Source: Persuasion
by Francis Fukuyama
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a speech at the Pnyx in Athens on October 7 …. at the heart of his address he talks about thymos (he transliterates it as thumos) as the core value of Western civilization. This is correct in some fashion, but Rubio’s understanding of the idea is very deficient. … Thymos is at the core not just of Western civilization, but, as Hegel and his interpreter Alexandre Kojève noted, of politics as a whole. The first bloody battle between early human beings was driven by the desire for dominance and recognition, by the willingness to risk one’s life. This struggle for dominance leads to a society of masters and slaves, in which neither party is fully satisfied—the slave for obvious reasons, but the master as well because he is recognized by someone who is only a slave.” (10/12/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/thymos-and-american-foreign-policy