What's Brave?
Whenever a well connected establishment guy describes someone as "brave" I generally assume that by "brave" they mean "another well connected establishment guy" and I don't pay any more attention to whatever point it is that they're REALLY flogging.
Let's face it. Charlize Theron, an actress, was routinely described by fellow industry insiders as "brave" for having played an unattractive serial killer in a movie. Now, maybe if Aileen Wuornos had been directing her in the movie, instead of decomposing underground due to a government administered lethal injection, and Charlize Theron shouted out repeatedly to the make-up department "I need more uglying up here!" - THAT would have been brave, but I can't see that there was anything ACTUALLY "brave" about Charlize Theron playing Aileen Wuornos in a movie.
Ted Danson might be described as "brave" for having played a paedophile in the made-for-television movie "Something About Amelia" because that kind of role for a man can be as much of a career stopper as being fat or ugly can be for an actress, but that's pretty much it in the acting world for what I'd term as "brave".
And it's not like Ted Danson didn't get paid to play a paedophile in "Something About Amelia". I mean, c'mon - you're either "brave" or you're getting paid - you can't really lay claim to both, I don't think, or we'll need a whole new category of brave for people who do brave things because they're brave, as opposed to just earning a paycheque.
Anyway, my point is, I always pay attention to who is doing the beknighting when there is beknighting afoot because usually, it's just one well connected establishment guy telling us that another well connected establishment guy is brave because, well, he's another well connected establishment guy who's done/doing something the other well connected establishment guy likes because it's something THAT well connected establishment guy gets paid to do - too.
Money makes the bravery go 'round for well connected establishment guys, Dear Reader.
By the way, being a well connected establishment guy who is considered "brave" by other well connected establishment guys is the absolute limit for well connected establishment guys. It tops packing a big wallet or having a trophy bride, even. It's pretty gay. And no, I'm not saying it's pretty gay, as in - "Wow, is that ever gay!" I'm saying it's pretty gay as in one well connected establishment guy saying to another BRAVE well connected establishment guy, "If I wasn't so terrified of coming out of the closet I'd have sex with you!"
So what IS brave, then, Sooey? Well, thanks for asking, Dear Reader, because this subject came up just the other day when a co-worker and I were discussing this very topic and he said, "Hm. If a well connected establishment guy held a media conference to announce, 'I'm a paedophile and I just want everyone to know that even though I know it's wrong it doesn't make me any less of a paedophile because I still want to have sex with children', I'd think that was pretty brave."
And he's right, I think, in citing that example (there are others, of course, Dear Reader - I just picked that one for the icky quotient). Because unless you're risking something, like your life or reputation or livelihood, for some good purpose (in the case above, the good purpose would be to say to society, "Paedophiles can be anybody - even well connected establishment guys like me - and we didn't ask to be born this way, we just are this way") then you're not really "brave". You're just playing to your fan club.
