Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner: A Profile in Un-Courage

I had the misfortune of seeing the ESPY's last night. I normally eschew award shows entirely, and the ESPY's were a good reason why - decidedly unfunny jokes being made en route to honoring things and people I could care less about, typically leftists honoring other leftists. That theme seemed to be decidedly at play, with the host at the very beginning sounding off on "jokes" covering every SJW theme under the sun.

The Jenner segment was surreal. I won't go into detail about the leftist inquisition, the increasing propaganda surrounding transgenderism, and the use of transgenderism as a control mechanism. Instead, I will simply say a few words about the nature of courage, and why Jenner is decidedly not courageous and undeserving of an award ostensibly centered around courage.

To be courageous is to go forward in the face of fear, to willingly take on a losing battle or long odds, to face real danger and willingly embrace that danger. This exchange between Ideomeneus and Meriones in Book 13 of the Iliad speaks strongly to the nature of courage (the bolded is my emphasis):

 "Meriones, son of Molus, best of comrades, why have you left the field? Are you wounded, and is the point of the weapon hurting you? or have you been sent to fetch me? I want no fetching; I had far rather fight than stay in my tent."

"Idomeneus," answered Meriones, "I come for a spear, if I can find one in my tent; I have broken the one I had, in throwing it at the shield of Deiphobus."

And Idomeneus captain of the Cretans answered, "You will find one spear, or twenty if you so please, standing up against the end wall of my tent. I have taken them from Trojans whom I have killed, for I am not one to keep my enemy at arm's length; therefore I have spears, bossed shields, helmets, and burnished corslets."

Then Meriones said, "I too in my tent and at my ship have spoils taken from the Trojans, but they are not at hand. I have been at all times valorous, and wherever there has been hard fighting have held my own among the foremost. There may be those among the Achaeans who do not know how I fight, but you know it well enough yourself."

Idomeneus answered, "I know you for a brave man: you need not tell me. If the best men at the ships were being chosen to go on an ambush- and there is nothing like this for showing what a man is made of; it comes out then who is cowardly and who brave; the coward will change colour at every touch and turn; he is full of fears, and keeps shifting his weight first on one knee and then on the other; his heart beats fast as he thinks of death, and one can hear the chattering of his teeth; whereas the brave man will not change colour nor be on finding himself in ambush, but is all the time longing to go into action- if the best men were being chosen for such a service, no one could make light of your courage nor feats of arms. If you were struck by a dart or smitten in close combat, it would not be from behind, in your neck nor back, but the weapon would hit you in the chest or belly as you were pressing forward to a place in the front ranks. But let us no longer stay here talking like children, lest we be ill spoken of; go, fetch your spear from the tent at once."

No matter what way you want to dice it, Jenner's "transition" was not courageous, mainly because of one thing - the entire establishment was behind it. The establishment was so much behind it, in fact, that the President of the United States got involved, tweeting out his support. The leftist establishment, and its shell of SJW electrons orbiting in the cloud of social media, was ready and eager to denounce anyone so much as questioning Jenner or transgenderism and deliver terrible repercussions to the offenders. If you were not 100% celebratory of this, you were a bigot that needed to be destroyed, period.

You can say whatever you want to about Jenner. You can celebrate this or you can denounce it, but you can't tell me that Jenner's transition was "courageous," much less deserving an award for courage. Jenner did not have the enemy at less than arms' length. He/she did not risk life and limb to go into an ambush alongside the best men. He/she did not hold out against and weather the storm in the face of great danger and hard fighting. Jenner's antics are occurring in a politically correct inquisitorial atmosphere that will support whatever he/she does and destroy any naysayer or enemy. It hardly takes courage to do something that is in complete lock-step with the prevailing orthodoxy of the day. Jenner is no Giordano Bruno or Galileo.

If Jenner had done this ten years ago, it might qualify as an act of courage, no matter what else anyone wants to think about it. Ten years ago, this would have been looked on as freakish and laughable. Certainly, the entire establishment wasn't behind it, and there were no SJW lynch mobs actively campaigning against dissenters. Jenner would have had to weather a storm of humiliation and mockery far worse than now.

Granted, that probably wouldn't have been a good thing, but neither is the sacred cow that's been created now. Point being - Jenner would have needed to fight in the face of the storm then. He/she does not now. The wind is actively at Jenner's back, and it now takes more courage to stand in the opposite direction. The Arthur Ashe award for courage going to Jenner was nothing more than a status whoring publicity stunt in furtherance of the leftist narrative, pure and simple.

So while the leftists have one more reason to feeeeel good about themselves while truly doing nothing, we ought not to forget the true nature of courage. Courage is arming with the soldiers and going to battle to face an overwhelming enemy (literally or figuratively for any pedants out there). Jenner's "transition" was nothing of the sort.

And so that it does not go unsaid, the exact same scenario was the case last year with Michael Sam.

In closing, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll present many pictures betraying what people at the ESPY's really felt deep down about this, including Jenner's own family.