Sparta
After watching 300 last night, which I didn't expect to, I have come to the conclusion that I would have liked to have been a Spartan. I mean, I know I would have been discarded at birth due to my small size at the time, but ideally, in a different body, I think that's where I should have lived.
Here's the thing with Spartans. They had these incredibly rigid values, and though not everyone got to be a part of their society, for the select who did those values were everything: honor, justice, freedom. There was no equivocating in a society that essentially bred men to be warriors and women to be breeders of warriors. That's something I admire. Strength.
I have recently come to believe that not everyone is worthy to be included in everything. Certainly all can have a role in the world, but if they can't serve a greater purpose they should not be allowed to bring down others in a group venture. That's why I thought it was so poignant when the hunchback, who so desperately wanted to join the Spartan defenders, was rejected by Leonidas not because he was not strong or a potentially good killer, for he was both, but because he could not raise his shield high enough to ensure that he could protect his fellow warriors.
Toward the end of the film, after the hunchback has betrayed the Greeks to the Persians, Leonidas says to him: "May you live forever." A look of unbearable shame grips the hunchback's face.
With that I come to another reason I would have liked to have been a Spartan. To not only accept but to value death, and to hope for a "beautiful" one- that, to me, is one of the highest possible achievements of humanity. Sparta did it.
There is no higher glory than to die as a sacrifice for a cause or a person that you love.
Here's the thing with Spartans. They had these incredibly rigid values, and though not everyone got to be a part of their society, for the select who did those values were everything: honor, justice, freedom. There was no equivocating in a society that essentially bred men to be warriors and women to be breeders of warriors. That's something I admire. Strength.
I have recently come to believe that not everyone is worthy to be included in everything. Certainly all can have a role in the world, but if they can't serve a greater purpose they should not be allowed to bring down others in a group venture. That's why I thought it was so poignant when the hunchback, who so desperately wanted to join the Spartan defenders, was rejected by Leonidas not because he was not strong or a potentially good killer, for he was both, but because he could not raise his shield high enough to ensure that he could protect his fellow warriors.
Toward the end of the film, after the hunchback has betrayed the Greeks to the Persians, Leonidas says to him: "May you live forever." A look of unbearable shame grips the hunchback's face.
With that I come to another reason I would have liked to have been a Spartan. To not only accept but to value death, and to hope for a "beautiful" one- that, to me, is one of the highest possible achievements of humanity. Sparta did it.
There is no higher glory than to die as a sacrifice for a cause or a person that you love.