Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/183645
The Art of Manliness Continued ally as saying we had a preexistence before this life. But it also has meaning in a more figurative sense. We get off track in becoming the men we wish to be when we succumb to vice (being overpowered by the dark horse), and we tend to succumb to vice when we forget who we are, who we want to be, and the insights into those two pieces of knowledge we have already attained and experienced. Doing things that remind us of the truths we hold dear keeps us "in flight" and progressing with our lives. For more on this important subject, I highly recommend reading: Hold Fast: How Forgetfulness Torpedos Your Journey to Becoming the Man You Want to Be, and Remembrance Is the Antidote Understanding the Dark Horse JOBS for TEAMS In order to train and harness the power latent in the forces of his soul, a man must understand the nature of his "horses" and how to utilize their strengths and rein in their weaknesses. A man's dark horse, or appetites, are not difficult to understand; you have probably felt its primal pull towards money, sex, food, and drink many times in your life. But despite our intimate acquaintance with our appetites, or perhaps because of it, the dark horse is not easy to properly train and make use of. Doing so requires achieving moderation, or as Aristotle would put it, finding the "golden mean" between extremes. A man who lets his appetites run completely wild is the unabashed hedonist. He does not seek to rein in the dark horse at all, letting him pull the chariot after whichever pleasure crosses its path. This is the man who lives for nothing higher than to eat good food, get drunk, have sex, and make money. He seeks after effeminizing luxury with abandon and will do anything to get it. With no check to his behavior, the result can be a giant gut, pickled brains, massive debt, and a prison sentence for corruption. A life wholly dedicated to the satisfaction of one's bodily and pecuniary pleasures make man no different than the animals.Aristotle called such a life bovine, and Plato argued that the result of letting oneself be dominated by his appetites "is the ruthless enslavement of the divinest part of himself to the most despicable and godless part." Such a man, Plato submitted, should be "deemed wretched." On the other end of the spectrum is the man who sees his physical desires as wholly wrong or sinful – troublesome or evil stumbling blocks on the path to spiritual purity or enlightenment.This man seeks to nullify his flesh, and cut off its cravings for pleasure entirely.This is the man who spends so much of his life thinking of sex as sinful, that he can't turn off that association and enjoy it, even after he is married. He averts his eyes from women as living porn. Food is merely fuel. He often seems flat, sterile, and closed off to others, though often you can sense the bottled impulses bubbling beneath the surface that he's tried so hard to deny. And because of the lack of a healthy outlet, that bubbling often becomes a toxic stew that will one day burst forth in a decidedly unhealthy way. Plato believed that the appetites were the lowest of the forces of the soul, and that allowing the dark horse to dominate and enslave you would lead to a base, unvirtuous life far from arête and eudaimonia.Yet he also argued that the dark horse, if properly trained, imparted just as much energy to the pulling of the chariot as the white horse did.The chariot that soars highest makes use of both horses side by side. A would-be ace charioteer neither entirely indulges his dark horse | 22 JobsForTeams1013_manliness.indd 4 www.jobsforteams.com 9/4/13 3:33 PM