This week in Athens, standing in front of the Parthenon, Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a remarkable speech which I think in time will be considered to have been an historic one. At this link, you can see a video of the speech or read the complete transcript of it.
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It reminded me of an afternoon in the 1950s when taking a bus home from junior high school, I looked around and saw the Greek Orthodox kids studying Greek, the Catholic kids studying their Latin, and the Jewish kids studying Hebrew. In those days, and in that cold Wisconsin winter, parents still understood the importance of the ancient history of Western civilization, our heritage, and the great and important lessons to be learned from it. They made efforts to make sure we got it.
Rubio began by emphasizing how much the American Founding Fathers were indebted to our Greek heritage, which, in his view, gave us democracy, Western philosophy, “Our ideas of law, of virtue, of citizenship, and republican government.” Just as important, we learned from ancient Greece “the essential traits that come to define the West.” Things like “fierce individuality and restless ambition, daring exploration and invention, a yearning for discovery, for adventure, risk and glory.”
(The very notion of ancient Greece — that the unknown can be known — sets them (and us) apart from the barbarians in much of the world now flooding our cities, who believe everything that can be known has already been revealed and cannot be questioned or improved upon.)
Secretary Rubio accurately described the present stasis of much of the West. Where once we understood that struggle and competition were the path to excellence, the modern world has ignored this truth:
Now I know that to modern ears, what I just described, this way of life, may sound odd; it may even sound cruel. The ideal of many ideologies in our time has, frankly, become a world of perfect safety, devoid of risk or failure, with neither the glory of victory nor the shame of defeat. Too often these days, we build downwards. We design our standards to ensure no one will lose; we preoccupy ourselves more with the comfort of the worst than the potential of the best. We hold the most exceptional things among us hostage to the average, the ordinary, the mediocre…
The thumos, as the ancient Greeks called it — the fire of passion, strength, courage, pride — is the heart of great civilization. And without it? Without it, nations lose their will to fight, the will to strive, the will to survive.
He defended the idea of nationalism, a ”dirty word” to many after World War II,
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Even as Paris burns, as Brussels is overrun with thugs, as barbarians march unhindered on the streets of London and Amsterdam, and Sweden’s no-go zones keep increasing, Germany’s AfD’s gains are remarkable, and Marine Le Pen’s popularity in France keeps growing. Things do seem to be turning around a bit.
Rubio argues we are at a “crossroads,” and he sees “the beginnings of a generational shift” pointing to vastly increased defense spending, new partnerships, and expanded manufacturing and production.
He urges Europe to work with us against the new threats of aggression and terrorism, rebuilding our institutions and alliances to face those threats. We have “distinct identities,” he concedes, but sovereignty, he contends, does not need us to abandon those “in order to recognize [our] common interests”.
I hope his optimism is warranted, for without substantial generational change, Western Europe seems to me to be doomed.
On the domestic scene, ICE agents are still being stalked and attacked, and in Chicago violent crime keeps soaring, including attacks on immigration enforcement. The satire site Babylon Bee nails it:
@TheBabylonBee
To Save Time, Chicago Nightly News Just Going To Report Names Of People Not Shot That Day
The President has ordered the deployment of 300 National Guard troops there. The Guard has done a fabulous job in Washington, D.C., cleaning up the city and sharply reducing crime. The nation’s capital seems safe, fresh, and welcoming again. The District, our national capital, has a special status in law, however, giving the White House greater authority here. In Chicago, the President certainly seems, under existing precedent (the “protective principle”), to be free to deploy the Guard to protect federal workers and institutions like ICE. Has crime grown so bad in Chicago that he has broader authority to act? We’ll soon find out, because the governor of Illinois and mayor of Chicago, under whose watch this crime wave exists, are filing judicial challenges to the President’s actions to halt any deployment there.
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