Dr. Seuss and Philosophy - Jacob M. Held [6]
How much can you lose? How much can you win? (Places)
One major theme of Oh, the Places You’ll Go! is the importance of having courage when facing life’s challenges. In his adventures, the young protagonist of the story faces many dangerous and uncertain situations—unmarked streets; darked windows; confusing, wiggled roads; foul weather; prowling monsters. If he failed to face these problems courageously, to “dare to go in,” he would have missed out on most of his opportunities and adventures. He’s able to succeed and “move mountains” in large part because he dares to go on, take chances, and face his fears.
So what is courage, and how do you get it? Socrates’ main discussion of courage occurs in Plato’s Laches, where Socrates talks to two Athenian generals, Laches and Nicias. Although the dialogue itself is probably fictional, the characters in it were real people: Both generals were well-known Athenian military and political leaders during the long, bloody Peloponnesian War against Sparta in the latter half of the fifth century BCE. As generals, their primary duties included training and rallying soldiers to face death in battle. So if anyone should be able to define or explain courage, it would be them. Socrates begins by asking Laches to explain courage to him. Laches answers confidently: “Good heavens, Socrates, there is no difficulty about that: if a man is willing to remain at his post and to defend himself against the enemy without running away, then you may rest assured that he is a man of courage.”8
What Laches has in mind here is the kind of courage typically required of Greek hoplites (armored foot soldiers) facing an enemy charge. At the time, hoplites typically fought in a tight formation called a phalanx. By fighting close together, they could interlock their shields to form a solid wall of protection, with the spears of men behind projecting over the top. Such a formation made a frontal assault by the enemy difficult—but only if each man held his ground and protected his fellow soldiers! The tight formation could fall apart disastrously if any soldier lost his nerve and ran away. A soldier who did not “remain at his post” and protect his comrades therefore put everyone in his unit in greater danger.
This kind of “remaining at your post” courage is exemplified nicely by the noble elephant Horton in Horton Hatches the Egg. In the story, Mayzie (the lazy bird) is bored. She doesn’t want to sit on her nest hatching her egg anymore, so she convinces the kindhearted Horton to give her a break, and he agrees to sit on the egg for her. However, she immediately flies off on vacation to Palm Beach, leaving poor Horton alone on the nest, sitting on her egg (for months, apparently). But Horton refuses to give up, enduring thunder, rain, ice, and even mockery from the other animals as he remains at his post and keeps his word. Eventually, Horton is even threatened by hunters, who aim rifles straight at his heart! But “did he run? / He did not! / HORTON STAYED ON THAT NEST! / He held his head high / And threw out his chest / And he looked at the hunters / As much as to say: / ‘Shoot if you must / But I won’t run away! / I meant what I said / And I said what I meant. . . . /
An elephant’s faithful / One hundred per cent!’” (Hatches). The hunters are amused and decide to take Horton back home as a circus exhibit rather than shooting him. Horton’s courage and faithfulness make the story’s happy ending possible: If he had run away, he would not only have abandoned the egg and his duty but also put himself in greater danger.
Remaining at your post, therefore, is sometimes very courageous indeed. But as Socrates points out, Laches’ definition covers only one type of courageous action. What about when military units perform other tactical maneuvers, such as a feigned retreat to draw the enemy in for a counterattack? What about the tactics of cavalry units, which swoop in for quick strikes and withdraw before they can be hemmed in?9 What about the courage shown by an army