Cowardice is a weakness of the soul
In ancient times, Theophrastus, in his book “Characters,” talked about sailors who, when they saw rocks, mistook them for pirate ships. Several thousand years later, this definition remains the most accurate.
In the modern world, a clear example of cowardice is the panic of passengers on board an airplane during takeoff or landing, when there is no apparent reason even to worry. People who are commonly called cowards are not only afraid themselves, but also sow panic around them.
Cowardice is a weakness that is based on insurmountable human fear. In a fit of this feeling, people cannot control their own actions and are capable of committing immoral acts (lying, betraying) and even crimes. It is impossible to suppress an attack by force of will.
As soon as a coward finds himself in a situation that develops based on his fear, he ceases to control himself, to bear responsibility for his own actions, his consciousness turns off.
Cowardice differs from phobia in that cowards are afraid of several things at once. A phobia is a panicky fear of something specific: an elevator, heights, cockroaches.
The causes of panic or cowardice can be a rich imagination, bad life experiences, or mental trauma in childhood.
Essay on cowardice conclusion
How will brave and hesitant characters help you get "pass"? Text: Anna Chainikova, teacher of Russian and literature at school No. 171 Photo: frame from the cartoon “The Wise Minnow,” 1979 There are only a few days left until the final essay, and we continue to examine the main directions, this time we’ll talk about “Courage and Cowardice.” Is it easy to be brave in everyday life? How are fear and betrayal related? Can a coward be happy? Graduates will have to find answers to these difficult questions in literary works.
FIPI comment:
This direction is based on a comparison of opposite manifestations of the human “I”: readiness for decisive actions and the desire to hide from danger, to avoid resolving difficult, sometimes extreme life situations. The pages of many literary works present both heroes capable of bold actions and characters demonstrating weakness of spirit and lack of will.
Vocabulary work
According to the explanatory dictionary of D. N. Ushakov: COURAGE - courage, determination, courageous behavior. COWARDLY – timidity and timidity characteristic of a coward. Synonyms
Courage -
courage, fearlessness, courage, valor, fearlessness, determination, bravery.
Cowardice
is cowardice, indecisiveness. In what situations does a person show courage or cowardice? In extreme situations (in war, during natural disasters and catastrophes) In peaceful life (in relationships with other people, in defending views, ideals, in love) Quite often we come across examples of courage shown in extreme situations: in war, in time of catastrophes, natural disasters, in a critical situation when someone needs help and protection. Then a person, without thinking about his own life, rushes to save someone who is in trouble.
However, you can be brave or cowardly not only in such moments; in everyday life there is also a place for such concepts as courage and cowardice.
How will courage be manifested in everyday life? Do you need to be brave every day? What does fear push a person to do? How are fear and betrayal related? Is it possible to attribute to “time” the fact that a person commits a cowardly and vile act? makes his reader think about these questions in his story “The House on the Embankment . Glebov, the main character of the story, grew up in a poor family, all his life he strived to become one of the people, to overcome the inferiority complex that formed in his childhood, spent in the neighborhood of the famous “House on the Embankment”, next to the children of the Soviet elite: party workers and professors. The main character puts his well-being above all else, therefore, when fate confronts him with a choice: at a meeting to speak in defense of his future father-in-law, Professor Ganchuk, or to slander him by supporting the campaign launched against him, Glebov does not know what to do. On the one hand, he is held together by family ties and conscientiousness: he is Ganchuk’s future son-in-law and has seen only good things from this family, the professor himself has repeatedly assisted Glebov, and the hero cannot betray his scientific supervisor. On the other hand, at stake is the Griboyedov scholarship promised to him, which opens all doors and gives prospects for career growth. Glebov’s father was a cautious, frightened man who saw some hidden dangers even in his son’s harmless friendship with children from party families. Caution in itself is not cowardice, but a principle instilled in childhood in the form of a joke: “My children, follow the tram rule - keep your head down!” - bears fruit in Glebov’s adult life. At a critical moment, when Ganchuk needs help, Glebov goes into the shadows. Some demand that he support the professor, others demand that he denounce him. Ganchuk’s friends appeal to Glebov’s conscience and nobility, they say that an honest person simply cannot do otherwise, has no right, while in the academic department the hero is promised a Griboyedov scholarship and career advancement. Only one thing is required from Glebov - a decision about who he is with, and he just cannot decide: “Glebov was one of a special breed of heroes: he was ready to stagnate at a crossroads until the last opportunity, until that final second when they fall dead from exhaustion. The hero is a waiter, the hero is a rubber puller. One of those who do not decide on anything themselves, but leave it to the horse to decide.” Why can’t the hero make a decision that would seem obvious to an honest person? It’s not so much a matter of reluctance to miss potential opportunities, says Yu. Trifonov, but rather fear: “What was there to be afraid of at that time of stupid-eyed youth? Impossible to understand, impossible to explain. In thirty years you won't get anywhere. But a skeleton emerges... They rolled the barrel towards Ganchuk. And nothing else. Absolutely nothing! And there was fear - completely insignificant, blind, formless, like a creature born in the dark underground - fear of unknown things, to act contrary, to stand in defiance.” Glebov unconsciously follows the same paternal principle of “keep your head down.” He wants to “come and keep silent” in order to preserve relations with the Ganchuks as much as possible and not block his path “forward and upward.”
“Why are you silent, Dima?” - the main question asked of Glebov.
The “waiting hero” wants to delay the moment of making a decision with all his might, he waits for the situation to somehow resolve itself, dreams of a heart attack or loss of consciousness, which would save him from the need to speak out, make a decision and bear responsibility for his choice. The death of his grandmother saves Glebov from having to attend the meeting, however, despite the fact that he did not denounce Ganchuk, his cowardice and cowardly silence are betrayal and complicity in a crime. “Yes, if in front of your eyes a person is attacked and robbed in the middle of the street, and you, a passer-by, are asked for a handkerchief to shut up the victim’s mouth... Who are you, the question arises? Accidental witness or accomplice? - Kuno Ivanovich, a friend of the Ganchuk family, denounces Glebov on the eve of the meeting. Cowardice and cowardice push Glebov to betrayal. “Sometimes silence can kill one’s own,” says Kuno Ivanovich before the meeting. Glebov will have to suffer from memories of his cowardly act, the betrayal of his teacher, throughout his life. A reminder of him will be a recurring dream about crosses, medals and orders, Glebov’s “thirty pieces of silver”, which he, trying not to rattle, sorts through in a monpensier box. Glebov wants to relieve himself of responsibility for the fact that he did not find the strength to stand up in front of everyone and tell the truth, for being a coward, so he calms himself with the phrase: “It is not Glebov’s fault and not the people, but the times.” However, according to the author, the responsibility lies entirely with the individual. After all, finding himself in exactly the same situation as Glebov, Professor Ganchuk behaves differently: he defends his colleague, his student Asturgus, even though professionally he disagrees with him in many respects. “When people are undeservedly humiliated, he cannot stand aside and remain silent,” the author writes about Professor Ganchuk. “He will fight for others like a lion, go anywhere, fight anyone. So he fought for this insignificant Asturg,” says Kuno Ivanovich about him. It is also important that it was by actively defending his student that Professor Ganchuk brought disaster upon himself. This means, Yu. Trifonov concludes, it’s not a matter of “times”, but a choice that everyone makes for themselves. It cannot be said that Glebov commits betrayal only because he is a cold pragmatist, a calculating and unprincipled person, as Yulia Mikhailovna, Ganchuk’s wife, says about him (“... an intelligent man, but his mind is icy, useless, inhuman, it is a mind for himself "), because betrayal is not easy for him; he suffers from the realization of what he has done for many years. Glebov is a coward and a conformist who did not find the strength to “act contrary, stand in defiance.” Even in everyday life, sometimes a person is faced with situations in which fearlessness is required from him, for example, the courage to raise a voice, go against everyone, or protect the weak. This everyday, everyday courage is no less important than courage on the battlefield. It is this that allows a person to remain human, to respect himself and to command the respect of others.
Aphorisms and sayings of famous people
When you are afraid, act boldly and you will avoid worse troubles. (G. Sachs) In battle, those most exposed to danger are those who are most obsessed with fear; courage is like a wall. (Sallust) Courage is resistance to fear, not the absence of it. (M. Twain) Frightened - half defeated. (A.V. Suvorov) A person fears only what he does not know; knowledge conquers all fear. (V.G. Belinsky) A coward is more dangerous than any other person, he should be feared most of all. (L. Berne) There is nothing worse than fear itself. (F. Bacon) Cowards die many times before death, the brave die only once. (W. Shakespeare) Cowardice is very harmful because it keeps the will from useful actions. (R. Descartes) Cowardice in its heyday turns into cruelty. (G. Ibsen) You can never live happily when you are always trembling with fear. (P. Holbach) You cannot love either the one you fear or the one who fears you. (Cicero) To be afraid of love is to be afraid of life, and to be afraid of life is to be two-thirds dead. (B. Russell)
What questions are worth thinking about?
What does it mean to be brave in everyday life? What does cowardice push a person to do? How is fear related to dishonor? What actions can be called courageous? What is the difference between arrogance and courage? Who can be called a coward? Is it possible to cultivate courage in yourself? What are the causes of fear? Can a brave person be afraid of anything? What is the difference between fear and cowardice? Why is it important to have courage when making decisions? Why are people afraid to express their opinions? Why does creativity require courage? Do you need courage in love? Can a coward be happy?
List of recommended works:
A. S. Pushkin “The Captain’s Daughter” M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The Wise Minnow” L. N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”, “Sevastopol Stories” A. P. Chekhov “Man in a Case”, “About Love” M. A. Bulgakov “The White Guard”, “The Master and Margarita” M. Gorky “Old Woman Izergil” (the legend of Danko) V. Bykov “Sotnikov” M. Sholokhov “The Fate of a Man” K. Vorobyov “Killed near Moscow” B. Vasiliev “And the dawns here are quiet”, “Not on the lists” V. Rasputin “Live and Remember” Y. Trifonov “House on the Embankment” Related links: Final essay: “Goals and Means” - 11/09/2017 Final essay: “ Indifference and responsiveness" - 11/01/2017 Essay-2018: "Loyalty and betrayal" - 10/30/2017 11/21/2017
Fear has big eyes
All people and animals experience it. This is the essence of human consciousness. In unexpected situations, people are driven by the instinct of self-preservation. Fear is something that really exists. If a person is on an airplane that begins to shake, the appearance of a feeling of fear is quite normal, but if panic appears even at the thought of turbulence, this is already panic timidity, cowardice.
In emergency situations, the hormone adrenaline is released into the human body. It creates a feeling of confusion and slight panic. This is the feeling that a person has in a specific extreme situation. A person can control it, suppress it, although this is difficult and depends entirely on the level of danger.
Fear is caused by a sense of self-preservation
Bravery and cowardice
The concepts of courage and cowardice are not opposites; some philosophers believe that they occupy fundamentally different positions in ethics: the actions of a brave person go beyond what should be done, while cowardice is manifested in failure to perform
debt. People who fail to show courage are not necessarily cowards - they may simply be doing what they have to do.[3] As K. Walsh notes, in everyday speech, the use of the epithet “brave” in relation to some people in a group usually excludes the use of “cowardly” in relation to the rest of the same group and vice versa: in the context of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, those firefighters and police officers who did not went to the World Trade Center buildings are not considered cowards, this is what allows those who went to the towers to be considered brave [20].
Cowardice and fear: common and different features
What is the difference between fear and cowardice? Fear is a physiological concept. A person experiences a feeling of fear in an extreme situation when adrenaline is released into the body. The feeling of fear is caused by real things. Cowardice is a psychological concept. A cowardly person is afraid of what might happen or what has happened to others. He is afraid of possible danger.
The foundation of cowardice is fear, which grows to global proportions due to a weak psyche and active imagination.
Cowardice is uncontrollable, so it can push a person to commit acts that are condemned by society. Fear is controlled by man himself.
You can fight both fear and fear of cowardice, the main thing is to adhere to a certain algorithm and system.
Cowardice and natural selection
The influence of cowardice on natural selection has occupied evolutionary biologists since Darwin, who noted that the instinct of self-preservation is very common - many cowards consider themselves brave simply because they have never looked an enemy in the face. The mechanism of evolutionary preservation of cowardice, as a manifestation of one of the most basic instincts, is obvious: avoidance of danger increases the likelihood of survival and reproduction, and therefore should be genetically predominant [15]. The question of the evolutionary conservation of courage is more complex, since persistence in the face of danger results in the loss of genetic material. Researchers have proposed several mechanisms for the evolutionary preservation of courage, for example, protecting children and blood relatives may increase the chances of preserving one's genetic material (cf. the work of W. D. Hamilton).
Darwin offered another explanation for the loss of genetic material in the case of cowardice: a brave tribe can defeat a cowardly one by eliminating or diluting the latter's heredity. A. V. Horwitz offers[15] his explanation: cowardice is a natural character trait, but social norms force men to overcome it, especially in a war situation[15]. P. Rubin (English)Russian[16] combines both approaches: "no (surviving) society encourages behavior that weakens the ability to fight", in particular, all cultures condemn cowardice among young men. There are two known examples of tribes that do not stigmatize cowardice (and, as a result, are afraid of everything): Bukhids (English) Russian. in the Philippines and Semai[remove template] in Malaysia. K. Walsh notes that the small number of such groups of people emphasizes that cowardice is not the best way to survive [17] and notes the work of evolutionary biologists who explain the noisy reactions of many animal species (for example, squirrels) in case of danger by natural selection - although the noisy behavior of one individual increases the risk for it, the chances of survival of the group increase[18]. Walsh believes that differentiation in response to danger, noticeable even in aphids, indicates that some mixture of cowardice and courage is necessary for the survival of a species in its population [19].
Practical recommendations for combating fear and cowardice
The main problem in the fight against cowardice is that a person can control it only before the attack occurs. An algorithm of actions has been developed for this:
- Motivate yourself. To do this, on a piece of paper you need to write a list of those things that you are losing while you are ruled by weakness. A coward will never make his dream come true and will not be able to protect himself and his loved ones in case of danger. After this, motivation will appear. You also need to make a list of 30 points that describe what a person will gain when he overcomes panic fear.
- Study yourself and try to understand the reason for your cowardice, convince yourself that it is interfering with your life.
- Don't sit in front of the TV. An endless stream of information forces the brain to work in rush mode, which throws the nervous system out of balance. It's better to read a book or take a walk in the fresh air.
- Keep yourself busy. Remember what you love to do most. What brings you pleasure? Get busy with this.
- Model your body. This will give you confidence, raise your self-esteem, and your fears will go away on their own.
- Set yourself a goal: stop scolding yourself and hating yourself for your own cowardice. Having achieved it, move on to control your feelings. Create a personal code of courage and follow it.
The fight against cowardice is similar to training, where systematic and methodical behavior is also important. Look fear in the eye and begin a methodical fight against it.
What is cowardice
Cowardice is a character trait, a personality trait, or a characteristic of behavior. Cowardice means a lack of mental strength, a manifestation of cowardice. Some are brave, and some are not, but this does not mean that someone who is not brave is immediately a coward. The word “cowardice” certainly has a negative connotation.
The famous phrase uttered by Semyon Semyonich Gorbunkov in Gaidai’s immortal comedy: “I’m not a coward! But I’m afraid” is a completely meaningless funny pun.
Fear and cowardice are related concepts, but not identical. Fear is the engine of the mechanism of cowardice, but not everyone becomes a coward as a result of fear. The difference lies in the behavior of the person experiencing fear. For example, you refuse what you consider to be a risk because you are afraid. Let it be a jump into the river. Well, you didn’t want to, the water is kind of muddy, and the current may be deep, you never know. It's your right, and it doesn't make you a coward. And if, suppose, you saw a child drowning in the river. And so, if, despite the muddy water and unknown current, you jump and try to save the child, you are a brave man, and if not, you are a coward. The question turns out to be whether you know how to overcome your fear in critical situations or not.
Phobias and anxiety disorders, naturally, do not belong here, because they occur due to mental disorders. A person can be a brave man who saves children from fires, a risk-taker who engages in extreme sports, but he can’t stand spiders and falls into a stupor at the sight of a tiny eight-legged “monster.” The characteristic “cowardice” would be inappropriate here.
In society, we can observe an extremely negative attitude towards a person who has acquired a reputation as a coward, not at all as lenient as towards someone who is simply considered overly cautious and fearful. The difference is that a coward is capable of betraying by succumbing to his fear. We are not talking here about the instinct of self-preservation, and betrayal in the face of a real threat to life. Although we know very well that there are people who are heroes (despite what happened to their psyche and what motivated them), who died from torture without betraying “their own.”
Even without taking into account individuals who are unique in their courage, an ordinary person has some “boundaries” to which he allows his fear to expand, but beyond which he does not allow him to cross.
A coward does not have these boundaries, and all his actions (or inactions) are driven by fear, even if someone gets hurt because of it. In criminology there is a term “criminal negligence”, so here it is the same: if fear led to betrayal, loss, damage, crime - then this is cowardice.
