One of the corollaries of any study of manliness is courage, the supremely male virtue. But if courage forms the center of male virtue, do we know what courage is? In a work in progress, I’m interested in juxtaposing two narratives of courage, those proffered by judges to underwrite their opinions and those ushered by combat soldiers to make sense of what they experienced. I know the below examples, not at all the product of random sampling, hardly begin to scratch the surface; perhaps, though, they’re food for thought.
Three Judges on Courage
“Those who won our independence believed. . . .courage to be the secret of liberty. . . .”--Justice Brandeis, Whitney v. California (1927).
“. . . the exercise of First Amendment rights often requires an act of courage,. . . .” --Judge Ramirez, Keene v. Meese (1985).
“To justify a homicide the fears of the slayer must be those of a reasonable man, one reasonably courageous, reasonably self-possessed, and not those of a coward.” --Judge Louis L. Brown, Wheeler v. State (1934).
Three Soldiers on Courage
“It is hard to know what bravery is.”--Tim O’Brien, Vietnam War combat veteran.
“It was some months and only a few more bullets and shells later that I knew my courage for what it was—a reaction to the shame I felt at being afraid,. . . .”--Robert Crisp, World War II veteran, recipient of Britain’s Distinguished Service Order and Military Cross.
“I understand desertion. A man distraught determines that the last act of his life shall at least be one of his own volition; and who can say that what is commonly regarded as the limit of cowardice is not then heroic?”--Max Plowman, World War I combat veteran.
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