Thumos (θυμός) is an ancient Greek word that means “spiritedness.” It comes from a Proto-Indo-European root (dʰuh₂mós) that means “smoke,” with a similar cognate in Sanskrit धूम (dhūmá). Beyond that, it’s been picked up by many thinkers riffing on the Greek sources and used to describe a number of interrelated qualities within the nature of man.
Thumos is sometimes contrasted with eros, or a passionate appetite for pleasure that—while a necessary and enjoyable part of the human experience—can also lead to destructive hedonism. Whereas eros desires pleasure, the spirit of thumos has been presented as a passionate desire for goodness, righteousness, justice, honor, and recognition.
To put you in a state of mild thumos—so that you can feel it—I want you to imagine a scenario that made you feel that something truly good was happening. Maybe it was something simple, like seeing a father working out with his young son or teaching him how to do something. Imagine the joy you feel when you stick to a diet or a workout plan or accomplish a goal. Perhaps a moment when your good efforts were recognized, and you were given an award. Now, imagine a time when you felt that justice was being done and that righteousness prevailed.
Here’s one I think most of you will remember:
The exoneration of Daniel Penny.
If you believed that Penny appeared to be a good man who tried to do a good and heroic thing but was unfairly accused of wrongdoing and targeted for it, you probably experienced thumotic anger when you heard about his persecution. When he was found “not guilty” and set free, you probably experienced thumotic joy.
Let’s return to that feeling of anger. Men feel thumotic anger when they see what they believe to be injustice. Thumotic anger is the spirit that sends men to war. It is related to the anger you’d feel if someone attacked your friends or family, abused a child, or tortured a kind animal. Thumotic anger is the spirit that drives men to right wrongs.
Men want to experience thumotic anger. It makes them feel needed and gives them a sense of purpose.
Men want to believe they are fighting the good fight against injustice and evil.
Men want to believe that they’d be willing to die for a just cause.
It is thumos that and a particular kind of masculine romanticism that leads to self-sacrifice, heroism, and martyrdom.
The Draw of Doomed Causes
Men romanticize doomed causes. There’s an undeniable masculine appeal to stories of men who fought against overwhelming odds “to the last man.” Thermopylae, The Alamo, Custer’s last stand. Doom is part of the allure of the Scandinavian gods who know they are destined to die fighting monsters in a battle that will end their world. Resolving to fight to the end in a battle that you know you can’t win is the ultimate test of will and integrity. The story of a man who does what he believes he should do, sees it through, and goes down with his ship is pure masculine poetry.
However, these great men who fought lost causes valiantly didn’t necessarily choose them. Often, they were fighting for good causes, and they intended to win, but they ended up being outmaneuvered or backed into a bad spot.
Men today live in relative safety. Few will end up in anything that could be called a battle or even a life-or-death scenario. Even their suffering is milquetoast and muted. Combined with the postmodern collapse of meaning and narrative, many feel that “nothing really matters.”
In this environment, the idea of a cause you would “be willing to die for” is perhaps more attractive to young men than ever. The story of Yukio Mishima, for instance, stands out in stark contrast to a suburban life in middle management. Imagine caring about some lost cause so much that you stage a coup, cut your stomach open, and have your assistant cut your head off. That’s pretty intense. Like that famous monk who set himself on fire and didn’t flinch.
The opportunity to suffer for some righteous “truth” when everyday reality seems easy, “fake, and gay” has a draw that many underestimate.
But just because men say they want a cause to die for doesn’t mean you should give it to them.
A doomed cause can be a form of escapism. Dying means you’ll never have to deal with the messy, uncomfortable parts of living. I’ve known men personally who volunteered to fight in wars they believed were pointless—if not necessarily hopeless—simply because their lives were miserable. They wanted to die in “gloriously” battle instead of living in pain. If you pick a fight you can never win, you’ll never have to do the work of building something positive after you defeat the forces you believe to be negative. Choosing an impossible goal also means you’ll never be judged for failing to achieve it. Truth be told, you can half-ass an obviously doomed cause, because the end result won’t change.
It’s a hipster cope. No one can judge you for losing if you never really try to win.
And that makes the romantic illusion of fighting a lost cause sound a little bit…cheaper.
Many men choose lost causes for this reason, consciously or unconsciously.
Thumotic Pornography
Thumotic anger is a powerful emotion, but like any emotion, it can be manipulated.
It is fairly common to criticize those who encourage men to engage in addictive and destructive activities related to eros. Society scorns pimps, pornographers, drug dealers, and men who encourage gambling and gluttony.
But it is rare to see men criticized for the irresponsible invocation of thumos. Men want to feel thumotic anger, and they want the sense of purpose it gives them, probably almost as much and, in some cases, maybe even more than they want sex. And the experience of thumotic anger can be addictive.
If you want proof of this, think about how many people log into social media every day, actively looking for something to be angry about. Think about how much easier it is to get an angry response to something negative than it is to get an encouraging response to something positive. People get off on being righteously angry, and they can get stuck in a masturbatory, pointless loop of righteous anger.
Keeping this in mind, where is the threshold between men who honestly want to enlist men in a righteous and productive cause and men who are merely invoking thumos for their own profit or amusement?
It’s a gray area, and it’s somewhat subjective. One man’s righteous and viable cause is another man’s windmill.
I have some rules of thumb that I use when I make this evaluation myself to separate the righteous rabble-rousers from the opportunistic pornographers of thumos.
If you work to convince men that something is evil or unjust and it is their duty to fight it, it is your duty to wield that power responsibly and in good faith.
You should genuinely believe that your cause is just, and be willing to make the same kinds of sacrifices in the service of that cause that you are convincing those men to make.
You should ask yourself if this fight is a good and responsible use of their energy. Would they be better off if they didn’t know or care about what you have to say?
When you enlist men in a cause, you should also have some kind of plan for them to WIN—and you should want them to win. It doesn’t have to be a perfect plan. It could be a long shot. But, if you have no remotely feasible plan to win, you have no business asking men to follow you.
Thumotic anger is the emotion that drives men to acts of heroism. It is among our noblest instincts.
This makes it all the more tragic—in fact, it makes me thumotically angry—when I see this instinct wasted or exploited for profit.
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