Editor’s introduction

Abstract

The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk (2012) reminds us that the word “rage” opens the Western literary tradition. The first sentence of the Illiad reads “Of the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus, sing Goddess.” Understanding rage is of the moment, as it was a decade ago when Sloterdijk published his essay on it. Drawing on the tradition of Homeric psychology put forth by Bruno Snell (1982) and others, Sloterdijk posits that the characters in the Illiad are merely “media” of the gods, who channel their rage. These characters lack self-awareness and the capacity for strategic thinking. By contrast, in the Odyssey, we see a fully-developed modern psychology in the character of Odysseus. He is self-aware and cunning, can plan ahead and use deceit to get his way. (Of course, when he finally reaches Ithaca, he reverts to a rage-driven mode, as he indiscriminately kills the suitors and household servants of Penelope. I think of this distinction when reflecting on the events of January 6, 2021. Many of those participating in the attempted coup said, after the fact, that they were simply doing what Trump wanted them to do, channeling their leader’s rage. Drawing on Plato’s concept of a thymotic psychology, Sloterdijk argues that the typical modern psychology, what he, after Nietzsche, calls an “erotic” psychology, based on desires and wishes, is inadequate to understanding economy and politics. The need to be acknowledged is the deepest aspect of thymotic psychology; to feel that one is not is the source of rage. Hillary Clinton’s disparaging of a certain type of American as fitting into a “basket of deplorables” was such a slight. The national Founders imagined a politics only based on erotic psychology. Government would distribute benefits that individuals and parties would compete for. Politics was essentially a marketplace, in which those with the most power, however defined, would receive the most goods. But as we see in the anecdote about “the line” that Hochschild relates, it is not really the fact that they did not receive a full measure of whatever people were lining up for—the erotics—but that outgroups were cutting ahead of them. Robert Kagan (2008) defines thymos politically as “a spiritedness and ferocity in defence of clan, tribe, city, or state.” That is the motivation for the politics of right-wing populism.