I recently saw the movie 300, a modern, storyteller retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae, arguably one of the most important battles in all of Western history. The movie itself was what it was-a hyperviolent, CGI animated, cinematographic masterpiece with a shallow plot and dialog used as an excuse to advance the audience from one action sequence to the next-and this post is not intended as a review of the film, as there are plenty more capable reviews than any I might produce.
Instead, seeing 300, as often happens with the cinema retelling of important stories, inspired me to look back at this important moment in history and reflect on what its importance might be for modern Westerners. As with most such reflections, I came away with the compelling realization of how true the adage of ‘those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat it’ holds even in our modern time.
For those who are not familiar with the Battle of Thermopylae, that battle was one of several fought during the second attempted Persian invasion of Greece, led by the terrifyingly effective Xerxes the Great. At Thermopylae, the Spartan king Leonidas led a force of several thousand Greek volunteers, including 300 Spartan professional warriors, in a delaying action against the advancing Persian army which likely numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
After three days of fighting, all 300 Spartans as well as 700 Thespian allies were killed by the Persians, but not after suffering casualties numbering in the tens of thousands. The result of this battle was to delay the advance of the Persian land invasion long enough to allow the Greeks to complete their sacred Olympic games, raise and army, and defeat the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis and at the army at the Battle of Plataea about a year later.
What makes this battle so important is that it reflects the dedication and perseverance of free people not only to defend themselves but also to continue to live as free people in the face of the threat of enemies who would take away that freedom. The Battle of Thermopylae was fought so that the Greeks could celebrate their Olympic games even while the most massive army ever assembled to that time invaded their lands. This battle was fought because free men, volunteers, were willing to die for their fellow Greeks so that they could fulfill their religious obligations.
Such dedication to cause is a rare thing; however it is one of the very things upon which the Western World was built. The Greeks of 480 BC understood the importance of defending themselves against a brutal enemy just as much as they understood the need to protect their culture by continuing to practice the very things that united them as a people. In doing so, they accomplished both, and laid the foundation for the next 2500 years of the advancement of the West.
The parallel to our modern times is striking. Granted, we are not being invaded by a physical force, but the West is being attacked by an ideology that threatens to destroy everything we cherish as Westerners-freedom, liberty, and self-determination. This ideology of fundamentalist Islam has many of the same ideals that motivated the Persians to try to conquer the world-belief in the divine righteousness of their cause and the destiny of all peoples to be subjugated to their cause.
Meanwhile, a few insightful and dedicated leaders-George Bush, Tony Blair, John Howard, and others-have committed themselves to fighting and defeating fundamentalist Islam whether that fight is popular or accepted, simply so that the rest of the West can continue to live their lives as they wish without the fear of the subjugation fundamentalist Islam brings.
This fight is being carried out by volunteer fighting forces-many of the nations participating in the Coalition do not have compulsory military service and all of the nations in the Coalition are voluntary participants-on behalf of the West so that Westerners do not have to endure the threat against them themselves. Further, this fight is being won in every imaginable military sense.
Unfortunately, the historical parallel fails in the face of the one aspect the Greeks of 480 BC did not possess: widespread popular culture. It is in the aspect of that popular culture that the West fails to grasp the historical lesson of our fundamental forbearers and to apply that lesson to the events of our own times.
Popular culture, through the 24-hour news cycle and the undo influence of media personalities on the thinking of citizens, paints a very different picture of the events of the war against fundamentalist Islam than the facts of that war support. Within popular culture, the belief is that the aggression of fundamentalist Islam is the fault of the West-actually the fault of the Western ideals of freedom, liberty, and self-determination-and that, if we would just leave fundamentalist Islam alone, it would leave us alone.
Further, popular culture claims that most people are not smart or understanding enough to grasp the complexity of its flawed view. Popular culture wants those who submit to it to simply accept its view as true and ignore the facts in favor of its retelling of them. In essence, popular culture seeks to subvert the West in the same way that fundamentalist Islam seeks to force the West into submission.
Therein lies the greatest lesson taught to us by the Persian Wars and the Battle of Thermopylae, the refusal to submit to a foreign will, even when it might look like that submission is the easier route. The Greeks refused to submit to the Persians, and while it meant sacrifices to resist that submission; those sacrifices were paid because the result was worth the cost. As a result, the entirety of Western civilization owes a great debt of gratitude to a few thousand Greeks who fought to the death at Thermopylae.
The question, now, is whether future generations of Westerners will look on this generation of the West with the same gratitude. Will those generations see the principled resistance of our leaders and the selfless sacrifice of our militaries as another example of the same dedication to cause that the Greeks of 480 BC possessed? Or will they despise us because we did not have the will to resist when we had the chance, thereby subjugating future generations to a will not their own. Will we remember our history and its lessons? Or will we have to learn those lessons again the hard way?
Good post. Nice research.
Was the movie worth the cash in your un trained movie critic opinion Gene Siskel?
WDR
As a ‘guy’ movie it was worth every penny.
-=DLH=-