Whether it may be terrorism, attacks on women or children, deadbeat fathers, or suicide (which actually I don’t get), the statements ‘an act of cowardice’ ‘cowardly act’ or ‘cowards’ are typically used. It seems that society believes acts on ‘defenseless people’ or any decisions that are reject responsibility are condemned.
It’s interesting when it comes to pejoratives that this is always makes people angry and is seen as the lowest of the low. If for example a teacher called a bully; weak, pathetic, low life, they probably would laugh it off, but if coward was used, they would take great offense to it. Why? I’ve always found it hilarious and quite simple, emotional, and primitive to condemn something as cowardly.
Does anyone that suicide terrorists care about taking the ‘cowards way out’ or showing acts of ‘cowardice’ for attacking civilians? Chances are they wouldn’t be doing it if they did. People who say this tend to care more about ‘cowardice’ than the intended individual who is condemned. Not a very intelligent insult to use.
Cowardice is a trait wherein fear and excess self-concern override doing or saying what is right, good, and of help to others or oneself in a time of need— from Wikipedia.
That’s as good a definition as any. In that it probably sucks on close examination.
A sloppy definition, because it claims “self-concern” can override “help to oneself”, which is a built in contrarian. However, the Wikipedia article chooses The Cowardly Lion as an image. Which kinda makes the definition work, if he’d just man up a bit, and eat Dorothy, all his problems would have been solved, 'tho the movie could have been shorter.
The problem we have is people just throw the pejorative around, which is easy to do, since there’s no consensus on the definitions for cultural memes.
I always remember, Susan Sontag thought George Washington was a coward, and the 911 terrorists were brave. I always wonder, those celebrities who call snipers cowards, to widespread acclaim, if they say it to Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s face, and what the audience reaction would be.
I don’t see anything but negative meaning to ‘cowardly’. It ought to be considered an insult if properly applied. I don’t see anything funny about calling a bully a coward. It may be misapplied such as to a conscientious objector to military service if such a person is acting out of a sincere belief.
If you believe your nation or your culture is at risk by an enemy power, and you have no weapons at hand, and you commandeer a weapon from your enemy’s arsenal, and attack a quasi-military target that is essential to the threat you wish to neutralize, and deploy it, knowing that you will be killed in the process, that does not sound like cowardice. It sounds like Mohammed Atta.
Even the Iliad from circa 700 bce talks of the shamefulness of cowardice. Along with the status and glory of acts of bravery. So when you ask, “when did the term evolve?”, it likely comes from before written language existed and therefore we can’t answer the question.
I would posit that nearly every culture from every age places high value on bravery and holds cowards in low standing. Or maybe the cultures that didn’t put high value on bravery all got wiped out by the cultures that bestowed high status on those with a warrior spirit.
Cowardice places one’s own safety over the needs of the group and over the needs of those who depend on one. As such, it is a despicable trait that deserves all the scorn that the word conveys. It is surprising to me that anyone would even ask why it is an insult.
That said, there are often occasions when different actions may be perceived (or described) as cowardly where different people will regard them as cowardly or not. People will argue whether the hijackers of the planes that attacked the WTC and Pentagon for years to come, with each side bringing their own views regarding the acts and the mindsets of the people involved.
That difference regarding the evaluation of any particular act, however, does not change the meaning of cowardice or mitigate the legitimate scorn heaped on cowards.
The OP is half word salad. But what I can decipher the OP has causation backwards.
“Cowardice” is a particularly strong insult. It’s a total condemnation of basic moral character. So when partisans want to condemn something in especially strong terms they trot out “cowardice” even if it has no applicability to whatever actually took place.
But because it evokes such strong and unthinking emotions in the audience, it serves as an excellent way to jump directly from a mature discussion of behaviors and motivations directly to emote-driven unthinking total eyes-screwed-shut hatred. Which of course is useful if one is a demagogue or a cheerleader for a demagogue.
Let’s consider the men under the comman of Lt. Calley in Vietnam. Let’s say, argumentively, that some obeyed his command and some didn’t. Which were the cowards?
I have seen many many situations in life where someone needed help and the great majority would simply walk on by and not want to get involved. If a person had little or no chance of changing the outcome I could forgive it but very often this is not the case. To some extent I could see it if putting oneself at risk could also put his family at risk. Without knowing ones personal circumstances I would never come out and call someone a coward but privately I believe that most people really are. I suspect it is because they have never been exposed to violence and just don’t know how to respond. I don’t really know for sure.
I saw the same thing when I was growing up 50 years ago so it hasn't changed much. My dads generation that went through world war II seemed far more likely to get involved. I have a deathly fear of heights and have no confidence more than 20 yards from shore in deep water. I doubt I could be a hero in these situations, fire I wouldn't know how I would react unless I was faced with it. Physical violence doesn't seem to scare me. I put myself in between a couple of large viscous dogs and some kids, I was scared shitless but held my ground. I guess it gets down to can you get past the fear. If I have no chance of making a difference I doubt I will try unless it is family.
I recently moved. The mover left a pile of boxes in front of my office table; I asked them to move them but they refused. After turning front-to-back the two pieces of furniture they’d left facing the wall and moving the pile of boxes to appropriate rooms, I discovered the table was mis-assembled: it’s supposed to go up and down with a lever and didn’t work, the lever didn’t even fit in.
If the mover had had the cojones to admit “shit, I think I made a mistake”, it would have been a matter of 15 minutes to upturn the table, remove the top, put the legs back up, find a youtube video where you can see that yes, he’d placed the whole axis wrong, put it in the right position and reassemble the top. He would have gotten four stars in his review (hey, I did most of the packing). Instead I had to spend a couple of hours moving the camo boxes, upturn the table on my own, and I filed a complaint with his chamber of commerce. He actually hurt himself - not much, but a little and another little and another little…
And on another order of business, I never met a bully who wasn’t a coward.
If you want a serious answer, and an accurate one, it’s going to be very complicated. The cultural history behind it, alone, will take years of study for you to grasp thoroughly enough to catch the important nuances involved. But the actual definition of coward, is more more involved than the piecemeal ones that have been quoted so far.
Part of it has to do with the intense interdependent nature of most large societies of humans. One “coward” can bring down an entire society. But it also has elements of duplicity to it.
It can be confusing as well, because, as with many human insults (or praise), people are not at all consistent about using the term. In fact, a lot of the time, the term “coward” is used, entirely because it IS insulting, and actually has no relationship at all to what the labeled person has done.
In political circumstances especially, you will often see very brave people, who defy authorities that are vastly more powerful and more threatening than they are, being labeled cowards by their opponents. This isn’t because they ran away from anything, it is because their opponents want to trigger the disgust associated with the coward label, in the minds of anyone listening.
You can observe people who are NOT labeled cowards, doing the exact same thing that those who are so labeled have done. Lots of people run away from extreme danger, but only the ones who are additionally despised, get the coward label slapped on them.