I have often been quoted that to be brave does not mean you are stupid. That means that you should not take unnecessary risks, but fight for what is right. When there is a cause worth fighting, you must be willing to your life on the line. Freedom demands nothing less then full courage in our fight for it. To be courageous means that you fight for what is right.
Religion often talks about courage. In Christian churches during the season of Lent we talk about the story of Jesus who fought for his beliefs and ultimately was crucified by the Romans for his religion. We talk about how his suffering not only cleaned us from sin, but how our own suffering often makes us stronger as individuals. To quote Romans 5:1-5:7:
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; in perseverance, character; in character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right, when we where still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
These words from the bible represent what courage should mean today. It should be about fighting for what is right, regardless if we can win or not. We must believe in what is right, and use peaceful political change to obtain those means. Sometimes it’s not easy or will not happen over night, but regardless it will create greater perseverance in us as individuals. As the bible states: in perseverance, character is created, and in character we get hope for a better tomorrow.
It is so important to have courage and speak against social injustice. It might mean you end up being crucified at the end of the day, but it also may mean you gain more character and hope for a better world around us. Real courage is about taking a stand, fighting for what is right, regardless of the real personal cost. Any cost ultimately is off set by gains in character. Remember, that these costs are real and that when you decide to fight that the issue must be real and substantive, and that you are not just being stupid. A courageous person will be respected by others and loved by himself forever.
Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have released estimates that U.S. coal ash contains 11 million tons of rare earth elements. 70% of the coal ash produced from 1985 to 2021—totaling about 1.9 billion tons—is potentially recoverable.
"On the evening of Saturday, July 14, 1962—just days after the first South Mall demolition—WRGB TV, Channel Six, aired a half-hour documentary called The South Mall Project: Hoax or Hope? We found what we think is the only extant copy of the documentary in the papers of Grant Van Patten at University of Albany’s Special Collections department. Grant produced and directed it, and we had the good fortune to interview him at his home in Clifton Park in the summer of 2016. We enjoyed spending time with him and were sorry to learn that he died earlier this year."
But there’s also an incentive towards exuberant narratives and over-confidence deeply embedded in the business model of Silicon Valley. In many ways, Silicon Valley looks less like capitalism and more like a nonprofit. The way you get rich isn’t to sell products to consumers, because you’re likely giving away your product for free, and your customers wouldn’t pay for it if you tried to charge them. If you’re a startup, and not FAANG, the way you pay your bills is to convince someone who’s already rich to give you money. Maybe that’s a venture capital investment, but if you want to get really rich yourself, it’s selling your business to one of the big guys.
You’re not selling a product to a consumer, but selling a story to someone who believes in it, and values it enough to put money towards it. That story of how you can change the world could be true, of course. Plenty of nonprofits have a real and worthwhile impact. But it’s not the same as getting a customer to buy a product at retail. Instead, you’re selling a vision and then a story of how you’ll achieve it. This is the case if you go to a VC, it’s the case if you get a larger firm to buy you, and it’s the case if you’re talking ordinary investors into buying your stock. (Tesla’s stock price is plummeting because Musk’s brand has made Tesla’s brand toxic. But Tesla’s corporate board can’t get rid of him, because investors bought Tesla’s stock—and pumped it to clearly overvalued levels—precisely because they believe in the myth of Musk as a world-historical innovator who will, any day now, unleash the innovations that’ll bring unlimited profits.) (Silicon Valley has, however, given us seemingly unlimited prophets.)
