Where Among Us Is A Truly Courageous Leader?

There are those who believe that courage is inborn.

Aristotle was not one of them. And it wouldn't hurt to revisit his thoughts on courage before this country augments, escalates or perpetuates the war in Iraq.

Aristotle argued (Ethics) that none of the virtues is engendered in us by nature, "since nothing that is what it is by nature can be made to behave differently by habituation. For instance, a stone, which has a natural tendency downwards, cannot be habituated to rise, however often you try to train it by throwing it into the air; nor can you train fire to burn downwards; nor can anything else that has any other natural tendency be trained to depart from it. The moral virtues, then, are engendered in us neither by nor contrary to nature; we are constituted by nature to receive them, but their full development in us is due to habit."

Aristotle went on to argue that it is through learning about and performing "just acts" and "brave acts" that we may become capable of being just and brave. By doing things well, Aristotle proposed, we develop excellence just as the builder who builds well becomes a craftsman. "It is the way that we behave in our dealings with other people that makes us just or unjust, and the way that we behave in the face of danger, accustoming ourselves to be timid or confident, that makes us brave or cowardly."

We should remind our representatives in Washington of the type of courage we expect. Photo ops with the President, clamoring for his autograph, and obsequious teas at the White House should be disgusting to us at a time of war when over 100,000 brave Americans put their lives on the line every day. The truly courageous are not so easily gratified or entertained. They see such actions as appalling contrivances and cold disregard for seriously pressing issues and American lives.

Do we have truly courageous men and women in our midst -- ones not metaphorically throwing stones in the air hoping for redirection -- waiting for something new of a president who will never change? Where are the ones who put us first - the ones who will insist on changes in Iraq and U.S. foreign policy in general despite political peril? Where are the ones with as yet untapped courage potential? We may need to "show them the way."

Where, too, are the leaders who have demonstrated true courage in the past? We need to call upon them again to ask tough questions about what amounts to a faith-in-Bush-based military strategy and to demand explications and examinations of alternative options. Thousands of lives depend on the emergence of courageous leaders from under the radar.

Now is their pivotal courage moment when preparation is converging on opportunity to save countless lives and a great country held hostage by unbridled greed, stubborn myopia, and shocking ignorance. Could it be that Barak Obama, Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton, Jim Webb, John Warner, John Edwards or some little known senators and congressmen have this kind of courage? Maybe Chuck Hagel? Surely somewhere there are those who have performed "just" and "brave" acts in their lives preparing them for this moment - to be among the fortunate who in their lifetime take a risk and make a substantial, positive difference in the lives of all others.

Dr. Reardon's thoughts on how to develop "Courage as a Skill" are in this month's Harvard Business Review and in It's All Politics.

The Courage Calculation