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Thanks to governmental regulation (and the corresponding social transformations) our fellow citizens do no more than cower in fear when danger presents itself.

Once again, our culture pronounces that it has all but lost any sense of the courageous and heroic. Better to have a long life as a physically healthy slave than to face danger in the eye and fall with the pride and dignity that most men used to share in.

Ever seen Braveheart? Remember the scene where William Wallace rides out to his countrymen in the seconds before a major battle with the British? They were inclined to flee; they feared a battle with such a powerful and fell enemy. "No, we will run...and live." Wallace, true to form, answers "Ay, you'll live...for a while." The men assembled on that field, when faced with the stark choice, desired to die as free young men rather than live to be old slaves.

Why should we fear death? Why should we fear defeat? Read The Lord of the Rings. One of the most powerful lessons of that book is the story of the Elves, a race noble and wise who have for centuries been fighting a war with evil that they knew they would lose (the Elves must leave Middle-Earth and make way for the Age of Men, a consequence of the folly of some of the Elves when their race was young). Throughout the work they refer to the "Long Defeat," which they fight willingly and ably. Had they done any less, of what quality would they have been? When we avoid such Defeats, long or short, we declare our lives essentially forfeit. He who saves his life because it is his highest value has no reason to live. He lives, but he is naught but a shell. Better a brightly burning spark whose glory and worth lasts for but a moment than an eternal piece of ash.