Journal GargamelSpaceman's Journal: Courage is like love, it must have hope for nourishment.

Courage is like love, it must have hope for nourishment. - Napoleon.

Corollary: If you want to act courageously, you have to learn to find hope, or you won't be able to act courageously.

If there is no hope, there is no point in being courageous. You're doomed anyway unless you run away. If you have no legs, then you aren't being courageous for not running away, you physically can't escape - courage only applies when a choice is made.

Also, it's usually the case that one's perception of hope is flawed. If there seems to be no hope, there usually still is some that hasn't been taken into account, and if everything seems a-ok, then there is probably some trouble lurking in the shadows.

It seems to me that 'running away' is really 'running toward' hope when it is insufficient. This point of view seems to cast doubt on whether courage in and of itself is even desirable.

But I think this is were courage needs to be separated from foolhardiness. Foolhardiness is lack of fear through ignorance. Lying to oneself about the quantity of hope could make one appear more courageous for a time, but it can not endure. Foolhardiness will either get itself killed, or become better informed. A lie can not stand forever in the face of overwhelming evidence.

To endure, courage needs to survive. To do that, it by definition, needs real hope.

So to be really and enduringly courageous, one must be skillful not at fueling one's self with false hope but with finding real hope. This is the essence of survival. No wonder we admire and respect it.

So people who run away must be REALLY courageous then. Not quite. Courage is steadier than that. It's deliberate despite apparent hopelessness because it knows some source of hope that others may not percieve. In that way courage is contageous, for the courage of others itself is a sign that there may be unseen hope. However distinguishing courage from foolhardiness can be impossible for observers. Courage may be mislabeled as foolhardiness and vise versa.

Courage and love need fuel to endure. I wish I knew French, since it would be interesting to see if 'love' could be translated as 'passion' in the original Napoleon quote.

Who could have passion for a hopeless endeavor?

Unable to find a thesaurus with an antonym for Sloth online, I looked up 'Opposite of Sloth' on google and came up with some mostly religious sites since 'Sloth' is loaded with being a 'deadly sin'. Suprisingly to me ( an athiest ) the religious sites had some interesting ideas for what a good word for 'the opposite of Sloth' might be.

The three words that came up were industriousness ( I already thought of that one ), passion, and joy.

Passion is the opposite of Sloth because people are definately not slothful in endeavors they are passionate about. And it's the things we are not passionate about that we tend to put off, not do, or do in a half-assed way. If one is not passionate toward someone they might tend to ignore them. The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. ( another quote from somewhere - I'm a /usr/games/fortune addict )

Joy makes sense too for being the opposite of Sloth since people are not slothful in the things that bring them joy. For example, people tend to pay attention to an especially entertaining movie they are enJoying. Nobody has to crack the whip to make them keep their eyes on the screen. If someone procrastinates, or does something in a half assed way, or as little as possible of something, then chances are they don't enJoy doing that thing.

Passion and Joy and Industriousness need hope for nourishment. Hope for what? Hope for good things and to ward off bad things. People are naturally industrious when it's something they enjoy, and are passionate about, and have much hope that doing what they are doing well will get them rewards. ( for instance paying attention to a movie you are enjoying will reward you as the story unfolds with understanding of the plot )

I forgot where, but I once read that the 'deadly sin' of Sloth was mistranslated and should be the 'deadly sin' of Dispair.

Dispair is the opposite of hope. Without hope you will be slothful, unpassionate, unjoyful, and cowardly as you attempt to run toward a sufficient supply of hope. This is not something that can be willpowered past, foolhardiness, and lying to one's self won't work in the long term. Passion and Courage can not live on false hope forever anymore than a person can live by swallowing air. Hope is absolutely neccessary for passion and courage

The thing to do is to act planfully. Don't panic ( another favorite quote ) Don't dispair that the juiciest rewards are grabbed by the stupid. Although stupidity takes the bad bets that pay off best, don't forget that the payoff is just there to tease you. If you decide to put your money into lottery tickets, or other bad bets ( not neccessarily literally gambling but other life choices ), the expected payoff is less than what you put in.

What plan? Find real hope, and ( hopefully ) a good plan to achieve what you hope for will be apparent.

Endure courageously, and hold on to your hopes and dreams.