The Courage of Your Convictions
Doubting yourself is what really takes courage.
The courage of my/your/our/their convictions
There’s an old saying, “I have the courage of my convictions”. That saying has always bothered me, and it should bother you. Courage doesn’t make a person wise, and it doesn’t make them right. Courage is an admirable human trait, for sure, but courage can cause damage just as well as it can do good.
Alabama governor George Wallace, in the 1960s, had the courage to defy court orders, and refused to allow admission of black students into ‘white’ schools. So did Arkansas governor Orval Faubus. Lester Maddox had the courage to close his restaurant in Atlanta, rather than serve blacks. (BTW, these were all democrats. No republican EVER has done such a thing. And, no, saying that doesn’t make me a republican.)
Not just anybody has that kind of courage. But many people have that much conviction. Perhaps you have that much conviction. I don’t. I try to make it a point to doubt and question everything I encounter. Every idea, every issue. I am rarely sure I’m right, unless it’s basic, like “Is the earth a spheroid”.
No, I don’t have the courage of my convictions, I have the courage of my doubts. It’s not a fun feeling. There is no emotional satisfaction in doubting, apart from generally not making a fool of myself.
But, hey Wallace et al were in the 1960s. We’re all much more based, now. Right? Nobody blindly supports their political party, or its candidates, based on mere courage of their convictions, right? We all scrutinize both parties and all candidates and all issues, never just jumping in on one side with nothing more than our convictions to support us. Right?
Yes, it’s emotionally comforting to just pick a side and be done with it. No more doubt, no longer a need to pay actual attention, to sort things out. Just decide you are right, that your side is right.
The courage of your convictions. I think it should be called the cowardice of your convictions. Any idiot can have courage. In my experience, it is generally fools who have such courage. I have the courage to doubt myself. I try to make it a point. Any time I feel sure, I kick myself in the ego and challenge myself to ‘prove it’.
Few things can be proved. Abortion can’t be ‘proved’. ‘Religion’, or lack thereof can’t be ‘proved’. ‘Education’ is not easily defined, and probably shouldn’t be. How about marriage? Gay men can be married, but in some states first cousins cannot marry. So, can gay first cousins get married in those states? I ask those kinds of questions. Few others do. And nobody offers me answers to those questions (Feel free to offer your answers in the comments section.) Even ‘intelligence’ is subject to consideration, by intelligent people, I suppose.
I’ve said on occasion, the more sure you are that you are right, the more likely you are to be wrong. Those who leap to comfortable conclusions, who have the ‘courage of their convictions’, probably do feel far more self-satisfied than people like me. But I solve problems better. Much better. I connect dots better. I assess cause and effect better.
People like me have the courage of our doubt. We are confident enough in our own minds that we are not intimidated by the thought that we might be wrong. We don’t have such weak egos that we insist that everyone who disagrees with us must be an enemy. We don’t build ourselves up by tearing others down.
And we suck at being party loyalists. We suck at playing follow the leader. Political party organizers know this. They don’t even try with us. They stick with the ‘courage of our convictions’ crowd. They go for the people that they know will seek to belong to something, anything, so that they can feel warm and cozy. So that they needn’t feel the discomfort of doubt, of questioning. So that they can feel superior to someone else. So that they can feel protected.
Such people need not be told the truth. Lies suffice. They want assurance, conviction. Lies are fine, as long as they are assuring lies, said with conviction.
Why is government in America the mess that it is? That’s why.
Comments?
"Yes, it’s emotionally comforting to just pick a side and be done with it. No more doubt, no longer a need to pay actual attention, to sort things out. Just decide you are right, that your side is right."
As you say, politicians bank on that fact.