Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/235821
The Art of Manliness Continued he is clear-eyed about the need to provide the best possible environment for virtue to develop. Thumos Neutered JOBS for TEAMS Why is it that many men seem so lacking in thumos today? Thumos is a potent force – left wild it destroys, but harnessed it creates.The thumos of man is responsible for the lion's share of society's progress. Yet in our modern day, instead of helping men to harness their thumos for positive ends, society has decided it is better to neuter the force altogether.To protect some people from getting hurt, we've tried to breed it out of men, even if it means its positive effects will be sacrificed along with the negative. It is like getting rid of electricity, and all the benefits that have come with it, because some people get electrocuted. From an early age, boys are taught to sit still, to be quiet. Physical fighting of any kind results in suspension. Competition is frowned upon because it means some will be left out and feel bad. Rewards and recognition are distributed equally; everyone is given a prize to avoid hurt feelings. As a result, boys feel less motivated to fight to rise to the top. We've unfortunately come to think of elements of thumos, like anger, as entirely bad. Instead, what we need is an understanding that anger is neither bad nor good – it's all in how it's directed. There is such a thing as righteous indignation.The anger that drives one to stand up for that which is just and right. If you snuff out the force that makes bad men hurt the weak, you also eliminate the force that moves good men to protect the vulnerable. Plato argued that you didn't breed fierceness out of men, you trained it. Men of the warrior class, he argued, should be trained to neither be watchdogs who barked at everything – even innocent noises — nor watchdogs that only whimpered and rolled over when someone invaded the house.They were gentle with those they knew, and fierce with strangers of ill-intent.Their thumos was ready, if needed, to fight. Thumos Seeking Role Models I can imagine that much of this seems very abstract and it may be hard to see how it applies to your own life. What can help make it more tangible is observing how thumos has operated in the lives of other men. Plato believed that thumos naturally seeks heroic role models.These role models can inspire thumos, and also, as Hobbs put it,"give life shape and structure." Our own lives can seem like an amorphous stream – it's just one thing after another. We see the world through our own eyes, so it's hard to get a real perspective on how we're doing and where we're at in our journey. Because we can view them as outside observers, it is much easier to see the shape and structure of the lives of others, especially when you can read their biography and take in the sweep of their lives from start to finish. It's easy to identify the different seasons they went through, their rises and falls, the important turning points. We can see how certain choices they made led to certain outcomes. And we can get a sense of the kind of things it's possible for a man to accomplish and what sorts of aims we might seek in our own lives. By studying how other men throughout history succeeded (and failed) to harness their thumos, we can get a sense of the nature of thumos and how to guide our own white horse.> | 28 JobsForTeams0114_manliness.indd 7 www.jobsforteams.com 12/4/13 11:42 AM