At the Oscars, Will Smith didn’t appreciate the tasteless joke presenter Chris Rock made at his wife’s expense. Thinking of showing “courage” by obeying his emotions – while perhaps still believing himself to be one of the many heroes he has embodied in the cinema – the actor gets up, walks towards the scene and slaps the one who dared to let such remarks out of the enclosure of his teeth.
The scene was spectacular, worthy of Hollywood, except that it absolutely does not correspond to the values that are supposed to be at the heart of our so-called civilized societies. This, moreover, is one of the lessons that Freud taught us: civilization was built on a set of repressions or sublimations of our impulses, our emotions or our primary instincts. Sport, art and also all forms of politeness represent so many ways of channeling or controlling different forms of aggression or other impulses that inhabit the great apes that we are.
“Patience, my heart! »
This ability to control one’s emotions is, moreover, a recurring theme in the Homeric epics; in L’Iliadbut especially in theOdyssey. When Achilles learns that Agamemnon has decided to take his share of honor from him in the person of the beautiful Briseis, the Peleid, feeling his anger rising within him, reaches out for his sword to kill the son of Atreus. Luckily, Athena watches over the hero and immediately dissuades him from committing such a gesture. To avenge himself for this affront, Achilles will decide instead to withdraw from the fight against the Trojans as long as Agamemnon will not admit the affront he has committed against him.
But the undisputed master of self-control among the Homeric heroes is undoubtedly the industrious Odysseus. This quality, however, he can only acquire after falling a few times. When he travels to Hades to question Tiresias on what he and his sailors must do to return to Ithaca safe and sound, the diviner is very clear: “Whatever your misfortunes, you will return home if you know how to master your heart and that of your people. Something that will not always be easy for Ulysses.
Thus, when they go to the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus, his companions will beg him to quickly return to their ships. Curious as he is, Odysseus will not want to leave before having met the Cyclops to find out what this host will have to offer him as a present. This stubbornness and curiosity will thus cost the lives of six of his comrades, who will be devoured by Polyphemus.
Of such errors of judgment, Odysseus will commit a certain number during his journey. Having learned from his mistakes, it is only when he returns to Ithaca that our hero will show complete control of his emotions. Faced with suitors who have been ruining his domain for years and who are plotting against him to eliminate him, Ulysses will make it his rule to control his temper despite all the slights his enemies will inflict on him.
When, disguised as a beggar, he is attacked in his own house by his goatherd Melantheus, whom Antinoos, one of the suitors, insults him while throwing a small stool on his shoulder, which Ctesippus makes fly in his direction of a bull’s foot and that twice he will be insulted by one of Penelope’s servants, far from succumbing to the rage that he feels rising in his chest, he will say to himself: “Patience, my heart ! You suffered worse torment the day the Cyclops in his fury devoured your brave companions. »
This anger that Odysseus has managed to contain since his arrival in Ithaca, a bit like Achilles had done after the dishonor that Agamemnon had caused him to suffer, it is when all the favorable conditions for the execution of his plan are met that he will finally let her express herself. Thus will be eliminated one by one, and in a methodical way, all the suitors who threatened his life and that of his family.
At the heart of the educational project
This self-control that Homer tells us about is a behavior that actor Will Smith failed to demonstrate during the Oscar ceremony.
In fact, this quality which consists in knowing how to contain one’s emotions in order to listen instead to the voice of one’s reason is a value which, more than ever, should be at the heart of the educational project of our modern societies. However, for this self-control to be effective, it must be based on discipline, on a capacity for concentration and on this effort of will which consists in accepting to postpone in time the satisfaction of certain desires or impulses which do not require to express themselves at any time of the day.
Unfortunately, this self-control is less and less valued in our educational institutions. Influenced by pedagogies that confuse novelties, fashions and truths, our education system prefers instead to offer students what interests them here and now, to use a playful approach so as not to make them bored and to stun them with a panoply of digital tools to attract their attention, even if it means making them, in the end, fragile, dependent beings, unable to concentrate and dispersed.
Be that as it may, we can assume that Will Smith never read Homer, just like the vast majority of students in Quebec. Too bad because, as I try to demonstrate in my essay Homer, life and nothing else!everyone would find beautiful and numerous truths as old as the world…