Posted on 08/19/2007 11:22:00 PM PDT by freedom44
Watching 300 does not make me mad at Iran.
Iran’s pursuing nuclear weapons to wipe Israel off the face of the earth makes me mad at Iran.
Points off your argument for when the Iranians allowed themselves to be conquered and colonized by human history’s biggest slave traders, the Muslim Arabs.
Ooooh boy, this guy is going to be the one to teach us history??.....
Cyrus Kar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Kar
The United States is not a democracy. It is a representative Republic. The Democrats are loathe to admit this, since “Democratic” is their whole schtick. This makes it tough for them to recognize our form of government in name. It would kill them to acknowedge, for a lack of a better term, that we have a Republican form of nation.
As we reach out to other nations like we have in Iraq, we set up Republics. We don’t set up Democracies.
I suspect you could have a Bill of Rights under a democracy. I still don’t think that form of government would be superior to our own.
"He also claimed that he was hooded, threatened, taunted and insulted by US soldiers."
Geez, glad they could get an objective reviewer to look at this flick!
Inaccurate. Persian society had as many slaves as the Greeks, if not more. Most importantly, every Persian and Persian subject was by definition a slave of the King, and referred to himself as such.
In monarchic Persia, however, women enjoyed a level of gender equality unmatched even to this day
I keep hearing this, but have not seen anythin resembling proof. The Persians actually invented the custom of keeping women in purdah (a Persian word), and Arabs and Muslims adopted it from them.
Democracy can often lead to tyranny by the majority as was the case in democratic Athens, where women, slaves and foreigners did not have the right to vote.
This is, of course, much worse than Persia, where only the King had the right to vote.
The Spartans were Greek Jihadists who lived only to die. They were by all accounts ruthless savages who murdered Greek slaves known as "Helots" just for sport, cultivated a culture of thievery and rape, and practiced infanticide, as the movie '300' rightly points out in its opening scenes. Sparta was not even democratic. It was an oligarchy at best.
A not inaccurate description of the Spartans, although rather incomplete. As far as infanticide goes, all ancient peoples except the Jews practiced it. The difference in Sparta is that the State rather than the father decided which children would be raised and which killed.
Despite knowing all this, the West continues to hail the Spartans as the saviors of Western democracy.
The Spartans (and the other Greeks) did save Western democracy, although that was certainly not the Spartan intent. Had the Persians conquered Greece, we would live in a very different world, one in which Western civilization had been crushed as a seedling. It might be a better world, or worse, but it would certainly be different.
I really don’t see what the author is worried about - I didn’t see “300” but from the endless commercials it apparently featured some bearded guy who would not stop yelling like a crackhead. From what I remember about the Spartans, they practiced and encouraged pederasty, killed children who didn’t measure up to military standards, and murdered slaves as part of their training. There’s nothing in the history of the Greek-Persian wars to embarrass Iran. It’s today’s insane Islamism that should embarrass Iran.
Ping to read the full text later.
IMO 300 was a entertaining movie with a good core message on freedom. But it has almost zero value on history.
The core truth of the film is that few brave Spartans held off a superior Persian army, which was later defeated at Platea. That’s about it. Admittedly the film never claims to be historical. It’s a grapic novel adaption narrated through the eyes of an Spartan specator. Fair enough.
It is fully justified for Freepers (and a lot of other people) to hold this film in high esteem, especially in the face of the evil Islamic Republic of Iran, our arch-enemy.
But the point is that it’s ISLAM which makes them evil. Islam is the problem, not Persia. The Mullahs despise the old Persian heritage and are since 30 years eradicating it.
The Zoroastrian faith is the older cousin of Christianity and Judaism, and we should look not only to Greek authors but also to the Bible when learning about Persia.
Let us also not forget the long and close friendship between Americans and Iranians which reaches back to 1906 when the American Missionary Baskerville died fighting alongside the Persian constitutionalists in the struggle for an modern Iran. Also don’t forget the numerous Americans like Millspaugh, Shuster who were Iranian finance ministers and not at least the close Iranian-American military and political partnership under the Shah.
Maybe when the Islamic regime in Iran is dead we’ll see a shift in perception of Persian history again.
Slavery under the Persians.
http://hsc.csu.edu.au/ancient_history/societies/near_east/persian_soc/persiansociety.html
Source of strain on American-Iranian relations:
JIMMY CARTER’S FAULT
LOL. Were Persian women even allowed to own swords?
There was actually at least one Persian Empresses reigning.
In Sassanian Persia (during the time of the wars with Rome) there were numerous Persian woman soldiers.
Sexual equality is a fundamental core of Zoroastrian religious thought and teaching in the Avesta.
LOL!
The Muslim Arabs should be glad, too. If Persia had been able to expand its empire into Europe, it would have been that much more to draw resources from for when Muhammed came along.
I wonder how his armies would have fared against a few legions of Spartans.
Thats a bunch of BS. The Spartans hated Democracy, in fact, they fought against the Athenians against the concept. They also did not believe in human rights nor did they have one God like the Persians.
Dear Mr. Kar,
The film was based on a comic book.
Thank you for your time.
Kudos! There are alot of FR posters with unusual hobby-horses - but you’re the first I’ve seen whose hobby-horse is to defend the honor of the ancient Persian Empire. And to that I say good luck - good luck in overturning history as it has been taught in the West for over 2,400 years.
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.