"That is why courage is always needed in the moment. Courage is a present virtue. Looking at past instances of courage is boasting, and looking at how courageous you will be in the future is daydreaming. Courage is now. Courage brings liberty, and liberty, to summarize Orwell, means the right to tell people things that they don’t want to hear." -- Douglas Wilson, Understanding Panic Porn in the Aftermath
Everyone prefers courage to cowardice. No one brags about cowardice. Everyone, therefore, wants to see themselves as courageous. But as Wilson points out, courage is always required right now. Courage is a current event. It is nothing to be courageous in retrospect. To invent courage in reverse is merely cowardice in a lion costume. Courage is not required yesterday or tomorrow, it is required now. To round out your resume with past episodes of courage is arrogance. To fill today's requirement with promissory notes about tomorrow's faith is foolishness. Faith is always required right now. Courage is always necessary this minute.
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