The Plague of Misidentification
Cowardice
In today's TPOM, we will be looking at the concept of cowardice.
Cowardice
Definitions
"The quality of a coward; cowardliness; want of courage to face danger; faint-heartedness, pusillanimity." OED.
"Cowardice is a trait wherein excessive fear prevents an individual from taking a risk or facing danger. It is the opposite of courage. As a label, "cowardice" indicates a failure of character in the face of a challenge. One who succumbs to cowardice is known as a coward." Wikipedia.
"Lack of courage or firmness of purpose." Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
"Lack of courage to face danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc." Dictionary.com.
A coward is someone who has no stability within themself such that they can stand against an opposing force of any type if they perceive that they may incur a loss for holding their position. It then follows that the coward will not even hold to their own beliefs, no matter how deeply held, if those beliefs place them in a position of danger or loss as a direct result of holding those beliefs. If the going gets tough, as they say, the coward will sell out as soon as possible.
The Utility of Cowardice
What is the use of cowardice? What good is it? At first glance, you may think that there is no use for cowardice, or at least there is no good use. While it is true that cowards are one of if not the most dangerous psychological sets that we will deal with over the course of TPOM, it is also true that this trait is one that is very often misidentified and, therefore, goes unseen and ununderstood. Cowards come in classes, from ignorant cowards to stupid cowards, from intelligent cowards to genius cowards. Depending upon the coward's ability to camouflage and other factors to be detailed as these writings unfold, not the least of which is societal cowardice, the coward may go undetected within their entire lifetime and even over generations, centuries, or millennia.