Someone called me a menace the other day. My response?
Better a menace than a coward.
The comment came under a video where I talked about the inner strength that comes from refusing to lie, bend, or back down in the face of fear. You have to appreciate the irony of being called a threat for upholding time-tested values like honesty, fairness, and courage.
A menace is someone who threatens to cause harm, but historically the label has been used to describe anyone disruptive, dangerous, or unsettling to the status quo. Many “menaces” throughout history were simply people who refused to be silent.
This is the word they hurled at Socrates, Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Edward Snowden. Leah Remini, Mike Rinder, and Robert Vaughn Young were smeared the same way when they spoke out against Scientology. And some of you remember being accused of it for refusing to jeopardize your health—or your family’s—during the pandemic.
The scale isn’t what matters. The real menace is to illusions.
And wherever you find “menaces,” you’ll find cowards: people who take the path of silence, complicity, and avoidance in the face of real harm. The mother who takes a sleeping pill so she doesn’t hear her husband slip into their daughter’s bedroom. The local leader who won’t confront a predator because “it’s a busy weekend.” Peter disowning Jesus after his arrest.
They don’t commit the evil directly. On the surface they look polite, reasonable, safe. And they’ll even join in when it’s convenient—but that’s the key. They’ll join in. Until there’s a critical mass of consensus to hide behind, they won’t lift a finger to prevent harm.
And they will join a mob to attack the people who do.
And so you have to ask: Which really does more harm to the world? The so-called menace, or the coward?
Inside OTO, I was once described as “the future of the Order” and “possibly the best master” my community would ever have. I was praised for honesty, fairness, and courage—until I stopped playing the game. The same traits that made me a hero on Monday made me a menace on Tuesday. What changed? Not me. Just my refusal to stay silent.
That’s the pattern: as long as your strength serves the status quo, you’re celebrated. The moment it threatens illusions, you’re branded a menace.
So the next time someone makes you feel like speaking the truth makes you a menace? Smile. Because the alternative is cowardice. And the world has more than enough of that already.
Better a menace than a coward.