What Is Courage?

I wanted to look at people who have experienced horrors and figure out what was going on in their heads. The people on the front lines of battle don't know what courage is. If they don't know, how can I say what it is? I wanted to know what they think about what is or isn't courageous. There are some people who feel that courage means going into a "zone," and they become afraid of losing that zone. Others say that once you feel it, you can never lose it. You'll always do the right thing, even when you're confused out of your mind. Feelings are mysteries; it helps to know how mysterious courage is.

Why don't today's leaders give us better examples of courage?

It's terrible how little courage our leaders have. Rudy Giuliani did the right thing on September 11. He stood out like a sore thumb. Where was the president? He was in Nebraska -- and his people were putting out false reports that he was under threat. Giuliani manifested courage. He put his body on the line, even though he could have been killed in the collapse of WTC Tower 2.

Why do the British love the Queen Mother? Because during the bombing of London in World War II, she refused to flee to safety. She was willing to incur the same risks as everyone else. British prime minister Tony Blair is doing more to deal with terrorism than our own president. I don't understand why the British always end up looking better than we do in that respect. They make good soldiers and good civilians under pressure.

If the British House of Commons had been invaded by anthrax, those politicians wouldn't have fled town. I'm afraid that we Americans won't do the tough thing when we're called on to display courage. Courage dwindles when left unused.

Is American culture stunting our courage?

America is afraid of putting people into risky situations. We send troops into action, but then we're ready to pull them out of the line of fire at the first sign of significant casualties. I am taken aback that we call our war against terrorism a war against phantoms or shadows. It's not ambiguous at all.

Our lack of courage shows up in how loosely we use the word: "He's a courageous guy. He just invested $2 million." That's not courage. That's pursuing a business deal. It's part of the game of business. He's not going to die. He might get an upset stomach, but that's about it. And it's mostly other people's money being risked.

As for myself, I ran from the one war that I was asked to fight in. My father fought in World War II. I asked myself, Would I have run from that one? Did our fathers make the world so safe for us that we could run? Did the 1990s undermine our notion of sacrifice? When I was a kid, my dad came home at night and told me stories about his business triumphs. He never once told me about how he won three Navy bronze stars in World War II. I only discovered that when I was gathering his dispatch papers after his death. I still wonder why he thought that I would be better off hearing those boring business stories.

Can corporate leaders be courageous?

Maybe we're asking too much by asking for courage in a business setting. But we can ask that leaders not be cowardly. We can ask that they not be so unwilling to sacrifice the bottom line that they undercut the social order (like by making people jobless to protect the quarter's numbers). In the workplace, it takes nerve to say no to people, to make hard decisions. The opposite of being a coward isn't necessarily being courageous.

How would you profile courage? When and where is it most likely to be found?

You never know who's going to deliver. Civil War soldiers would look along the line of battle and wonder who would crack and who would make it. A reliable person, good as gold, might crack just when you need him most. The pear-shaped accountant who has no physical presence could save the day.

That said, here are some absolutely necessary components in profiling courage. The first is being lucky that day -- on the day when you're put to the test. That turns out to be the day when you can muster the reserves of character. A person who doesn't scare easily can still have a bad day.

The second component is training yourself to do things that require courage. Facing risks. Aristotle says that you have to train yourself to be ready when the call comes. At some point, such demands might become easier for you to face. But it's also true that if too many demands are made on a person's courage, it runs out. Studies that were done after World War II show that after prolonged fighting, people simply can't muster up any more strength from their spiritual reserves.