By taking over the social function of being a caritative human, the all-pervasive modern welfare state kills off what the ancient Greeks called the 'Thymós'. Thymós symbolizes the individual striving for honour, for justified pride, arising from the giving, emanating quality. Is is one of the decisive sources of power in the civilization of mankind; to damage it, which in the broadest sense is the core program of communism, evokes degenerative decay. We can witness the symptoms of the disappearing of the Thymós everywhere in the west nowadays.