Channelling Anger in Society, a Historic View

RAGE AND TIME, Peter Sloterdijk

In "The End of History and the Last Man," written in 1992, Francis Fukuyama builds a significant portion of his explanation for the evolution of our societies on the eminently strategic and complex notion of thymòs. This concept, borrowed from Hegel but not invented by him (see below), proves to be as old as political philosophy itself. Thymòs refers to that by which humankind has differed from animals from the very beginning: the desire for recognition. This is a driving force as powerful as the instinct for self-preservation. One could also translate this notion as pride, self-esteem, or the quest for dignity. Here we have the part of the personality that is at the root of emotions such as pride, anger, or shame.

In Rage and Time (or Zorn und Zeit, published in 2006), the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk analyzes the Homeric, biblical, Leninist, and anarchist forms of anger to demonstrate how this initially instinctive emotion has developed into a global reservoir of vengeance, where the feelings of the oppressed serve as a springboard to power. He concludes with the latest major movement to harness anger (at the time of the book's publication…), namely political Islam, and finally announces the conditions for the advent of a world without Resentment.

The last time I felt real anger was about fifteen years ago, when my partners literally kicked me out of the company we had built together. One of them didn't stop there; he also implied that I'd be better off giving up business development, my profession for the past 25 years, for administrative tasks that would suit me better. It felt like being kicked in the gut when I was already down. In short, for many months afterward, I would wake up at night imagining myself ripping them apart one after the other… My anger stemmed from the humiliation I felt, as well as a strong sense of injustice. In retrospect, I now think it was certainly one of the most formative and transformative episodes of my life.

Suffice it to say, this book captivated me, not only for the insight it provided into my own experience, but also for its historical analysis of anger in society and throughout history. After defining the physiological origins of anger, Peter Sloterdijk traces the history of the concept of thymos back to its Greek origins, elaborating on the channeling of anger as a structuring element of society in Christianity, Communism, and then political Islam, without neglecting a look at its driving forces and its explosions in revolutions or acts of vandalism. Twenty years have passed since "Rage and Time" was written. It naturally remains highly relevant, although new movements that capture anger, primarily fueled and channeled by populism and the far right, have exacerbated the polarization of Western societies. These are themes often explored in this blog…

Through the link to the Philosophy section of our "Main Themes" below you will find excerpts and passages that I found most relevant :

https://www.thegoalisthepath.blog/projects/philosophy

But first, a quick reminder with the Larousse French dictionary’s definition of anger : A violent and temporary emotional state resulting from a feeling of aggression or unpleasantness, expressing strong dissatisfaction and accompanied by harsh reactions. The Oxford English Dictionary is more straight to the point…  : a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility. Funny enough (or ?) it also says that anger is a borrowing from early scandinavian.

Enjoy!