king Leonidas 300 spartan

BRAZEN

And now the Trumpets terribly from far, / With rattling Clangor, rouse the Sleepy War. / The Soldiers Shouts succeed the Brazen Sounds, / And Heaven, from Pole to Pole, the Noise rebounds. – Virgil

Clouds

Brazen means “bronze”. In the past, brazen meant that an individual had a stoic, bold, and bronze (unchanging) face.

In practical terms, to me, this means:

Have a bold, bronze, and stoic face when you’re confronted with adversity.

Of course if you’re feeling happy and joyful, you smile, laugh, dance, conversate, joke, etc.


Brazen is a fantastic word. It conjures the image of King Leonidas and the 300 Spartans, facing death, with honor, dignity; fearless.


Why is brazen a bad thing?

In today’s world, the word brazen means to be “foolish, silly, dumb, and unwise”. But to be honest, it’s this type of thinking which holds back human potential.

In America, we’re told to be bold, to innovate, and to “think outside the box”, yet modern institutions prohibit this rule of behavior. We’re still trapped with Puritan-Protestant values, which tell us to be “respectful, quiet, and submissive”. In other words, much of American society has become domesticated, and sedated by soma (Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, the sedation-happy drug).


To conclude, in today’s world, to “succeed” more, let’s be more brazen. Let’s be shameless in terms of what we pursue in life.

Our life is short. Life is too short for pettiness and bullshit.

Let’s be the change which we wish to see in the world, and create epic things, and let us fulfill our personal maximum, then go beyond our limits!

BE BRAZEN,
ERIC