What do you consider an act of bravery?
I don't know about you, but I feel that that the bar keeps lowering as to what is considered brave these days, where any time someone publicly acknowledges something about themselves that might make them feel uncomfortable, a brave act. Especially these days, so much of it seems to be already generally accepted in the society they are opening up to. Is coming out of the closet as gay a brave act in western society still?
I don't know.
/breɪv/
adjective
ready to face and endure danger or pain; showing courage.
"Ready to face and endure pain"
A soldier going into battle accepting the risk of injury and death qualifies. Someone stepping in to defend a person who is being attacked even though there is personal risk qualifies. But while I am not diminishing the personal step it takes for someone to for instance, come out of the closet as gay to friends and family, does it carry the same risks and perhaps what I am more questioning, are the people really *ready to face and endure danger and pain? Because it seems more to me that often when people in the media are portrayed as brave, there is the assumption that the person will also be accepted by everyone.
There is no risk or danger, when it is already as a generally pre-accepted topic, condition, state or opinion. It is only when it is not generally accepted that there is a risk, where for instance coming out of the closet in the 1930s, or in modern-day Nigeria, Somalia, or the majority of the Middle East.
It isn't only about coming out as gay, there are a host of other areas that carry risk, for instance we witnessed during the Covid situation that anyone who had a differing opinion to the government line was claimed to be a science denier, despite the governments not actually following the science and a lot of the claims of the "conspiracy theorists" have now been proven in fact be, true. People were fined, were ridiculed, lost their jobs and became pariahs, despite being correct.
There is a risk in having an opinion.
Which is why so many people no longer have an opinion these days, because rather than being able to discuss alternate views and theories, the internet and society is a place of competition, where the worst possible assumptions are made on anything anyone says, rather than assuming the best, and then discussing to differences. Nuance has been lost and has been replaced by a public position of mass acceptance, even if behind closed doors, opinions still differ. People want to assume the worst so then they can use it as ammunition to score an imaginary point against their enemy, with the enemy being some stranger they will never meet.
For instance, because I mention coming out of the closet as an example, some people will hold onto that piece, assume the worst, and use it to argue that me as a "cis male" can't possibly understand how much courage it takes to do this, because I have never done it. Yet, that argument makes the assumption that there are no other experiences that people can have that are comparable or relatable. It also makes the assumption that everyone who does come out of the closet, has the same thoughts and experiences as everyone else who has done it. That is not true.
Hard for one might be easy for another.
Hence, what is courageous in one instance, doesn't automatically make the same act courage in another instance. A brave act would then have to acknowledge the risk, so if a person acting on instinct or that doesn't consider the risks at all, wouldn't be performing a brave act, because they aren't ready to face and endure pain, even if the potential for it is inherent. A child playing with a poisonous snake isn't brave, they are naïve.
A bit like our puppy not knowing how wide his mouth can open.
Again, this isn't to diminish people's personal triumphs, but perhaps like many areas in the context of public discourse and narrative, bravery and courage has been getting watered down and is losing its meaning. Perhaps it gives people the ability to feel like they are winning more, but what it is also doing is diminishing the acts of others that are truly on the boundaries, pushing the edges outward, and taking risks where there is significant and perhaps likely consequences of pain, ridicule and cost.
I courageously face the world make-up-free daily.
How does that compare on the bravery scale?
A strange conversation perhaps, but more and more I find that people are becoming increasingly soft so that when they perform tasks that just used to be part of life, they see it as some momentous act, like they climbed Everest. But they expect that everyone else acknowledge the act as momentous, even if it is a daily activity. It seems that we are inventing imaginary challenges to overcome and in so doing, creating more hurdles in our life that needn't be there. More conditions that we can use as excuses as to why we can't, rather than removing the barriers so we can.
Take responsibility, make decisions, live with the consequences, no matter whether other people acknowledge or accept you for it.
Be brave, right?
Taraz
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