Gladwell- Conquering Courage

In my most recent episode of Silver Linings, I explore the idea that “doing your best is more important than being the best”. This blog will explore more concepts that are discussed in psychology motivation books that promote a positive outlook to navigating a fulfilling and creative life.

This entry explores the courage that we experience when we overcome a fear.

Excerpts are from: Malcolm Gladwell. “David and Goliath.”

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/David-Goliath-Underdogs-Misfits-Battling/dp/0316204374

Chapter 5, Section 2., p.168.

This chapter of the book discusses a moment in history that was believed to send a whole country into psychosis. In the fall of 1940, the Germans were to begin an aerial bombing of London. British politicians projected a near 600,000 dead and 1.2 million wounded. In an attempt to mitigate the crisis, they constructed psychiatric hospitals in the countryside expecting an influx of “psychological casualties’.

After the fifty-seven consecutive nights of bombing, the actual numbers of casualties was dire: 40,000 killed and 46,000 injured.

However, their prediction of people fleeing the city in droves did not come to fruition. In 1940, during the height of bombing, an English psychiatrist drove through a South-East London neighborhood and was shocked to discover a neighborhood that appeared normal; displaying an indifference to forecast that had a hundred percent precipitation of incendiaries and shrapnel.

This phenomenon was later explained by Canadian psychologist, J.T. MacCurdy, who recognized that as the bombs fell, the population would be divided into three sections of experience.

1. People Killed: The unfortunate individuals who were struck by the bombs and died.

2. Near misses: Individuals who survived the bombing, but were severely wounded or maimed. They were extremely traumatized and were likely to suffer from permanent mental trauma.

3. Remote Misses: Individuals who may have been a block away from a bombing, and were lucky to have survived unscathed by the tragic incidents.

MacCurdy said that the morale of the community would be influenced by those who had survived the attack, which meant that the fear of this horrific bombing could not be spread by

those who were killed.

After the Germans “dropped tens of thousands of high-explosive bombs and more than a million incendiary devices” a larger part of the British population fell into the third category, remote miss category.

So with a greater percentage of the population left in the “remote miss category”, what psychology and principles were they spreading to their countrymen and women?

Oddly enough. Self-confidence and courage.

MacCurdy went on to explain that, as humans we are “prone to be afraid of being afraid.” Humans love to be afraid, and we build up the outcomes we are fearful of. However, every bomb that was dropped and did not kill or maim, left individuals with a deep sense of exhilaration. In a passive way, many British people overcame the greatest fear of all, death.

By conquering this fear, the military and country as a whole more was self-confident and courageous. Many historians would go on to argue that the Germans would have been better off to not actually bomb the British, rather let them steep in the fear of being killed.