values and beliefs and as they equate with most in the country, rarely, if ever do they have to put their head above the parapet to contest popular opinion.

In fact, as demonstrated repeatedly those most at risk in our society, certainly psychologically and if at times not physically, question the status quo and wonder publically if life would not be better if we were more conciliatory rather than militant.

Life’s truly courageous souls are those who ask the questions most would prefer to avoid and have us listen to answers we would rather not hear.

Socrates, an habitual questioner, had a passion to “know” and because of that interrogation was considered socially disruptive and so put to death.

Socrates had the opportunity to escape his persecutors, but being a believer in the rule of law, stayed, drank the hemlock and died. That was courage remote from the battlefield.

Soldiers fight for the values of the society to which they belong and that act demands a certain type of courage, but our true unsung heroes demonstrate an unrecognised courage using little more than words, and art in all its forms, to protect human rights, be it at the primary school through to those who seek asylum in Australia.

Humanity’s golden years appear to the crumbling as a burgeoning population strains earth’s resources and with our market driven economy in disarray, a few courageous souls talk of alternatives, risking reputation as they confront entrenched ideologies; ideologies that have brought the good life, but which are now unravelling.

It takes courage to discuss new ideas, it take even more courage to adopt them.