Talking to the author about Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (2018).
What motivates people? Frank points to thymos, the demand for recognition, as at the root of both the "end of history" (i.e., democracy as demand for equal recognition) and our current tribalist stalemates, involving desires to be seen\u2014in virtue of group membership\u2014as superior. Thymos may in fact be central to self-consciousness, ethics, and the origins of political association.