In Defense of the West

When the movie 300 came out, there were mixed responses amongst many of my friends. Some loved it. Some hated it. Some scoffed at the suggestion that the Spartans were the defenders of freedom and liberty and the West. Some wondered why everyone was wearing a leather bikini...

I loved the movie. I thought it was a lot of fun, but more than that, that it spoke to a call that I believe rang out at Thermopylae, and again and again throughout the ages...the call to defend the West.

I cannot offer the most articulate defense of this idea, "The West", and even if I did here offer up my best thoughts, they would be poor shadows of better men's thoughts. What I will offer tonight is my best reason for believing that 300 got something important right.

The Spartan 300 have been hailed through the ages as some of the first glorious martyrs for the cause of the West. Many have suggested that this is a particularly ironic interpretation of the events, since the Spartans were not a free society...and their prosperity came at the cost of other's freedom (poor Helots). Still...they stood against the first global empire...they resisted a tyrant, in favor of preserving the Greek way of life; the Polis, and free citizens.

Were the Spartans perfect representations of the West that was born, in part, as a result of their efforts? No. Barely a generation later, Spartans would be responsible for sacking Athens, the seat of freedom and liberty in Greece. But against the Persians, the Spartans stood with their fellow Greeks, in defiance.

Reynolds used to tell us that it was a sign of the downfall of the West that he is allowed to teach us at all. By this same reasoning...it is a sign of how fragile and new the West was that the Spartans were among the defenders...yet defend it, they did. They worked to establish a future they did not even comprehend, a world they would not have been allowed to inhabit, once it was established. They faced overwhelming odds and certain defeat, with hope and reckless abandon, for the tomorrow they would not allow to slip away into the night.

"They ushered in a future brighter than anything they could imagine."

Today, we may be poor, shattered, fragments of the inheritance to which we still cling. We teachers may barely qualify as students, starting their educations, in the generations that have gone before. Our challenges are daunting, and it is doubtful that the tide can be held back; but our task is clearly set out before us. As the last heirs of the West in twilight, it is ours to hold the line, to stand as 300 stood in a gap and make a mark that will change history. It is a good time to be a teacher.