The people who fight for civilization, and those who seek its destruction.
By Christopher Cook
For those of you have yet to see 300
This movie is not just about the past. It's about today. Right now.
It's about each one of you who stands in the breach against the enemy.
And it's about each one of you who stands against the enemy within, who would happily widen that breach.
Today's enemy is Islamofascism, but it is little different from the hordes following the tyrannical King Xerxes.
Today's enemy within is the left, both at home and across the globe. And they too are little different from the scheming legislator Theron and the vile Ephori, who were willing—even eager—to see all Sparta kneel before Xerxes, just to gain power.
How is the left today any different? Do they not see their own nation, their own people, their own military as the enemy? Do they not seek to withdraw us from the field, to give the enemy the day?
And just as Sparta was the lynchpin that defended all Greece—that great cradle of democracy—is not the United States today the last bastion of freedom defending Western civilization?
But what care the left for Western civilization? They HATE Western civilization. They hate the men and women who defend it. They hate themselves.
But truly, this analogue is only the beginning — for what happened at Thermopylae may fairly be said to be the reason we are all breathing the fresh air of freedom today:
Xerxes is on the march. Land after land, king after king is falling under the Persian yoke. And now, Xerxes has set his eyes on Greece.
The Spartan King Leonidas knows that the only way to save Greece is to fight. His Queen knows it too:
Queen Gorgo: "Freedom isn't free at all, that it comes with the highest of costs. The cost of blood."
Leonidas must seek the approval of the Ephori, but these venal magistrates have already been corrupted by Persian gold, as has Theron.
Ephor #1: Sparta wages no war at the time of the Carneia.
King Leonidas: Sparta will burn! Her men will die at arms and her women and children will be slaves or worse!
Ephor #2: Trust the gods, Leonidas.
King Leonidas: I'd prefer you trusted your reason.
Having been denied permission, but knowing they must fight, Leonidas is wracked with conflict. He leaves his bed, deep in thought, but his Queen calls him back.
Queen Gorgo: There's only one woman's words that should affect the mood of my husband. Those are mine. ...
King Leonidas: Then what must a king do to save his world when the very laws he has sworn to protect force him to do nothing?
Queen Gorgo: It is not a question of what a Spartan citizen should do, nor a husband, nor a king. Instead, ask yourself, my dearest love, what should a free man do?
So Leonidas finds a way to do what free men must do.
Statesman: My good king! My good king! The oracle has spoken.
Second Statesman: The Ephors have spoken. There must be no march!
Theron: It is the law, my lord. The Spartan army must not go to war.
King Leonidas: Nor shall it. I've issued no such orders. I'm here, just taking a stroll, stretching my legs. These, uh, 300 men are my personal bodyguard.
And so Leonidas will defend Sparta, and by extension all Greece, by taking his brave 300 to try to hold off Xerxes at the Hot Gates (Thermopylae). He hopes that his actions will awaken the Spartan legislature and people, to mobilize the rest of the army, to act as one against the enemy.
And so they did, eventually, though every single one of the 300 died doing so.
Now stop a moment and think.
These Greek city-states are showing the first stirrings of real democratic governance. A much greater percentage of people in Greece enjoy true freedom than in any of the neighboring lands. And it is about to fall under the yoke of a dictatorship.
What happens if Leonidas fails? Does the Grecian experiment in democracy fail too, as Greece is trampled under by Xerxes and his army of slaves?
If the Greek cradle of democracy had fallen, Rome would not have absorbed its ideals.
If Rome hadn't taken those ideals and spread them into the Western world, where would those ideals be today? How far along would the ideas of representative governance be?
Without the Roman example, what would Great Britain have become? Would she have produced the Magna Carta? Would she have produced us, or any of the other nations of the Anglosphere—the freest nations in human history?
A great king knows what he must do, but the enemy within seeks to prevent him. And so it is his wife's words that tip the scales. A single moment—words spoken in a bedchamber 2500 years ago—changes history. Leonidas knew the stakes all too well:
Leonidas: A new age has begun, an age of freedom. And all will know that 300 Spartans gave their last breath to defend it.
And so we see the how our freedom is dependent on the acts of brave men......and brave women.
One of the greatest moments in the film comes early on, during the meeting with the Persian messenger:
Messenger: What makes this woman think she can speak among men?
Queen Gorgo: Because only Spartan women give birth to real men.
Just like the sacrifice of Leonidas and the 300 reverberates to this very day, in the free air we breathe, so too does a comparison between two women of today:
Recently, MoveOn.org put out an ad called "Not Alex." It features a young mother, holding her son. It is, needless to say, an "anti-war" ad. Here is the text:
"Hi, John McCain; this is Alex. He's my first. So far, his talents include trying any new food and chasing after our dog — that, and making my heart pound every time I look at him. So, John McCain, when you said you would stay in Iraq for 100 years, were you counting on Alex? Because, if you were, you can't have him."
This women says that John McCain—and by extension this great nation—cannot have her son.
But this cowardly woman—who most likely mated with a cowardly wisp of a man—doesn't realize something vital: John McCain won't take her son. Neither will the military. She doesn't decide for him, at age 18 months or 18 years.
When he grows, he will decide—as a free man—whether to wear the uniform of his country.
It will be up to him to choose, not her or her accomplices at MoveOn.org. Perhaps, when he grows, he will throw off the corrosive ideology of his mother and recognize what Queen Gorgo did: "Freedom isn't free at all, that it comes with the highest of costs."
Contrast that with another brave woman of today. She is Ania Egland, wife of Air Force Major Eric Egland. Having grown up under the oppressive heel of communism, she knows the value and the price of freedom.
And she has responded to MoveOn.org's craven ad with an ad of her own. Here is the text:
"Hello Senator McCain, these are my precious boys Noah and Daniel. Their daddy served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I grew up under communism. So, when you say we have to protect freedom in Iraq, I understand. And, someday, I would be proud if they volunteered to serve this great country. Senator, thank you for your leadership."
Now THAT'S a woman. A mother of free men.
It is hard for a mother, even a mother who recognizes the cost of freedom, to see her child or her husband go off to war.
You think Ania Egland wants to see her sons die in war?
You think that when Queen Gorgo says to Leonidas, "come back with your shield, or on it," that she wants him dead?
If you're on the left—with your warped and twisted way of seeing everything—you probably do.
Gorgo desperately wants her man back, but she understands the necessity of his fight. And Leonidas' last words reflect his desire to live and be with her again: My Queen! My wife. My love...
And yet still, he sacrifices himself for the rest of us, so that we can live in freedom.
His Queen understood that. So does Ania Egland.
So now, I say to you, defenders of freedom everywhere—Remember Dilios' words...
Dilios: And so my king died, and my brothers died, barely a year ago. Long I pondered my king's cryptic talk of victory. Time has proven him wise, for from free Greek to free Greek, the word was spread that bold Leonidas and his three hundred, so far from home, laid down their lives. Not just for Sparta, but for all Greece and the promise this country holds.
[takes his spear from a soldier]
Dilios: Now, here on this ragged patch of earth called Plataea, Xerxes's hordes face obliteration!
Spartan Army: HA-OOH!
Dilios: Just there the barbarians huddle, sheer terror gripping tight their hearts with icy fingers... knowing full well what merciless horrors they suffered at the swords and spears of three hundred. Yet they stare now across the plain at *ten thousand* Spartans commanding thirty thousand free Greeks! HA-OOH!
Spartan Army: HA-OOH! HA-OOH! HA-OOH!
Dilios: The enemy outnumber us a paltry three to one, good odds for any Greek. This day we rescue a world from mysticism and tyranny and usher in a future brighter than anything we can imagine.
[puts on his helmet]
Dilios: Give thanks, men, to Leonidas and the brave 300! TO VICTORY!
[the Greek army roars and charges]
The left would see us all destroyed for nothing more than their own vile power and purposes. It is up to us—all of us—to stop them.
If 300 can hold of a million, you can make a difference.
You are the tip of the spear. You are Leonidas.
Feel like the left is too powerful? Keep fighting.
Does it seem like their arrows are blotting out the sun? Fight in the shade.
Does Obama loom like the god-king Xerxes? Never kneel.
And so I say to the left:
We are the tip of the spear. We will fight you. We will never yield.
This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this.
Thanks to Concrete Bob for sending us Ania Egland's ad. (Listen to the music on Bob's site!)
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