In the last episode of mainstream culture’s fixation on cowardly behavioral advocacy, the collusive consensus of infotainment continued to pander to an array of communal wussification. Ever stop to wonder why less than 10% of the U.S. population volunteer to serve their country or community? Think about those in the U.S. military or first responders, particularly law enforcement personnel. In one survey recently nearly 70% said they would not "fight for their country". Meanwhile, think about those who volunteer to serve in some aspect of public safety services. Regardless, multifaceted institutional collusions span the societal spectrum with incessant commercialization of nearly everything consumable. As pointed out by one historic and contemporary “think tank”, the erosion of truth permeates social media in ever-increasing disingenuous assertions. Reflecting on the conceptual framework of fraud and fakery, the discourse suggests a “decomposition of the facts” rife throughout American society.

     By contrast, in the real sciences, such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, and physics, to name a few, scientific authenticity remains in constant flux as it seeks to establish substantive validity. What is the scientific evidence to prove the reality of evidentiary substantiation? And, as some scientists from that organically natural realm will attest, nothing is absolute. The challenge to the criticality of reality is found in the pseudosciences, or the liberal arts, the humanities, or the so-called “social studies arena”. These areas of study include such entraining programs of study as criminology, psychology, sociology, and theology. In their metaphysical adventures, scientific authenticity is profoundly elusive. There is no hard-core science to be found, only ideological exploitations of one philosophical school of thought or another. To this conjecture, the plethora of specious notions, rooted in the redundancy of opinion and anecdotal repetition, remains stubbornly predisposed to simplistic superficiality.

     In modern culture, reinforced by the greedy carnality of malevolent materiality, the amative satiation reflects the advertising and mass marketing gluttony. Incessantly, the spew of a “snake oil salesman” atmosphere, fostering a societal cowardice, believes in magical thinking and quick fixes rather than genuine visionary solutions, turning the landscape into a landfill of idiotic assertions. The cowardice of culture is evident in advertising, academia, business, government, and mainstream culture across a wide expanse of human interaction. And for those who ought to know better, in academia for instance, “career cowardice” is rampant.

     In one lecture series from the diverse realms of philosophical adventure, a discourse on the issue of “obsessions with safety” promotes a perspective that laments a society filled with cowardly behaviors. An age of cowards, so describes the foregoing admonishment. High anxiety and fear, retrenchment from the unknown, and a failure to accept a life’s quest display no homage to a culture bent on avoiding risks at every option. Safety, comfort, and the ease of gluttonous consumerism paint a portrait of a lazy, regressive societal atmosphere. Complacency, willful and persistent, pervades communal consensus for advocacy of a maladaptive status quo. In irony, as well as hypocrisy about individual freedom, manufactured consent favors the glorification of weakness. Awed by the abject cultivation of fearfulness in herded enclaves of political correctness and malevolence, a few assume advantage to terrorize the many.

     Of this conjecture, there are different types of predators who savor the tasty morsels of lambchops from the flocks to be shorn. While complicity enjoys the company of co-conspirators, the pillagers wear many disguises. For them, their pathology of wealth and power and influence slithers throughout numerous societal institutions. Simply, they are everywhere, like the new “robber barons” of big tech, social media, and the puppeteers of infotainment. As to pundits, politicians, and dogmatic partisans, many masks conceal the plots, schemes, and scams. To live more dangerously, independently and self-reliant, taking risks and being defiant, are matters of individual courage that frighten the herded collective. Abnormality, uniqueness, and special eccentricity scare not only the herded horde, but the predatory wolfen packs as well. From those few, the valiant ones seeking their differentiation, the sheep dogs emerge.

     Where career cowardice stifles the creative eccentricity of the collegiate realms, spinelessness corrupts the processes of government. In reflection on that point, one cultural commentator offered that a characteristic most admired is that of valor. In any person who stands up for an authentic ethical precept, bravery is appreciated. Courage, as suggested in that historical reference, is that singular quality of fearless resolution to do the right thing in active engagement. From that, is the inner illumination of ‘anima’, the embracing of the balance between the feminine and the masculine depths within individual mindfulness. While societal cowardice seems overwhelming, the stories of a valiant few remind us that individual resilience and moral courage can inspire collective strength and change. A decade ago, a business writer for a major corporate publication wrote about the failures of leadership in the world of commercial enterprises. Very often in organizational settings, cowards hide behind dismissive rhetoric as leadership vanishes.

     Hubris and hypocrisy know no boundaries. In the disguise of calling for “courageous leadership”, it is more or less a faint-hearted cry for inglorious self-serving validation. For the sake of reality, such disingenuous spew is shallow and artificial. Typically, what is frequently discovered is that the bio-sketch of the alleged caller to arms has no field experience. Having never led anything or served in command of something, the “bugler” is a replicant to foster bland falsehoods. There is no summoning of courage the sound the charge of the cavalry. Only the chaos and noise of retreat. Weak mimicry parrots an irrelevant scheme of redundancy. Nothing changes by any significant advancement to higher spheres of enlightened illumination. To brandish about the slinging of words like “leader”, “leading”, or “leadership”, degenerates such expressions. And from that silliness of inexperience and inept thoughtlessness come the same personalities who end up teaching about such notions. As a result, the status quo profanes the essence of heroism.

     Meanwhile, in the primordial blur of human nature, for the majority who are less evolved than a valiant few, the backstabbing negativity finds convenient targets. Evading innovative strategies in diligent expenditure of productive energies, a commitment to hard work stagnates. Giving up, avoiding hard choices, and evading bluntly brutal discussions castrates or otherwise neuters the vital essence of creativity. As one manager admonished a staff meeting to “be kind but honest,” it left some wondering as to the moronic implications. Fear of offending portrays a gutless perspective of communal subservience. Brazen articulation of authentic credibility, driven by factual data analysis, is often precluded in favor of emotional reactivity.

     Sadness is a country and culture bent on its own destruction. In an age of cowardice, the enemy is promoted, and the advocate, on the contrary, is demoted. For satiation, the carnal self-gratification, fear, anxiousness, and personal loathing hide behind masks of fraud. Accepting the condescension of a variety of social bullies, the weak, the timid, and the foolhardy forsake the necessary essence of risky adventures. Creativity languishes while motivation hides. Of poetic flashback, paraphrased for now, cowardice dies more than once. Its cover story is that of incessant redundancy, found so often in the carnival of blogs, vlogs, and podcasts. Also, blurring with persistent noise is the unending blather of foolish marketing. Loud, noisy, and bullying, the constant ad pop ups speak the vulgarity of a society in regression. For a ticking moment in the tock of time passing, social ineptness flashes across the silliness of social media. For awestruck childishness in self-inflicted vulnerability, safe havens pack with frightened children hiding in adult bodies. Infantile narcissism screams its need for self-validation.

     As for the superficial construct of hypocrisy in spewing the falsehoods of self-reliance, freedom, liberation, and independence, the glorification of weakness and vulnerability advocates “victimization.” Yet, for the brave and courageous few, of significant differentiation, daring creativity risks disturbing the status quo. Confronting the dangerousness of others, merely their presence in cowardly ways, burdensome insistence on perseverance. In the postmodern advent of the 21st century, whatever the philosophical viewpoint, heroism is the convenient target of ridicule for those scared of their shadows. And more than one exists, the lurking shades of reflective personalities that provoke weaknesses. Not to resist at any moment, regardless of context or circumstance, without a mature, logical standpoint of reason, modern culture mirrors the depth of spinelessness. Resist much, obey little are echoes from the past. Where are the leaders?

     Surrounded by timidity at every angle, in every curve and passage, are detractors, both enemies and allies in varying degrees. To stand alone is to endanger the very stability of entrenchment by which liberation succumbs to tyranny. For one writer in a national publication, an analysis of America’s culture of cowardice suggests the poetic reflection that the center cannot hold as things fall apart. Alluding to the reasonable ones, those who know better, yet they do nothing to take a stand. With passion, creativity, and boldness to assert well-differentiated distinctions of personal liberation, the calamity of disintegration looms near. Hastening the final episode of species extinction, hate mongers glorify in their political correctness and nonstop need to be offended. In such ensuing tumult, as one lecture on “obsession with safety” asserts, the framework invites the tyranny of commonality and the oppression of reality.

     Observing the collegiate domain of protected self-validation, at the same time subservience to contrived consensus or the irrelevance of peer review, the insular mediocrity of wimpiness finds many sheepish adherents. Hypocrisy, hiding behind alleged academic freedom, underscores a not-so-untypical environment of the aforementioned smug piety ensconced in “tenured wimpiness.” Mentioned earlier as a perceptive conjecture of career cowardice, numerous examples persist in a realm of wussy organizational dependency. An urban dictionary, for instance, comments on the growing wimp factor from the classroom to the meeting room. Some suggest America in the 21st century is in the early stages of a regressive American wussification. More poignant insight points an accusatory finger at the majority of the male population. Generally, the storytelling, depending on ideological doctrines, centers on developing exceptional psycho-physical levels of fitness beyond childish self-gratification. Wimpiness hides behind electronic devices.

     Instead of engaging in prosocial activities, such as sports, hobbies or craftmanship, the martial arts, and so on, infantile mental masturbatory satiation is found  in sedentary vicariousness. Exerting oneself on a daily basis in diverse means of personal creativity signifies a society in decline. One author laments the looming crisis of a culture gone soft, fat, lazy and intentionally stupefied. Easily offended, quick emotional reactivity absent profound logical analysis, and woefully “victimized” by child-like selfishness, American culture hastens its demise. With a lack of courageous leadership examples, particularly on the national scene, wussified manifestations take the place of real heroes who stand up for themselves. For some, the U.S. has become a “sissy nation”. Fierce self-reliance in determined independence, as opposed to codependence, extraordinary creativity, and courageous individuality fade and suffer the viciousness of divisive cowardice. Stupidity embraces cowardice as the commonality of pretentious normalcy.

     In an era of “victimhood”, where carnality relishes in being offended by everything, whining malcontents usually achieve and inequitable advantage over the braver few. Coddling fear as the panacea of botched valor in the face of obstacles is quickly rewarded. As suggested by one ideological framework, in a series of lectures on personal independence, developing courage is a skillset that can be eventually mastered. Resiliently confronting counterproductive emotionalism is a starting posture for audacious self-sufficiency. Insisting upon asserting the never-to-be-daring requires strenuous exertion. Such dynamic motion of psychophysical potency does not fear the necessity of mature differentiation. For the gutsy adherent of braver prospects, redirecting emotional conflict toward for the gallantry of fearlessness is act of bravery.

     As opposed to heroic ideals and acts of valor, a media-obsessed culture invokes the mythic illusions of fearful devolution. In one survey, for example, most American fears center on perceptions of high-level corruption, terrorism, financial ruin, and personal victimization. However, that is as far as surveys go; the issue of fear seems to be widespread. A fearful culture is a dangerous culture. From a seasoned observational perspective, a study of “people’s opinions” is not extraordinary proof of scientific validation by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, in the “social studies arena,” such efforts give pseudoscientists something to do. Doing alleged research in the softer realms of academia ensures some semblance of career development. As to the survey alluded to, an alleged “fear study,” approximately 1511 people were interviewed. That represents roughly just a whole bunch of zeros past the decimal point, nowhere near 1%. Such conjecture invites a long list of interrogatories and essentially nothing to use as evidence.

     Nonetheless, it is not only a useful talking point for whatever discussion might be of interest, but also another anecdote to bolster academic justification. For the rest of the 99.99% of the American population, given every possible locale, background, education, and experience, etc., who knows how they feel? Down deep, what is the totality of a person's thinking? Beyond the egoistic inclinations to embellish in a survey, depending on how the questions and the interviewer conduct the process, what is the level of authenticity? No one has any singular or even multiple notions as to what someone else is seriously thinking. This of course does not dissuade the investigator from attempting to understand why there is a sense of American cultural cowardice. A query of sorts ponders a notion from another effort at analysis. From a national magazine, an author considers the social reactivity to the pandering of fear by social media. In close proximity is the 24/7 perpetuation of fear by the mainstream media.

     Well-established throughout history is the propagandists’ use of gross exaggeration in order to engender a widespread communal sense of anxiety. To extrapolate upon the oversimplification of hasty generalizations, based upon fallacies of inference, contrived consensus becomes possible. Mainstream media, or corporate infotainment, is about making money, selling products, promoting suited talking heads as celebrities, and maintaining market share. Marketeering seldom misses an opportunity to manipulate the latest “breaking story” or scroll the death toll in social pandemic. Fear mongering is sinister, as the constant bombardment blares the incessant proclivity to announce the next danger. To manufacture, or otherwise encourage a crisis, is to set the stage for power, control, and dominance of a few over the many.

     For all those ideological protestations in self-flagellation, the cunningly skillful manipulation of information, where fiction trumps facts, assists in the devolution of human potentiality. As such, an underlying specter is that of promoting gutless behaviors. watch any currently running TV show, or movie production from mainstream entertainment, and notice the portrayals of women and men of all ages. Heroic images are seldom portrayed, particularly among the males. In contemporary storytelling the slant is toward weakness, incompetence, childish antics, and codependence. In one lament, a writer discusses the growing appearing of boring movie and television productions. From a contemporary magazine covering arts and entertainment, the commentator addresses issues relating to “cancel culture” and subsequent production of dreary, uninspiring and overly simplistic storytelling. Through various social media, movie and tv viewers complain about the serious lack of creativity and promotion of stale redundancy.

     What is fascinatingly entertaining is the levels and degrees of cowardice. There is personal cowardice, for whatever reason, that permeates thinking. Applied to the real world, the spinelessness of timidity purposefully dulls and diminishes cognitive capacity. Intentions cascade across the political and socioeconomic trajectory of every human interaction, from organizational and institutional cowardice to recreational venues of every sort. Individual discernment of the mask's superficiality and condescension is essential to evolving personal liberty. Recognizing the motivational aspects as premeditated and intentional provides early warning for countermeasures. Cowardice comes in all shapes and sizes and possesses many faces. In the reach of hedonistic calculus, the instigation of "moral softness" chooses the comfort of a painless existence. By contrast, the courage to self-evolve and stand up for oneself is painful. Being self-reliant in the pursuit of virtuous thoughts and actions invite strenuous and tiresome efforts.

     In what might be described as child-like emotional reactivity, major streaming services are becoming increasingly prone to promote commerce over creativity. As a cynical affront to innovative and unique departures from the status quo, the regressive inclination is toward the denigration of individuality in favor of collective mediocrity. The realms of arts and entertainment, as well as the spheres of academia are particularly pointed out, yet every institution is influenced by a diversity of cowardly behaviors. Of this spectrum, storytelling in the arts and entertainment domain, and higher education, ought to be provinces of bold, imaginative, and daring exposure to the heroic pursuits of mature enlightened ascendency. Warrior adventures in self-evolution, the hero’s quest for inner revelation, regardless of writer or director politics, remains a journey of prodigal yet transforming adventure. Likewise, academia could serve to translate the artistic inspirations into a range of productive personal ingenuity and psychic discovery.

     As one article in reference to a culture of cowardice alludes, those who are too afraid to encounter a diversity of ideas, viewpoints, opinions, etc., and seek to silence them, are “cowards and bullies”. From streaming media moguls, to politicians, and talking head news media, the template of cowardice rages over the bottom-line of the balance sheet. Like cultural gangsters, a few desire to stifle many others who challenge their “world view”. Frightened by their lack of experience, knowledge, authenticity, and personal ingenuity, they exhibit a variety of spineless behaviors. At their core, they are bullies and are too intimidated by their own ineptitude to engage in the serious reality of the real world. A so-called “woke mentality” is that of an unevolving child-adult, who embraces a cowardice of culture for collective consensus.