Dialectics: Foolishness and Bravery

In order to be brave, one must take a certain amount of unnecessary risk. If you don't take risk, then what is there to be brave and courageous about. When you don't take risk, then you live life without excitement because we all get excited and enjoy and remember the times when we took risks, not the times when we lived safely. But then what is foolishness? Isn't foolishness when you do or act in a stupid way? So foolishness would be excess risk or even attempted bravery that failed. Or you could define bravery as foolishness that is acknowledged and accepted by society and those around us.

But not everyone is brave. So there is something that is preventing many from becoming brave, and that is fear. If you fear the risk or see the risk as too great, then you won't take it. This is reason overcoming foolishness. Then do you have to lack reason to be brave? Because with reason, there comes fear of the consequences.

But bravery and courage may not be terms that even apply to modern life. Many times I associate bravery and courage with times in the past. I don't feel that those definitions apply anymore. There is a slightly different association to these words now. They are used more in the sense of overcoming challenges. Foolishness seems to have been taken out of the equation, but it has retained the same definition and associations. What seems to have taken the place of foolishness is fear. You fear failing at overcoming the challenge, so you must have to the courage and bravery to overcome your fear. When you overcome challenges, you create opportunity. I am sure that we have all seen what happens to people who are too foolish to face their fear and overcome challenges and have limited opportunities before them.