Meekness isn't weakness - once considered positive, it's one of the 'undersung virtues' that deserve defense today

"What do you envision when you think of meekness? You probably see a mousy doormat, someone sheepishly acquiescing to the will of the stronger. When Jesus says, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth," you might think that those wimps will hand it over without a whimper or word of objection to stronger, more ambitious people. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche called meekness "craven baseness.""

"The same goes for docility, often characterized as a near neighbor of meekness. We can get a feel for its usage these days from the Corpus of Contemporary American English, where one finds that a docile person is slow, controllable, obedient, submissive, compliant, passive and under control. Or consider condescension. You likely envision someone self-important looking down her nose at a service worker, or some insufferable prig unwilling to come off his high horse to mingle with the peasants."

Meekness is commonly perceived as timid submission and weakness, exemplified by a mousy doormat who yields to stronger people. Philosophical and lexical authorities often portray meekness negatively, with Nietzsche calling it "craven baseness" and the Oxford English Dictionary defining it as inclined to submit tamely. Docility is associated with being controllable, obedient, submissive and passive. Condescension denotes self-importance and looking down on others and is widely condemned as a vice. Despite contemporary disdain, ancestors often regarded these traits as virtues. Clarifying definitions reveals a shift in meanings and shows that some once-celebrated traits can aid a good life.

Read at The Conversation