THE MORALLY DECENT HR MANAGER 281others to abide by moral maxims decent HR managers can exercise prudence
in determining exactly how far they should push in a particular set of circum-
stances. Nevertheless, there will still be occasions, and for some perhaps many,
when following Heller’s approach also means facing suffering with courage.
And it is on this last point that I would like to finish. For Heller courage is
a crucial virtue and while she would undoubtedly agree that ‘getting up the
nerve’ to be courageous can be hard she nevertheless encourages the decent to
be courageous in the following way:
Ultimately, it is simple to be brave. Once one sees what the right thing to do is, one
does it. Seeing what is the right thing to do is, in Kierkegaard’s phrase, to be in an
instant: there is no ‘before’ and no ‘after’. One ceases to consider losses and gains; one
stops imagining what is going to happen to oneself. In the ‘instant’ there is only the
person and eternity. You close your eyes, take your hand offthe rail you have been
grabbing, and—there you go. Once in the water, you will swim. Have courage, be
brave. (1990: 85)