The Age of Cowards

  Episode Transcript  

One

Willingness to Sacrifice and Risk the Lesser for the Greater

Fortitude is the virtue that makes us willing to risk and sacrifice what is objectively lesser for what is objectively greater. It makes us sacrifice our sleep and leisure time for the well-being of our kids. It makes us sacrifice our job prospects for the sake of preserving our integrity. It makes us sacrifice our social comfort for the sake of witnessing to our faith.

Again, in all these cases, we show that we are willing to sacrifice what is lesser for the sake of what is greater. But in order to do that, we need to know what is greater and what is lesser. In other words, you must believe in objective truth and objective morality. And that is precisely what has come under attack in the post-Christian world.

Which is why we are breeding a generation of cowards.

Two

The Attack on Objective Values

Over the last century or so, there’s been a powerful movement to present morality as though it were nothing more than an expression of personal preference.

This idea is sometimes called moral relativism, sometimes emotivism, or hedonism. Common catchphrases in American culture that capture the essence of moral relativism are “Who am I to judge” or "You do you." These phrases suggest that individuals should act according to their own beliefs and preferences, implying that what is right or wrong can vary from person to person. It comes from the error that there are no absolute truths, no universal moral standards that apply to everyone equally. 

The denial of objective and universal moral principles means people think they can just decide, “what’s the most important thing for me,” and that that’s all there is to it. 

They don’t get that some things are just objectively more important than others. And when you think truth and morality is something you get to make up for yourself, you simply cannot be brave.

Three

Values or Feelings?

A brave person is someone who is able to sacrifice their personal feelings for the sake of what they know to be objectively right. But if you don’t believe that something is objectively right then you can’t sacrifice your feelings for it.

If you don’t believe in objective truth, all you have to go on is your feelings. All you can do, in any crisis, is choose what makes you, personally, feel better. And that is the very definition of the coward. Someone who just does what’s easier for him personally in every crisis. Someone who puts his own feelings and sense of comfort first.

That’s why relativism kills, absolutely kills, any chance at fortitude and makes for a culture of cowards. 

Four

An Unreflective Age = A Cowardly Age 

You need conviction in order to exhibit fortitude by standing up for your convictions. But moral relativism has destroyed people’s convictions about objective standards of right and wrong. And even if people aren’t explicitly relativistic, they have become so unreflective that they haven’t spent any time reaching conclusions about objective truth and value.

You need to be able to answer the question: is there a God and how do we know? You need to be able to answer the question: why do human beings exist? What’s the purpose of human life?

You need to be able to answer the question: how do we know the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil, between damaging people and really helping them?

Because if you can’t answer those questions, then the sad fact of the matter is that you don’t know enough to be brave. Your ignorance, your refusal to do the work of thinking things through, means that when crises come, you won’t have the truth to guide you. You’ll just have your fears and needs and preferences.

Which means, I’m sorry to say, that you are already a coward.

Five

Courage can only be in accord with truth

Virtue is only virtue if it aligns with the truth. Get rid of truth, and you get rid of all virtue, especially fortitude.

Of course, we all want to believe in courage, in bravery, in heroism. But without conviction in objective right and wrong, that belief is totally unsustainable. That’s why you’ll hear totally conflicting descriptions of courage.

People will talk in one breath about someone’s courageous battle with cancer and then they’ll talk in the next breath about someone’s courageous decision to euthanize themselves. But striving to live and striving to die are opposites. How can they both be courageous? 

Or people will talk in one breath about someone courageously fighting to save their marriage and then they’ll talk in the next breath about somebody courageously leaving their marriage. But being true to a marriage and walking out on a marriage are opposites. How can they both be courageous?

The truth is that in a relativistic society, a society which does not recognize universal, objective values – the word “courage” and “fortitude” means nothing at all. It can be used for anything. Because people without objective truth and moral principles can’t be brave. 

They can use the word “courage” all they want. But it becomes easier and easier to see that they use it, very often, to justify their most cowardly decisions.

Our Lord, however, gave us the truth. He showed us what was most important, fidelity to God’s will, love of neighbor, holiness, and salvation. And He showed us how to be brave by His willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of those supreme goods.

We can be courageous, we can become heroes, if we look to the example of the God-hero on the cross.

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