Lessons from Ancient Greece on Duty and Heroism

Now it's become fashionable that today to believe

that enlightened foreign

policy means prioritizing the global community over one's own people.

And I think here too, we have much to learn from the men of

ancient Greece,

because they knew that there was nothing selfish

or wrong about loyalty to your

nation,

nor anything selfish or wrong about fighting to defend its

interests

above all else.

They believed fiercely

in the ideal of the great man,

the exceptional individual who obtains immortality through his own

deeds.

But

they believed that glory and fame,

those things were won through striving, sacrificing, and

achieving greatly

for something larger than yourself.

The recurring hero of the ancient Greek world

was the man who was willing to pay any cost

for a cause worthy of his loyalty.

We see this in Socrates, who refused to abandon the inquiry into

truth,

even at the cost of his own life.

We see it in the legendary stand of three hundred Spartans,

surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered by the vast armies of Persia,

who refused the chance to save themselves,

choosing to fight to the last man

rather than abandon their post or abandon their duty.

And we see it in the epic myth of Achilles,

who's offered the choice to return home and live a long and peaceful

life,

but chooses instead to remain at Troy

and perish in pursuit of eternal glory.

These,

these are the qualities that would shape the Western moral

imagination

from the Christian martyr who refused to betray his faith

to the patriot who gave his life for his country.

From St. Thomas More

to the Battle of the Alamo,

running through the immortal closing words of the Declaration of Independence of

the United States, which says, "We mutually pledge to each

other our lives, our fortunes,

and our sacred honor."

It is from the Greeks

that the West inherited its sense of duty, an unbreakable loyalty

to one's code, one's cause, one's country.

Our heroes,

the heroes of the West are those who choose to remain faithful to

their duty

precisely

when it is most difficult and painful to do so.

The man who is bound by his word, the soldier who will not abandon his

post, the captain, the proverbial captain

who goes down with the ship.

This is wholly different from what we see even now,

for example, from fanatics like the radical mullahs of

Iran,

whose cult of death hails child suicide bombers as national

heroes

and portrays martyrdom as an end to itself.

Our heroes, our heroes may be willing to die for their

cause,

but our heroes do not worship death.

It is precisely because we value life

that we come to recognize the heroism in those who would sooner sacrifice it

than to betray their principles.

Now we take the West conception of these things, heroism, honor, duty, we

take these things for granted.

We assume that these somehow are universal to all people in all

times and in all places.

They are not.

They are the product of a distinct character,

a distinct character which arose here

and shaped the whole story of the civilization that came after it.

The civilization that we must fight to defend today

with the same passion

as our forefathers did.