People are strange. Throughout all the ages of man, armies have wasted their lives going
to war over things as frivolous as an apple as well as many who kill themselves and others in the
name of a divine being that they have never even seen. At the same time, many heroes have
given their lives in protecting liberty and standing up for justice and freedom. What could cause
people to make decisions such as these? The ancient Greeks believed that there was a part
within each of us that caused us to make irrational decisions like these. This was called
Thymos. Plato wrote extensively on the topic. He said that all forms of society are born from this
philosophy of Thymos, and I agree. Upon examination we can find that political initiative, the life
blood of a free society, flows from the attributes of Thymos. Likewise, if we do not control this
place within, we will develop a weaker more tyrannical society.
The Thymos that dwells within each of us is the seat of our passions. It has been defined
as that area of the soul where feelings of pride, indignation, greed, and shame as well as those
of kindness, charity, empathy, courage, and nobility are located and ruled. The Thymos is a force
of progression. It is not content with where it is now. It wants to grow, to become greater. If left
unchecked, it will even push a person to dominate or enslave another. It also drives many
people, especially men, to seek glory in what they do and a legacy for others to remember them
by. This is an essential part of a human being.
Plato compared the human soul to a chariot with the charioteer and two horses. The first
horse is called Eros. This horse was not well bred, hard to control, and is represented as a black
horse. The second is Thymos, of royal breed, but rather prideful and difficult. He is a white horse.
The charioteer’s name is Logos. He is the master of these horses and has the potential to
control them, or to destroy the whole chariot by his lack of control. The meaning of these three
Greek words are Appetite (Eros), Passion (Thymos), and Logic or Reason (Logos). Combined,
these three function to make us each who we are. To find the key to understanding Plato’s idea
of the soul (and how Thymos works into it), we must look at the other two parts of the chariot.
Thymos is the part of our soul which allows us growth. However, depending on which of
the other two agents it listens to will determine whether it grows to a healthy and strong Thymos
or becomes a deformed and weak force for evil. When Thymos begins to act like Eros (or we
allow our passions to become dependent on our carnal appetites), it will grow weak and
unhealthy. In contrast, the Godly capacity each of us has to reason and think for ourselves
allows us to subjugate both our passions and our appetites to work as a team. When we master
all three of these fundamentals of the soul, we exhibit pure greatness. Men in this station will
often demand respect, and are they very dignified. When this state of being is achieved, we
receive a greater sense of what we feel is right and wrong, our understanding of justness (the
primitive form of justice) quickens, and we begin to get a sense of what we want the world
around us to become.
This sense of justness brings with it a need for action. When people with strong Thymos
see unjustness being exhibited towards themselves and to those with whom they are
associated, they cannot help but stand up for that. When there are enough people who rise to
fight this unjustness, no matter what the price, there will be a change in the society to match the
new active majority’s view of justness. This massivescale change is exactly what took place in
America with the Civil Rights movement. This now becomes the new law of justice, and it will
remain so until a new active majority overrules that in the name of their perception of “justness,”
ad infinitum. This is the key to political action. A persons natural sense of what is “just” and what
is not. But this is not always a positive, improving concept. When the active majority decides that
what is “just” is not in fact true or eternal “justice,” then the society is headed for a dark period.
The first way that a Thymos can become twisted is if it is allowed to fall into step with
Eros; our appetites were not meant to control our passions. This occurs when reason steps
aside and is not firm in its control of Thymos. Thymos then begins to see the “freedom” of
following ones basest instincts. When one totally logical person loses his or her passions to
things like eating, sleeping, and amusement, they become totally immoral and selfish. This is
just the opposite of what is necessary for a freedom reform. The sense of “justness” caused in
this type of person will change as fast as their animal instincts will. If the active majority consists
of these people, they will have an extremely unstable foundation.
Another way a Thymos can become socially destructive is when you feed it but don’t
control it. By hooking that beast to your chariot unbridled, you are asking for destruction. This
type of Thymos is like a unkept fire. It will only grow and consume everything around it. When
this type of Thymos develops inside of someone, they lose all the positive attributes that used to
be a part of it. All that is left is pride, indignation, and greed. This person, when insulted or not
recognized as much as they would like, will lash out in indignation because of their pride, or the
shame they feel because of the truth shown them. They won’t only fight back, they will begin to
rally others around them, lighting others on fire as well. As this begins to happen, greed sets in
and those people begin to seek for power. This is much like what happened in the French
Revolution. People with this mindset will have a very oppressive idea of “justness” and they will
normally use force to instagate their idea of justice.
The last dangerous type of Thymos is actually not dangerous in and of itself. Its presence
makes it so that the other two types can function, making this, in my opinion, the most lethal of
the three. This is a domesticated Thymos. Thymotic behavior is essential for liberty and freedom
because it invites all to stand up for what they believe. It is this same behavior that caused early
Americans to fight for liberty. When that behavior is removed, you have complacency and
apathy. This is why the “active” part of any majority is the part that has the power. A person who
doesn’t stand for anything will fall for everything. These people might not agree with their immoral
leaders, but they won’t do anything about it. When one of those flaming groups of powerseekers
begins their quest, these people won’t care what’s happening (as it won’t hurt them). They will be
caught in the fire and throw their lives away for a selfish tyrant and a cause to which they don’t
even understand or really care about. This is the kind of Thymos that is destroying America as
we speak.
Thymos was something greatly understood by ancient peoples throughout the world. It
was the source of many great political changes like the Magna Charta, Declaration of
Independence, and the Constitution. But when not harnessed appropriately it has also led to
some of the worst moments of history, times like the Holocaust, the Rwandan Genocide, and the
Communist movement. We can see the need to awaken those who don’t have any passion, and
to stand up for the true sense of eternal justice. Some have been pushing their personal idea of
“justness” upon what we thought was true “justice.” In truth, this process has been in motion for
years. We are at a crossroads of freedom and bondage predicted by Plato. I swear that I will
take up the reigns of my chariot and guide my passions and appetites down a road towards
freedom. I can only hope that you will join with me in this Race for Liberty.
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