Very interesting article. If it reveals a few twists the west has turned into our view of history, it also may suggest that freedom is much more culturally unique than Americans would like to believe -- and may possibly even be quite exclusive. Perhaps we should avoid trying to liberate the world and concentrate on defending what is already liberated.
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I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your Union and brother affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its Administration in every department may be stamped with Wisdom and Virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be complete by so careful and preservative and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommeding it to the applause, the affection, the adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.
George Washington's Resignation Address:
Yet the author here praises the Persians a tad too much. Their rule was despotic, and while Cyrus and his heirs could have been benevolent despots, any despotic rule is far more open to tyranny than that of a democratic city state. Persia trumped Greece in wealth, sophisitication, and size and power, but as Steven Pressfield says, through the voice of Dianekes in Gates of Fire,"You have never tasted freedom, else you would know. It is purchased, not with gold, but with steel." That is the lesson of Leonidas and the 300.