Thomas Carlyle (artist, J.E. Millais) (credit: Wikipedia)

The most familiar moral value that is a hybrid of courage and wisdom is what we call work. Diligence and conscientiousness are two of its other names, as most of us are wearily aware. But the dreary, tedious, clichéd feel of this values cluster should not discourage us. Clichés, like this one about the nobleness of work, become clichés because they express something that is universally true. “I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” (Thomas Jefferson) “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” (Edison) Courage is good. Wisdom is good. We learn that if we want to achieve great things we have to work very hard. Added together, and spread over lifetimes, wisdom and courage produce the synthesis called work. Thomas Carlyle distilled the idea well:

For there is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in Work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in Idleness alone is there perpetual despair. Work, never so Mammonish, mean, is in communication with Nature; the real desire to get Work done will itself lead one more and more to truth, to Nature’s appointments and regulations, which are truth.³

As with courage and wisdom, a balanced pair of values also shapes the behaviour of citizens in successful societies’ attempts to handle the second trait of reality, uncertainty. For a society to maximize its chances of handling the uncertainty of existence—the way unexpected events keep coming at us—that society must contain as wide a variety of potential responses to the demands of the physical world as the people in it, individually and jointly, can learn to perform. In a scary world, if you’re smart, you try to be ready for anything. Programming each individual to strive for versatility (the Renaissance man concept) helps, but the really important value a wise society should instill in all members of each upcoming generation is freedom: a desire to become one’s best self and a generosity of spirit that inspires others to do the same.

To be equipped to meet the widest range of futures possible, a society must contain the widest range of humans possible, with skills and talents literally of every sort imaginable. If an unforeseeable crisis threatens a freedom-loving society’s continued existence, it has a higher likelihood of containing a small group of people, or even just one individual, who will be able to react effectively to the situation and also direct others to react effectively than it would if it were a more homogenous society.

In addition, in more ordinary times, when a society seems to be merely maintaining a steady state, the people in a vigorous and diverse society are pursuing a wide range of activities, doing research on a wide range of theories, and developing a wide range of ideas, skills, services, and products, any of which may reap benefits for all citizens in the future. Which activities will turn out to be more than just hobbies in a decade or two can’t be known in a truly uncertain universe. Some of these hobby activities will fit into the society’s economy and, in a decade or so, become simply parts of the division of labour. Others, in a truly free society, will prove to be silly wastes of time. Still others, in rare instances, will prove to be brilliant innovations that benefit all of society.

Therefore, a wise society cultivates its dreamers. Once in a while, an eccentric invents something that is amazingly useful to all. In addition, the freedom that allows these folk to carry on being eccentric is vital to everyone. The presence of eccentrics in a society is proof that the value called freedom is part of that society’s moral code. Uniformity in a population is an enemy of survival in the very long run. Pluralism, on the other hand, over the long run, works.