This word “courage”

The word “courage” is used far too often these days, so much so that it has become a “courageous” thing for someone to do the simplest of things: to perform a simple act that requires no Hercules nor an Achilles to perform.

Just a human being.

We must be “courageous” to make a cup of tea, to give a glass of water to a thirsty child, to say “g’day” to someone crossing your path, to helping an old man across a busy street.

To say “welcome” to a persecuted family.

The word is almost invariably used when the plight of this tiny family of a father, a mother and two little girls, both Australian born, is considered and the conclusion, is again, almost invariably, that he or she who dares to do the right thing must be “courageous!”

The view that we need “courage” to perform this, the most basic, banal, mundane, human deed, is repulsive. Only an Achilles, blessed with immortality could do it. This country, by its rulers -on both, yes, BOTH sides of politics- has shown itself, time and time again to be anti-human, anti-compassion, anti-empathy, psychopathic, Inhumane! Lethally vile! This government is what the heel killed Achilles and it is killing us.

What the Fuck?

To pull this family out of the miserable bog our government has dropped them in, we need no “courage,” no “ifs” no “buts” and no Old Testament-type laws to hide behind. No “thou shalt nots!” It is simply evil to do the inhumane thing, the barbaric thing, the thing that is done in the darkest heart of a jungle. It is a quintessential part-and-parcel of being human.

It’s what humans do.

What twisted logic says that to prove that you are human you must behave inhumanely? Brutally, stupidly. Which school teaches that evil is virtue and virtue is evil? That Justice is bad and Injustice good? That fair is foul and foul is fair, as the three witches claim in McBeth? Which school teaches this sort of appalling syllogism?

How low we must have sunk when these simple, trivial, everyday acts, acts which identify us as human and which separate us from heartless iron robots require us to have “courage?”

How heavily we must have fallen to have all of our connections to each other smashed beyond repair?

How did we manage to become so selfish, so self-centred, so interested in things that simply don’t matter and avoid being what we are born to be, fellows in life and on this planet, “political” (ie, social) as Aristotle observed over two and a half thousand years ago!

For the sake of humanity, for our collective sake, let us stop the bullshit about “courage” and “bravery” and all the other war words we are currently rolling around in our mouth and soul so casually and callously. Let us stop the shitty law games written in the abyss of rich, white-trash halls of entitlement and let us start doing the right thing, the humane thing, the thing that we should be doing without thinking, without hesitating and with a fully human heart. Let us look well at the original design of our creation.

Bring this tiny family home. Take them to wherever they want to go. They, too are human. A thousand times more human than the rabid jungle-animals who so arrogantly prance about our Parliament as if they were entitled to send us all into the Tartarus of inhumanity.

If the sovereignty and safety of this country is vulnerable to the nature of this tiny group of tiny, powerless people, then, make no mistake about it, we are not courageous. We are abject cowards!

Cartoon by Alan Moir (moir.com.au)