Courage is seen as saying yes to intimidating or dangerous circumstances when courage is not confronting danger. Having the character to walk away from what is not meant for you, or that which is morally deficient, is courage. Saying no when everyone else is participating is the courage to stand alone. To slay the dragon in order to play the hero is to show bravery. But braver still is the one who turns their back and walks away from the dragon when everyone else is bowing down. These, the individuals, the solo, the alone who blaze their own trail are the definition of courage.
This is because peer pressure is a very real threat to your opinion. It is an evolutionary response to stay with the crowd because there is safety in numbers. But there is also conformity in numbers. Show me a solitary soul who has gone its own way, who is not afraid to be alone, who will face whatever inconveniences and threats that may come, and there is strength. They may be quiet, they may be unassuming, but they likely have a keen inner moral compass. For them to capitulate to a corrupt and unjust system is worse than death. Their allegiance is not to a country or ideology like capitalism, but rather to right and wrong. For them doing good is right and no mercy is wrong. They refuse to compromise their morality for it is the final humanizing element. They who have lost a sense of justice have strayed into the hands of the deepest darkness. But for the courageous, their moral compass is keen, always pointing the way. You can judge your level of courage by this yardstick: do you follow what is kind, or do you side with the selfish?
Democracy was the popular ideal in my lifetime. It was the political flagship that nations compared themselves to. However, I and my college contemporaries saw beyond democracy to a system which did not elevate the individual, but society as a whole. Rather than lifting up the rights of every person as democracy did, Communism elevated socialistic ideals of a government fairly providing for all. It was a romanticized vision of a society which could depend on its government to equally distribute the fruits of its citizen's labors. If you have lived in poverty, scratching out a meager living, you know the futility one feels. Mexicans were starving and living in primitive conditions, and this was never far from my mind. It grieved me to see my countrymen going without while the Americans had so much. When I heard the ideals of Communism, it seemed to me the solution. But that dream faded once I realized there was not any politician who would not steal from the people. And the politicians hated and persecuted Communist supporters because it threatened their middle-of-the-road democracy. They could sell democracy to the people, this idea of the average man making their own wealth. But Communism demanded that the government answer to the people, and that they definitely did not want. So, the capitalists called us a threat to government when really what we were was a threat to their dishonesty and greed. You can plainly see that the ideal of capitalism, though a high-sounding ideal, did not amount to justice for all. Nor has it amounted to riches for all. It has produced a deeply stratified economic class system of rich and poor. The courageous soul does not buy in to any particular system or ideology over and above the compass of their own heart. Their sense of right and wrong is the only elevated value and what guides their decisions and behavior.
I was called courageous in my day because I persevered through my pain, and I spoke out in favor of Communism in the face of persecution. But these were not what created a hero's heart in me. It was the willingness to be vulnerable. My art reflected my innermost struggles and torments, and these I shared with the world. This is another level of courage: the courage to be transparent. Showing others your soft inner workings is the most frightening sort of courage, for what if they do not find my secrets worthy of admiration? What if they make fun of my deepest feelings? Some did call my art names, and some passed judgment. But these I was unconcerned with because they were critics who had not created anything as daring, so they were hypocritical. No, it was the average person who I cared about and wanted to reach. Had they said, "We cannot relate to this," I would have given up. But they said the opposite. They said: "I can relate to the pain I see here." That validation was the highest veneration. I hardly cared what my famous contemporary artists said as much as I wanted to know how I made the average person feel. Did my statement reach their heart? I am now of the opinion that the greatest courage is to be vulnerable. And so, you must create something that reflects your inner landscape to such an extent that it reaches the hearts of every man.
