Snapshot
A need to follow through on crazy ideas, and friends who will goad you on to do so, can take you far. You’re braver than you think!
Many people over the years have said to the Yes Men (and many other activists) that they have balls or ovaries of steel, an impolite way of saying that they are courageous. This is simply not so.
“He’s a real nervous nellie,” says longtime friend-of-Andy, Joseph R. Wolin.
Watch any pre-prank footage in the documentary film The Yes Men Fix the World and you will see a great deal of nervousness. It has even been said that Andy, one of the Yes Men, is a good bit more nervous than the average person. “He’s a real nervous nellie,” says longtime friend-of-Andy, Joseph R. Wolin. This is even more remarkable because the contexts in which the Yes Men operate are entirely without threat, populated mainly by timid, polite men in suits who would never endanger their reputation by hitting someone.
What the Yes Men have, which is mistaken for courage, is a need to follow through on crazy ideas (single-mindedness), and an ability to goad each other on to do so (peer pressure). Really, this formula can be reproduced by anyone.
Originally published in Beautiful Trouble.
Real world examples
A single woman with a raised fist defied a march of 300 uniformed neo-Nazis in central Sweden.