Thumos and Gameness – A Fighting Spirit

Prompted by Harvey C. Mansfield’s Manliness, which I am carefully re-reading, I started working my way through Plato’s Republic today. Mansfield introduced me to the concept of thumos, spelled thymos in Allan Bloom’s notes for The Republic.

θυμός

When Plato (as Socrates) introduces the concept in Book II, he compares a noble dog with a noble young man in defining the necessary qualities of a good warrior or “auxiliary”–the class from which his “guardians”  should ideally chosen from. This characteristic of thymos or “spiritedness” is closely related to the dog fighting term “gameness” explored in Sam Sheridan’s A Fighter’s Heart which I recently reviewed for The Spearhead.

Both can be reduced down to “a fighting spirit;” both can mean something a bit more specific. Both are central to any discussion of paleomasculinity otherwise known as manliness.

Here’s the relevant passage.

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The Spearhead – Here Come the Herbivores

New essay posted to The Spearhead, in part a tribute to Yukio Mishima, who committed hara-kiri 39 years ago this week.

Here Come the Herbivores

On November 25, 1970, author Yukio Mishima and handful of compatriots took the commandant of a military base hostage and commanded the attention of a nation. His men were armed only with samurai swords. With news helicopters buzzing overhead he asked the assembled soldiers at the base to rise up and proudly reclaim their manly national heritage.

Read the rest and comment at The Spearhead…

Manhood, Masculinity and Honor in the News 11/21/10

Shad Smith

I had never heard of Shad Smith, felony fighter and also a homo. He’d probably be an interesting guy to have a few beers with. Here’s Shad’s Sherdog profile. Looks like he’s still fighting. Go get ‘em, man.

Along the same lines…

Emile Griffith

Beat a man to death in the ring after his opponent called him a fag. Now that’s what I call a hate crime. This documentary might be worth a watch.

How do you make a hormone?

Don’t pay her.

I think my dad told me that joke. But seriously, several guys sent me links to some version of this story about hormone-disrupting chemicals in domestic products which is currently making the rounds. I always find it interesting when crunchy environmentalist liberal types, who are usually also feminist friendly, think this is a bad thing, but good on ‘em. The last thing we need in the civilized world is more effeminate males.

Softeners in plastics may affect masculinity in young boys, study says

Feminists are already trying to spin this with the typical “what does masculinity really mean?” propaganda.

“If you are a man in life and you haven’t gone to a gay bar, you haven’t really danced.

John Mayer (whoever he is…I’m out of that loop and I really don’t want to know…I think he’s famously dating someone famous) is apparently an omega extraordinaire.

Chris Illuminati tests the rules of manhood.

And decides they are good rules. Entertaining.

What is this Asylum magazine? Chris should interview me. I can talk about manhood for hours. Yeah, that’s a hint. He should also check out The Spearhead.

The Spearhead – Gameness

New review posted to The Spearhead.

Gameness – On Sam Sheridan’s “A Fighter’s Heart.”

The first hundred pages of Sam Sheridan’s A Fighter’s Heart made me want to pack it in and take up needlepoint. After graduating from high school, Sheridan joined the Merchant Marines, went to Harvard to study art, sailed around the world as a crew member on a yacht, studied Muay Thai in Thailand, won a fight in Thailand, got his EMT certification, fought fires in Washington and Arizona, worked in Antarctica, studied MMA with Pat Miletich and received a good clobbering in an amateur MMA match. In short, he’s done everything awesome.

Continue reading at The Spearhead

Hopeless

A parable about “game” (or lack thereof) from Max at FKIN.

“So, what are you, like some kind of pick-up artist or something?”

I didn’t laugh.  No one has ever accused me of being an artist of any sort, much less that sort.  I sneered at the idea.

“No, I’ve just got a chip on my shoulder and a drinking problem.  I don’t care what the fuck any of these people think, and neither should you.”

Manhood, Masculinity and Honor in the News 11/3/10

Female Leaders

A ballsy–and signed–letter to the editor about “Why female leaders don’t cut it.“

Men, Share Your Feelings

A New Jersey therapist wants men to “share their feelings.” Big surprise there. He has, of course, started an Institute for  it. The Creative Man Institute. Here’s the thing. The more I learn about men, the more I learn that men who trust each other actually do share their feelings–though they do it differently from women and trying to ‘fix’ this is like trying to make a lefty write with his right hand. It’s forced and unnecessary. The problem here is that when we re-designed society to revolve around the emotional needs of women, men lost a good bit of the quality time they used to spend with other men. Fathers spend their evenings running errands and helping the kids, and their weekends shopping, running more errands, running the kids around and doing the sort of household chores that women would have done 50 years ago. It’s not that there’s dishonor in the work or that it is “woman’s work.”

50-100 years ago men were involved in social groups and fraternities that met frequently and provided opportunities for male bonding within a circle of trust. A lot of these clubs became obsolete or were considered sexist and were attacked by women. As a society we stigmatize the sorts of exclusive groups and closed circles that men form naturally–because women can’t stand being excluded–and then, realizing that something’s missing, we reinvent awkward versions of same under the only acceptable forms: “therapy” or “self help.” But women form women’s only groups–or groups that no man would have any interest in joining–all the time.

I’d sign up for a “men only” gym or a “men only” martial arts club in a heartbeat. Women have tons of places for women.

That’s an interesting facet of male-female interaction. Women want access to the private world of men, but men want nothing to do with the private worlds of women. Men are criticized for wanting to be away from women. Women are not criticized for wanting to be away from men. This is an indefensible double standard.

Parents encouraged to help boys resist stereotypes

Mara McDonough says she is troubled by media images that seem to glorify violent men and rappers, rather than kind, educated men who treat women with respect.

The single mom from the North Side has a son — Larry, 12 — to raise, and she wants him to be a better kind of boy, and grow into a better kind of man, than the kind of males she sees in many media images. She tries to set a good example with her own life, and have good communication with Larry.

“I play both the mommy and the daddy role,” says McDonough, 33. “I try to lead by example. I wouldn’t try to ask him to do anything I wouldn’t do.

Where’s dad? You know, that’s kind of what dads are for. You can’t be the mommy and the daddy. You can only be the mommy. Women can only understand a caricature of manhood, and vice versa. He won’t relate to her as a man, because she isn’t one. Totally different dynamic. That doesn’t make a bad mom. Creating a society that encouraged men to stick around would be more efficient than creating social programs to compensate badly for the natural role of a father.

I Am Jack’s 10th Anniversary Fight Club Blu-Ray Release

Fight Club (the movie) is 10 years old.

The Privilege of Being a Man

An enjoyable essay written from a paleomasculine perspective by Mitchell Kalpakgian.

“If only the radical feminists and cowardly men grasped some of these truths about the male of the species, the relations between the sexes would return to normal, love and romance would return to an unchivalrous world, marriage and children would flourish, and everyone would recognize once again the normal, the human, and the natural.”

In a better world…

The Spearhead – Oprah’s Nation

My latest over at The Spearhead, in response to the noxious Shriver Report.

Oprah’s Nation

On Oprah’s Feel-Good Epilogue to The Shriver Report

It was an obvious choice to wrap up The Shriver Report with a feel-good sermon by Oprah Winfrey. If, as the report suggests, “A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything,” who better to give us a glimpse into the heart and soul of this new matriarchy than its most influential matriarch?

Read and comment at The Spearhead…