Wikipedia defines cowardice as: a trait wherein fear and excess self-concern override doing or saying what is right, good and of help to others or oneself in a time of need - it is the opposite of courage. As a label, "cowardice" indicates a failure of character in the face of a challenge.
Mahatma Gandhi had this to say of cowardice: Cowardice is impotence worse than violence. The coward desires revenge but being afraid to die, he looks to others, maybe to the government of the day, to do the work of defense for him. A coward is less than a man. He does not deserve to be a member of a society of men and women.
A group of students in Ottawa caused a bit of a stir lately with their decision to wear white poppies instead of red ones coming up to Remembrance Day. There is the usual hyperbole about standing for the higher ideal of peace and how the red poppy somehow glorifies war.
Is this a statement of some noble, lofty ideal, or a mask for the character flaw of cowardice wherein their own fear and excess self-concern make them incapable of doing or saying what is right, good and of help to others?
A few reminders of why wearing a white poppy is much the same as waving a white flag, includes a couple of names from recent times:
- Adolf Hitler
- Joseph Stalin
- Mao Zedong
- Pol Pot
- Saddam Hussein
- Idi Amin
- Muammar Gaddafi
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