Posted on 03/26/2007 6:36:58 AM PDT by RDTF
A society that does not value its warriors will be destroyed by one that does.
A low-budget movie with no recognized stars that presents a cartoonish version of an event that happened long ago and far away is a surprising box office hit.
The movie is "The 300," about the battle in 480 B.C. at Thermopylae between Greeks and Persians. Its opening grossed more than $70 million, more than the next 10 highest grossing movies playing that weekend combined.
"The 300" has been denounced by the government of Iran, and the battle it describes was cited by former Vice President Al Gore in his congressional testimony Wednesday as inspiration for Americans to fight global warming. That's a lot of buzz.
"The 300" has plenty of violence, sex and the largest number of ripped abdomens ever seen on the silver screen, which doubtless counts for much of its appeal. But there is more to it than that.
"The 300" is a simple story of good versus evil. A handful of valiant Spartan warriors, inspired by love of country and love of liberty, fight to the death against a foreign oppressor. (Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie.)
-snip-
"300" is soaked with the masculine virtues of courage, honor, patriotism and self-sacrifice, and the camaraderie that exists among fighting men who have been through a shared ordeal. These are little valued in Hollywood or contemporary society, and there is a hunger for them. This, I think, is the key to the movie's appeal.
We need to rediscover these virtues. At once the most preposterous and the most dangerous of contemporary beliefs is "nothing was ever settled by violence."
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Christians rose up in arms against the Roman empire that was killing them? No. Jesus warned his message would be distorted in the end times and he was correct.
Christians were not cowards - but how they fought (and should fight) was to willingly die through martyrdom WITHOUT ARMED RESISTANCE against authority. 'The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.'
Christ is not a jihadist,
We agree - see my comments.
Sure, Christians rise up and physically fight for their right to worship.
In Rome, itself, eventually they did (along with a lot of other things going on at the same time).
The Crusades were similarly a defensive fight against muslim oppression.
Indeed, in modern times, the answer is frequently violent.
Christians in Sudan need new AK-47s more than they need new Bibles.
This iconoclastic article aims to tear down Greek and Spartan values. Cyrus the son of Darius aside, Persians, like Mohammedans, have ever been the enemies of freedom.
They think they are all so clever because they see everything as shades of grey. NO, actually it is a remarkable childish, stupid way of looking at the world. By refusing to see anything as evil, the spoiled brats of the Baby Boomer years authorize themselves to do as they wish when they wish. By refusing to see anything as it is, the Boomers rationalize their moral cowardice in refusing to get off their fat sanctimonious butts and confront it.
Evil exists. Just because the Baby Boomers are all too great moral cowards to see it, or do anything about it, does not make it go away.
Your view is distorted.
Before Marathon the Greeks were never able to defeat the superior Persians - the Persians fought using combined arms of heavy and light infantry working with heavy and light cavalry. Greeks (especially Athens who instigated the war) were not only helping the rebellions in Asia Minor but sent forces to try and liberate Egypt from the Persians as well - all failed.
In open fields the Greek hoplite phalanx would be easily outflanked and defeated as it was over and over again by the Persians until Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander incorporated a cavalry element to their phalanx. Their cavalry was still inferior to the Persians but it prevented their outflanking and thus allowing the phalanx to smash into the weaker Persian infantry.
There was a real reason the defeat of Persia TWICE was seen as a miracle by the Greeks - because it was.
And the Athenians had a lot to do with that victory as well. In a few decades Sparta would take Persian gold to create a navy to be able to defeat Athens - Persia did get her revenge on Athens via her gold.
The vast remainder are cowards who naturally gravitate to their fellow cowards and look for reasons to call themselves brave in their quest for acceptance...
The vast remainder are lefties who would be telling us how necessary the WOT is, if Al Gore or the Clintons were running it...
Only the Catholics viewed the Crusade as a holy war - the Crusade was against Christian teaching even f justified from a secular point of view - i.e. the Roman Emperor at Constantinople requesting military aid against the Turks from Western Europe via the Pope. The emperor never requested a holy war or imparted a religious dimension to his request for military assistance. In fact Eastern Christianity was horrified at the notion of holy war like Crusade and insisted that the knights came to fight as soldiers sworn to the emperor, not to Christ.
300 is a ground breaking film in many ways
Molom Labe!
Molon Labe - Molon ending with an n.
I certainly agree with much of what you say, particularly with regards to the self-absorbed narcissism of the baby boom generation and the society that they have wrought. Furthermore, I do try to see things in terms of black and white (recall that my original post on this thread was about moral absolutes). Having said that, if one truly wants to try to see things as they really are, sans any gray area, one needs to keep in mind that we cannot possibly know what's on another man's heart. I find little, if any, disagreement with you when you state the anti-war movement empowers evil. I merely think that your blanket implication is that all persons in the anti-war movement are enablers of evil is incorrect...not by much, mind you, but there are a handful of exceptions, and to dismiss a Ron Paul with the same casual regard as Cindy Sheehan is in fact, to muddy the water and fail to see matters in the clarity of black and white.
Cyrus the son of Darius aside, Persians, like Mohammedans, have ever been the enemies of freedom...
Actually, I believe Darius was the grandson or great grandson of Cyrus the Great...
What a pathetically gutless generation that can look at those items and still refuse to admit to the completely evil nature of our current foes. Truly the Boomers are America's Worst Generation.
So if you were against the Kosovo war were you a bleeding heart lefty?
Maybe we need more complexity in our thoughts rather than simplicity? Not so much that we become like Hamlet the Dane but not too little that we are like Homer the Simpson.
Greeks (especially Athens who instigated the war) were not only helping the rebellions in Asia Minor but sent forces to try and liberate Egypt from the Persians as well - all failed.
How nice of you to see that...thanks
"Christians NEVER rose up against the pagan Romans. That is an outright lie."
Yeah, I forgot Constantine was peace-nick. Tell that to Maxentius, et al.
Did I imply the resistance was not justified? Of Course Asia Minor was Greek. Should still be if I had magic powers.
I can think of no other group of people in history that were as self-absorbed or had a bigger sense of entitlement.
The emperor (Byzantine) never requested a holy war or imparted a religious dimension to his request for military assistance.
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