Researchers are beginning to understand why some of us demonstrate what is called “moral courage” and others do not. In fact, most of us actually have a warped sense of our own moral courage. We like to think nothing would get in the way of our morals. But this week’s guest, award winning journalist Alina Tugend has found that, sadly, pretty much everything gets in the way between us and our moral courage. Despite American’s mythic belief in individualism, the fact is we generally go along to get along with the crowd. Especially in these uniquely frightening times of rising violent fascism we can’t be just reactive; there are steps we can take to both avoid violent repercussions and productively act on moral courage.