How Elon Musk is Remaking America in His Own Image & Is Luigi Mangione a Cold-Blooded Murderer or the New Jesse James
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: The author of Don Quixote tells us the importance of courage.
Trump Brushes Off ‘President Musk’ Jabs As Critics Claim Elon Musk Controls Washington After Government Shutdown Fight: Which is the king and which is the jester?
Elon Musk Agrees With Post That Calls Americans ‘Retarded’ Amid MAGA Civil War: How does Musk really feel about the Americans he intends to rule?
Ramaswamy blames US 'mediocrity' culture for tech companies hiring foreign-born engineers: Poor boy had a bad high school experience. Like pretty much everyone else in America.
Kareem’s Video Break: This video is strangely mesmerizing—and funny.
Luigi Mangione: Cold-Blooded Murderer or the New Jesse James: Why America turned a murderer into a folk hero.
Kareem’s Sports Moments: Three of soccer’s most amazing goals.
Ella Fitzgerald Sings “For Once In My Life”: The Queen of Jazz reminds us why she got that nickname.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Spanish author of Don Quixote
Many of us fantasize about the moment when our courage might be tested: Would we run into a burning building to save a stranger? Would we jump into a churning river to rescue a drowning dog? Would we try to stop a burly man manhandling a woman on the street? Many of us never have to face these dramatic scenarios. But we still have to face decisions that require courage daily.
Most people wrestle with the concept of courage their entire lives. It is the one ideal that not only defines how we see ourselves, but it determines the choices we make and the paths we take. We all wish to see ourselves as brave and fear being cowards. People throughout history have risked—and lost—their lives to prove their courage to others and themselves. Oddly, foolish acts of courageousness actually prove the opposite: The person is so afraid of being seen as not having courage that they’d rather be dead. That’s cowardly.
Defining courage—and recognizing it when under urgent pressure to act—is the Gordian Knot that cannot be undone. That’s because our minds can twist and bend and warp reality to persuade us of whatever we need to feel righteous in that moment of indecision.
Some are so obsessed with this conflict that they constantly seek out dangerous ways to prove their courage. They climb tall mountains. They jump out of planes. They see themselves as “adrenalin junkies” addicted to danger. But that drive isn’t courage because it’s born out of the fear of being a coward and the inability to believe you aren’t one unless risking your life.
Yes, it takes courage to do those gnarly things, but it still isn’t courageous. It’s an addiction to being validated. I have seen many acts of courage in my life, including civil rights workers who ventured into the Deep South to register voters and were beaten and murdered for their efforts. That form of courageousness is about risking everything to do something for others’ benefit, even if they never know you did it.
But I learned about another form of courage when I was 13 and it has stayed with me for more than 60 years.
I was 13 when The Magnificent Seven (1960) was released. I knew immediately it was one of the best movies I’d ever seen. And it still is. But what affected me most wasn’t the shootouts, it was a small scene where Charles Bronson plays one of the hired guns who is trying to protect a small Mexican Village from a horde of outlaws. Three young village boys follow him around so they can bury him when he’s killed. When the village men betray the gunfighters they hired out of fear for their families, the three boys tell Bronson why they are angry at their fathers.
Village Boy 2: We're ashamed to live here. Our fathers are...cowards.
[O'Reilly takes the boy over his knee and spanks him]
O'Reilly: [harshly] Don't you ever say that again about your fathers, because they are not cowards! You think I am brave because I carry a gun? Well, your fathers are much braver because they carry responsibility, for you, your brothers, your sisters, and your mothers. And this responsibility is like a big rock that weighs a ton. It bends and it twists them until finally it buries them under the ground. And there's nobody says they have to do this. They do it because they love you, and because they want to. I have never had this kind of courage. Running a farm, working like a mule every day with no guarantee anything will ever come of it. This is bravery. That's why I never even started anything like that...that's why I never will.
Even at 13, when I knew nothing of what it meant to be an adult, let alone a parent, something about that speech rang true. I looked at both my parents with a new appreciation.
Facing the daily grind—because it does indeed grind away at us—with good cheer for the sake of our families is courageous. To love in a world that too often spews hate, to be a loving and supportive parent when so many around don’t even try, that is courageous. To be open to changing your mind when the evidence demands it rather than cowering under the excuse of tradition and the fear of what the neighbors will say, that is courageous.
Every time the alarm clock goes off and someone drags themselves out of bed for the sake of someone else—that is courageous.