"Because only Spartan women give birth to real men."

The people who fight for civilization, and those who seek its destruction.
By Christopher Cook

For those of you have yet to see 300, do yourselves a favor and see it. (Warning: Spoiler Alert)

This movie is not just about the past. It's about today. Right now.

It's about each one of you who stands in the breach against the enemy.

And it's about each one of you who stands against the enemy within, who would happily widen that breach.

Today's enemy is Islamofascism, but it is little different from the hordes following the tyrannical King Xerxes.

Today's enemy within is the left, both at home and across the globe. And they too are little different from the scheming legislator Theron and the vile Ephori, who were willing—even eager—to see all Sparta kneel before Xerxes, just to gain power.

How is the left today any different? Do they not see their own nation, their own people, their own military as the enemy? Do they not seek to withdraw us from the field, to give the enemy the day?

And just as Sparta was the lynchpin that defended all Greece—that great cradle of democracy—is not the United States today the last bastion of freedom defending Western civilization?

But what care the left for Western civilization? They HATE Western civilization. They hate the men and women who defend it. They hate themselves.

But truly, this analogue is only the beginning...

"The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many, and before this battle was over, even a god-king can bleed."

"Immortals... we put their name to the test."

"Remember us." As simple an order as a king can give. "Remember why we died." For he did not wish tribute, nor song, nor monuments nor poems of war and valor. His wish was simple. "Remember us," he said to me. That was his hope, should any free soul come across that place, in all the countless centuries yet to be. May all our voices whisper to you from the ageless stones, "Go tell the Spartans, passerby, that here by Spartan law, we lie."

The article just goes to show the intellectual paucity of many American conservatives.

Sparta was no beacon of freedom defending democracy and “Western” values. It was an outpost of unrelenting totalitarianism defending it’s right to exist.

Mass surveillance, terror was an instrument of suppression, unparalleled Stalinist levels of socio-economic regulation, and a statist ideology where the purpose of the individual was nothing more than an instrument to serve the state.

I don’t know what the self proclaimed conservative lionizers of Sparta are drinking, but a place in which the government would steal children from their mothers and families to be totally indoctrinated by the state as killers (a feat that surpassed even Hitler and Stalin’s wildest dreams of social engineering) is not something most Americans would celebrate.

The difference between Sparta and the Persian Empire is the Spartans SUPPORTED their own government and chose to follow it. They could have left anytime they wanted to.
Few if any did.

In Persia, all autocracy was imposed from above by an absolute monarch who conquered other people and other lands.

There is some truth in what you say, but the differences between life as a Spartiate and a Persian subject were cosmic.

Another admirable thing about Sparta was its cult of courage and patriotism. We could use an infusion of that.

And when judging another society using contemporary values, you are treading on unstable ground.

Also, because the Spartans raised their men without women around, homosexuality was so rampant that they had to dress new brides up like men and cut their hair so that the groom would consummate the marriage.

And once homosexuality is embraced by a society at large, that society's fall is inevitable and likely near.

There was a lot to admire about the Spartans but even more to fear. They truly were great warriors but could be really brutal. Their treatment of the Helots was about as bad as slavery gets.

It always interested me that Sparta depended on slaves more than any other civilization but hardly anyone ever mentions it.

I will say one thing for them. After they defeated Athens, their allies, particularly the Thebans wanted to destroy Athens but the Spartans remembered when they had fought together against Persia and spared them.

Spartan support for the Spartan way may have something to do with the fact that they were indoctrinated with propaganda from birth and really didn’t have much of a choice. Ultimately though the Spartan system destroyed itself.

By all rights, the average Persian subject was more free than their Spartan counterpart. Sparta existed on the backs of Helot slaves, who coincidentally were not to immured of the Spartan cult of masculinity.

Even by the standards of Sparta’s contemporary Greek polises, they were barbaric. Certainly the other Greeks admired their military prowress, yet there was equal criticism and no one wanted to replicate their social system.

You don't think? Maybe try reading some history then think again.

SPARTA By William Percy

At 12 each boy was taken by a 22-year-old “inspirer,” who
trained him for the next eight years. Then,as he “listener” began to sprout facial and body hair, he went on active full-time military duty and was assigned to a barracks where he had to sleep until he was 30, continuing to return to dine with his messmates. At 30 the inspirer married a girl of 18, who on her wedding night lay face down in a dark room in boy's attire with close-cropped hair, and henceforth he slept at home.

Exactly!

I was wondering how the author of this piece swallowed that movie as fact.

Spartans used to leave their weak and sickly newborns on hills... to die.

The rest were kicked to see how loudly they screamed, and sorted accordingly.

As for Xerses, the Spartans were fighting their neighbouring Greeks as much as they were, the Persians.

all armies that conquered or took "prisoners" had slaves. That's what they mean by "to the victor goes the spoils".

you kill all the warriors, kill the male children or enslaved the rest and if they were unfit, unwilling or a burden...death.

AND.......... of course the Spartans had to be homosexuals, just like ALL the Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, just like all the writers, poets, composers, DaVinci, Michaelagelo, Abe Lincoln, Shakespeare(or a woman), Andrew Jackson, and anybody else that accomplished anything in history.

If you want to be a famous man..... head to the bus station bathrooms or the city park bathrooms in order to meet your destiny.

Gawd, I'm so frickin sick of hearing about gays....

The article just goes to show the intellectual paucity of many American conservatives. Sparta was no beacon of freedom defending democracy and “Western” values. It was an outpost of unrelenting totalitarianism defending it’s right to exist. ... a place in which the government would steal children from their mothers and families to be totally indoctrinated by the state as killers (a feat that surpassed even Hitler and Stalin’s wildest dreams of social engineering) is not something most Americans would celebrate.

The Spartan ephors, however, were elected by the popular assembly and the ephors, in turn, had checks and balances power over the Kings themselves. Whether we in 21st Century America agree or not with how the citizens of Sparta elected to structure their government does not change the fact that the citizens of Sparta structured their government as they d@mned well pleased.

I would also point out that Sparta's devotion to the core value of "defending it’s right to exist" should not be taken for granted ......

..... especially in 21st Century America.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.