Athens and Sparta

The Z-man has two posts today about Athens and Sparta and how the neocons and Western Civilization in general (to which the neocons don't really belong, honestly) are dominated even now by the spectre of the Peloponnesian War. I think that that conclusion is the tail wagging the dog a little bit, but certainly comparisons can easily be made. https://www.takimag.com/article/the-last-war-for-the-neocons/

[I]t is good to think about the Peloponnesian War now that we once again have a war in Europe. Athens triggered the war with Sparta by getting involved in the dispute between Corinth and their colony of Corcyra. Corinth was a Spartan ally. Athens also imposed sanctions on Megarian citizens, another Spartan ally. The Athenian ambitions compelled them to confront Sparta, which was happy to remain in its own sphere of influence and let the Athenians dominate theirs.

This behavior is oddly similar to what we see from America with regards to Russia since the end of the Cold War. It has been three decades of pointless provocations, which have finally broken the peace in Europe. The entirety of the neoconservative subculture is now organized around using the war to bring the United States into direct conflict with the Russian Federation. They see this as their chance to bring about the last war.

Interestingly, the Golden Age of Athens preceded the war with Sparta. This came after the defeat of the Persians. This was when Athenian influence grew primarily through the flourishing of trade. After the Spartans finally defeated the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War, there was another period of cultural flowering. In the years following her defeat, Athens gave us Plato and Aristotle.

The point being that the Athens that looms over Western civilization was the product of peace rather than war. Wartime Athens was belligerent, arrogant, and destabilizing to the rest of the region. The great contribution to the West made by the Spartans was in finally defeating her old rival and ending her imperial ambitions. The Spartan defeat of the Athenian empire may have made Western civilization possible.

That is highly debatable, but it is something to consider as the Global American Empire stumbles into what is looking like its Sicilian Expedition. The thirty years of economic and technological flowering after the Cold War have made the American empire belligerent, arrogant, and destabilizing to the rest of the world. To the rest of the world, the modern Athens is becoming something to fear rather than admire.

Athens did not regain herself until it was finally defeated at the Battle of Aegospotami and forced to surrender to Sparta. Perhaps that is what we are about to see with the Global American Empire in Ukraine. Thucydides wrote that war is a violent teacher. Maybe this war finally breaks America of its imperial ambitions. Perhaps then America can go back to being what it aspires to be, the modern Athens.