Topic 21: Bravery

"Have we as a society lost our bravery?"

It seems to me that more and more we are becoming a society of scared, pathetic wimps!  I can explain my point better with an example.  When I got my first job in a major fast food restaurant, I was taught that should we experience a robbery, the procedure was to be completely compliant and give them the money.  "Don't try to be a hero".  Now I am not one for advocating for stupid heroics that just get people killed, nor am I willing to stand up to a gunman, but just watch the news.  People are getting away with robbing people by simply claiming that they have a weapon somewhere on them.  They aren't even trying anymore!  And that is simply because we are becoming complacent!

We have also lost our bravery with regards to pain and discomfort.  Just take a look at our ancestors.  The things they lived with on a day to day basis is incredible compared to what we have now.  They were tough, brave and strong.  But we are weak complainers.  The slightest hint of pain or discomfort has us crying to our Mummys!  It starts with our children though.  We have started teaching our children that pain in any shape or form is unacceptable.  Just look at smacking.  Something that if done correctly is a highly affective discipline method, that has been proven to work for centuries, is all of a sudden wrong!  So then when our kids do experience some small form of pain, they have not learnt how to cope with it.  This also passes through onto child birth.  Now I know I will offend the masses with this one, but on I go anyway.  So many women are CHOOSING to have a nice, convenient pain-free birth.  Women have been having babies for thousands of years, so how come all of a sudden, they can't do it?!?  Now I am not talking about those who try to go through labour naturally, and it gets to be too much, or they cannot do it.  I am talking about those who point at a calendar, pick out a date and do not even try. 

As I said we are becoming weak, scared cowards, and the sad truth is that pain and discomfort is a part of life we need to embrace, but have somehow forgotten how.  I am not advocating for S & M, (whatever floats your boat) but I think that we need to dig deep, remember what others have had to go through, and understand that we are strong people, capable of so much bravery, if only we tried!

If you have any thoughts or ideas on bravery, please let me know.

-T.J.