From the OED definition of "irascible," which I looked up just now after writing "irascible" in the first 2 posts of the day. The first definition of "irascible" is "Easily provoked to anger or resentment; prone to anger; irritable, choleric, hot-tempered, passionate."
My first post today had a quote about Trump's "irascible fantasy of what the United States should be." I said out loud: "Does Trump seem angry to you?" We watched a couple of his rallies this week, and my answer was, no, he seems jovial.
I liked the change of pace in encountering Plato in this OED definition. It's interesting, isn't it?, that the irascible part of the soul is the place that gives rise to courage, spirit, and passion. Maybe go down that road and figure out something about Trump.
To get up to speed, here's the Wikipedia article, "Plato's theory of the soul."
The Platonic soul consists of three parts:[IN THE COMMENTS: Unknown says, "You've been anticipated by Carson Holloway in The New Criterion," pointing to "Thumos, Or Spiritedness, Is Central To His Appeal":
the logos (λογιστικόν), or logistikon (logical, mind, nous, or reason)According to Plato, the spirited or thymoeides (from thymos) is the part of the soul by which we are angry or get into a temper. He also calls this part 'high spirit' and initially identifies the soul dominated by this part with the Thracians, Scythians and the people of 'northern regions.' In the just soul, the spirited aligns with the logistikon and resists the desires of the appetitive, becoming manifested as 'indignation' and in general the courage to be good. In the unjust soul, the spirited ignores the logistikon and aligns with the desires of the appetitive, manifesting as the demand for the pleasures of the body.
the thymos (θυμοειδές), or thumetikon (emotion, spiritedness, or masculine)
the eros (ἐπιθυμητικόν), or epithumetikon (appetitive, desire, or feminine)...
In The New Criterion, political scientist Carson Holloway of the Heritage Foundation makes the case. In The Republic, Plato divides the soul into desire, reason, and spiritedness. These three are in turn driven by the quest for satisfaction of the body (desire), the mind (reason), and honor (spiritedness)... Holloway says spiritedness manifests in the pursuit of dominance and fame.... The aggression, the unwillingness to concede wrongdoing, the incessant need to belittle his perceived enemies are all part of the thumotic package. Holloway notes:
Donald Trump [is] a preeminently thumotic being, far more spirited than the average person and even than the typical politician. This should be evident even from Trump’s pre-political career. Trump loves his buildings primarily not as valuable assets, but as expressions of his consequence. That is why his name is so prominently displayed on them. His thumotic character reveals itself no less vividly in his approach to politics. He is famously, even uniquely, combative. This is part of what distinguishes him from more conventional (and more boring) conservatives like Mitt Romney....
Moreover, the dominant themes of Trump’s political rhetoric make a straightforward appeal to spiritedness’s concern with honor and victory. What’s it all about? Winning! And when Trump turns from the positive to the negative and finds it necessary to condemn, he does not merely find conditions to be unsatisfactory or his opponents’ actions ill-considered. They are, rather, “a disgrace.”
Spiritedness is the key to understanding not only Trump himself but also his relationship to his supporters and thus his political effectiveness. To see this, we must further clarify the character of spiritedness and its role in the lives even of ordinary people. In the first place, it is a mistake to think that spiritedness is an entirely selfish passion. It is instead bound up with our natural sociability and with what the ancient Greeks recognized as the very powerful “love of one’s own” — our often fierce dedication to those to whom we are somehow particularly attached. Thus spiritedness comes to the defense of not only one’s own honor but also the honor of those with whom we share some identity.
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23 comments:
Irascible is an apt description of Bernie
So the complete man would be full strength in all three elements of the soul? Wonder where we could find a politician like that.
Oh well. We’ll have to settle for a jovial genius.
You've been anticipated by Carson Holloway in The New Criterion.
Here's a summary of his argument:
https://www.journalposts.com/thumos-or-spiritedness-is-central-to-his-appeal-national-review/
The seven elements of the soul are Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey. Which of the candidates is a person in full?
Irascible is a cross word. Since 2016, the answer to every NYT cross word puzzle is Donald J Trump. He makes them very cross, so they project their crossness onto him.
Ακριβώς.
The Platonic soul consists of three parts
"Surrounded by a thin, thin, thin 16mm shell. And inside, it's delicious!"
I feel almost as if Freud and Caesar need to make cameos: Omnia Gallia in tres partes divisa est: id, ego, superego.
Yeah they media always writes about Trump like he's frothing-at-the-mouth angry and yet in all the videos he always seems like he's happy and having a great time. I think it's projection on the media is part because there are numerous instances of them being frothing-at-the-mouth angry. I feel really sorry for them. It's like they've all lost their joie de vivre.
For females the parts are soap opera and shopping.
David Hume: "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them."
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emotions-17th18th/LD8Hume.html#ReaOugOnlSlaPas
People flock to Trump's rallies to experience the authentic Trump. The media does their best to snooker the public with mendacious narratives about Trump.
I don't think we "get into a temper," I think we lose our temper.
As to your point, Ann: people (media, the Left) keep describing Trump and his supporters as "angry", when actually they all seem to be having a great time, and most of the anger (and violence) is coming from the Left. Classic projection, I'd say.
Winning battles takes being first with the most. Or as Adm Halsey would say, being the first to put fire on the target. Ergo: a capacity for anger is necessary until opponents are defeated. And kudos to Lizzie Warren for doing just that.
The key moment in recent politics was the basket of deplorables speech. That was the moment when the Democrats came out fully, openly, proudly, and loudly as the party of contempt. It is now their whole program. Trump won because he showed respect instead. It really is that simple.
Trump seems to have grown more philosophical and introspective, lately I've noticed him making references to his short time (left) on earth, his own mortality.
That added Thumos reference gets it. It is all about honor. The warrior's fight is for the honor that goes to the victor, and along with it the victor brings salvation from the horrors of being raped, robbed and killed by torture, which is being honored too. The American Scots Irish bred folks immediately saw that in the brash boy from NYC. And they selected that leadership. This was first seen in the 2016 primary in South Carolina where he destroyed the Bush family's sure thing. The experts kept saying he would be crushed by Jeb and his family. Then the up state vote where the Scots Irish live came in 80% for Trump.The rest is history.
I don't think we "get into a temper," I think we lose our temper.
I expect that we only lose our tempers these days because the use of language is impoverished. We have a temper and can get into a temper, lose our tempers, fly into a temper; perhaps there are other ways of engaging 'temper', too, that I don't think of at the moment. I do wonder if any of them are 'more English' than the others, though, because I have a very vague memory of someone in Spanish 'flying into' a rage or temper; perhaps that expression has come later into English.
Thank you, Ann, for stirring the intellectual compost of your readership by invoking Plato and the Greek roots of our thinking and speaking. I love it when you talk philosophical to me! You do us the honor of respecting the potential for a heightened level of understanding, discourse and maturity. President Trump is an historical figure that may not fit everyone's template of decorum, but he is more of a WYSIWYG than any politician I can think of in my lifetime (68). If there is anything to the notion of American exceptionalism, he is an extraordinary incarnation of that peculiar American who always does the right thing, after trying everything else first. Articulating truth is a challenge for all of us, as it is a mystery at the core, but as polarities reach a fever pitch in our day and age, Trump offers the advantage of drawing out the stakes in high enough relief for us to examine and reexamine such that we might find our e pluribus unum where we least expect it.
Totally jovial. And, as always, frickin’ hilarious. I’m convinced that a huge piece of the Left’s vehement Trump hatred is that he’s often as brilliantly funny as they are humorless.
This way my colleague Wesley Virgin's autobiography begins in this SHOCKING AND CONTROVERSIAL VIDEO.
As a matter of fact, Wesley was in the army-and soon after leaving-he unveiled hidden, "SELF MIND CONTROL" tactics that the CIA and others used to get anything they want.
These are the EXACT same secrets many celebrities (especially those who "come out of nothing") and elite business people used to become rich and successful.
You probably know how you use less than 10% of your brain.
That's mostly because most of your brain's power is UNCONSCIOUS.
Maybe this conversation has even occurred INSIDE your own mind... as it did in my good friend Wesley Virgin's mind seven years back, while driving a non-registered, beat-up bucket of a car without a license and on his debit card.
"I'm very frustrated with going through life check to check! Why can't I turn myself successful?"
You've been a part of those those types of thoughts, ain't it right?
Your success story is going to happen. Go and take a leap of faith in YOURSELF.
UNLOCK YOUR SECRET BRAINPOWER
@Ken B
“The key moment in recent politics was the basket of deplorables speech. ”
That’s a good point. I think you should add consideration for Obama’s bitter clingers and Romney’s 47 percent.
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