Immortal Glory: The 25 Building Blocks That Will Exalt A Nation

In relation to the other ancient powers, Greece was less than a third world country. Where the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Persians lived in splendor and plenty, the Greek suffered amidst wretchedness and famine. Where the civilized ate cake and drank wine, the Greek was lucky to scrounge stunted grain and brackish water. Where other lands had Pyramids and Hanging Gardens, Greece had not even a hovel. If Greece were placed on a scale against any of these other powers, Greece would be catapulted up into the air. How did Greece against all odds rise to empire despite the whole wealthy world against them? Is it possible that other nations, states, and persons could  replicate the process? How? Perhaps we could venture to answer this question by using our understanding of Grecian history as a guide.

All the ancient sources agree that primeval greece was barbarous unto contempt; in fact Greece could have defined the meaning of barbarism itself. The 1828 Webster's Dictionary, however, defines "Barbarism" as "3. Rudeness of manners; savagism; incivility; ferociousness; a savage state of society."  (http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/Bbarbarism) 

What did a barbarous Greece look like? Not pretty. There were no vineyards, houses, or fields; thus, there were few people, doomed to live in misery. There were however, lots of clubs and spears for these were the implements the people used to rob and murder each other. When anyone got anything of value, bandits were not far behind. When owning a week's worth of food will get you killed, it's better to just eat for today and pray for tomorrow. Attica (the future home of Athens) was especially poor and undesirable. While other lands abounded in natural resources, Attica was sparse and barren. Because none cared to rob and slaughter such poor men in a desolate land, Attica's population boomed. Eventually Attica could no longer support her population, and some were sent to populate Ionia. Then it was that civilization started and once brother stopped killing brother, families grew rich and happy together. Men were then able to keep the fruits of their labour without fear from their neighbor's greedy sword and became an industrious people: they built houses, formed pottery, plowed fallow lands, fished, and traded. At first their wealth remained local, but soon Phoenician traders became attracted to the growing markets in greece and it was from these traders that Greece learned her letters among many other arts. Once the Greek was able to read and write, they were able to compile their oral traditions into papyrus scrolls in order to preserve their thoughts, ideas, conquests, failures, arts, and religion. Because of this, the works of Homer were preserved and we know something of the earliest exploits of the Greeks: The Trojan War.

Prior to the Trojan war, the Greeks were not considered one people, but lived in very small communities. But with the passing of time, the political atmosphere was ripe for a unified effort, which took shape in the abduction of a Grecian woman by the name of Helen. The Greeks then banded together for the first recorded time and destroyed Troy. Years latter, Persia claimed a right to invade Greece, for they considered any attack on Asia and Troy to be an offense to them. Herodotus, the ancient historian, then gives account of the Persian War.

Prior to the Persian war, the Greeks had returned to their homeland and once more separated into their separate tribes and cities; but the Persian war was again to unite Greece to a public cause. Not all the Greeks joined the cause of Greece however, for the Persians were at that time the supper power of the world, having conquered Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, and a good part of western India. Greece was among the very few places in the civilized world left unconquered, causing many Grecian states to submit willingly to Persian rule. But some states were not to be conquered, for their Patriotism was fierce. Can you  guess which to cities resisted Persian invasion? Athens and Sparta. Athens supplied a navel defense against the Persians and Sparta Prepared a land force against the same. The battle of Marathon was Athen's war against the Persians and the battle of Thermopylae was the Spartan's. Both won great renown and their people, forged in adversity became powerful and Robust. Thus Sparta and Athens became the primary states in Greece and all lesser states became subject to them.

with the passing of the Persian invasions, Greece entered a new stage of turmoil, for Athens and Sparta were both entering imperial governments, and Greece they supposed, was not big enough for the two of them and the Peloponnesian War was ignited. Sparta won the conflict, but didn't stay on top for long. Wikipedia recounts the aftermath of this Grecian strife as: "Both Athens and Sparta were later overshadowed by Thebes and eventually Macedon, with the latter uniting the Greek world in the League of Corinth (also known as the Hellenic League or Greek League) under the guidance of Phillip II, who was elected leader of the first unified Greek state in history." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece#History)

Thus Greece became a unified body and grew in power and prestige. Phillip II, unified the Greeks, but his son Alexander The Great would lead Greece to become the new supper power. He launched an invasion of the Persian Empire backed by the combined might of all the Greeks, spreading a Greek empire to the ends of the earth. Greeks filled the known world with their culture. As a result, the Western World found her identity. Empires won quickly and by conquest, do not last long. When Alexander died, his empire followed him to his grave. All the same though, Greece became a force to be reckoned with and changed the corse of history permanently.

Greece went from the epitome of poor to the masters of the universe, but how? Through philanthropy?Did any nation raise Greece like a mother raises a child? No, at best Greece had a few trading partners in the Phoenicians, but the Phoenicians didn't go to Greece because they were generous, but because Greece had something to offer them. Moreover, Greece was invaded multiple times! yet she somehow came out on top! How does a bunch of waring tribes become a super power? Here is a list of building blocks from the Greek's example on how to become a super power:

1. Individuals stopped plundering each other. 
2. Man did not fear relentless slaughter
3. Population boomed
4. Man did not fear being plundered
5. industry boomed 
6. Man became rich
7. Trade boomed
8. Technology boomed 
9. Education became available
10. Some men became more powerful than others
11. Power centralized
12. The waring and plundering cities stopped robing each other
13. Cities united for a common cause
14. The anatomy of power was refined 
15. Population, industry, trade, wealth, technology, and education were revolutionized
16. Prosperity invited inner tumult and external invasion (Persian Invasions)
17. The people are refined and higher morals established 
18. Population, industry, trade, wealth, technology, and education are revolutionized
19. Power struggles
20. The anatomy of power is further refined 
21. Justice prevails over injustice
22. The cities and states become unified under one government
23. Population, industry, trade, wealth, technology, and education are revolutionized
24. Influence exponentially expands 
25. A super power is formed

Each instruction is built on top of the first. A population is not built from plunder and murder! A population, on the contrary, is built upon safety and a surplus of food (wealth). If once the blocks of civilization start to tower high, and a block on the bottom is removed, then the tower will fall. If a super power becomes tyrannical, blocks are removed and the power reduced. This was how Greece went from chump to champ.

While Greece did win a place in history, she did stumble a few times. If a nation is built off of not killing each other,  destroying Troy is not a constructive (nor humane) path to victory. In a similar manner, conquering the world and subjecting other peoples dose not open the door to salvation. Furthermore, overly centralized governments typically spell ruin for any nation who supports them. As is clear, Greece had shortcomings, but she still able to construct, and out of those 25 building blocks was able to erect a monument that will stand as long as man can read.

I often imagine that I can use the past to become a powerful seer, and am able to divine the future based on my knowledge. In doing this I wonder what the fates of nations will be. Perhaps the current superpowers will topple because they removed a vital block. Perhaps there are nations currently small and weak, whom will someday be grand super powers because of their diligence in placing block upon block. I don't believe I imagine in vein, for the signs are clear: If America dares remove her foundation, she will fall. If the barbaric nations build block upon block, they will inherit the world.

Sources:
http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html
http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.html
http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.html
http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.html
http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/Bbarbarism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece#History

Grecian Golden Age and The Libertas Creed 2

It wasn't till greece began to be literate that their civilization truly became great. With the invention of reading, writing, and math Greece was able to enter it's golden age. The earliest know literature out of Greece is of course, the works of Homer, The Iliad and the Odyssey. From thence do we get a glimpse of what attributed to a Grecian golden age. The contributing factors, as we may glean from the pages of these antiquated books were that the Grecian people united, justice became more refined, morals were more firmly established, the people became more righteous. Justice for example, was the cause of the whole Trojan war fiasco in the first place, for, Paris son of Priam, abducted Helen from her homeland, and despite all legal means to get her back, Paris would not comply. The Morality of the Greek also became more abundant at the dawn of the West. While it is obvious that only the very best fighters would survive a ernest and violent war, what is not recognized is that morality also played a huge roll in the immortalized Trojan War. While natural selection picked off the weak and foolish amount the ranks, it also picked off the immoral. Patroclus is killed because of the pride of Achilles, as well as Achilles himself. Ajax is killed also for his pride when he mocked Poseidon. Agamemnon was murdered by his adulterous wife. And many other lesser Achaean heroes are killed by some moral deficiency. Odysseus was one of the few survivors and he is famed for his exceptionally steadfast morality. After the war was over, and the warriors returned to their homes, they all acted in greater righteousness than when they set out. 

From that most ancient time, Western history gets it's origin. As a result of the trojan war, and as a result of Homer, and whatever culture that went into ancient appreciation of Homer, we get later authors, philosophers, warriors, and playwrights as a heritage of that primeval war and that primeval storyteller. From 500 to 300 BC, Greece was basking in it's Golden Age. This Age of plenty and culture was largely the heritage of the Trojan war and Homer; but that was not all. 

The paramount factor to sparking and feeding the Grecian Golden age were the people at large, and great persons. The people at large began to value nobel virtues, moral values, and civilization. This general attitude among the people gave rise to the great men of the times, who of which can be found At Wikipedia linked here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ancient_Greeks

Therefore, what launched Greek's Golden Age was manny fold including: proper government,  justice, morality, Righteous people, An elevated culture, freedom of trade, promotion of arts and sciences by the general people, among so many others that it would be tedious to list them all, but you get the general idea. It cannot be stressed enough how a golden age is brought about and by whom. One man couldn't of done it alone; neither one class of people or race, creed, philosophy, or religion. For Greece to be come the cradle of Western civilization, it took all the people from many different backgrounds to define it as "Golden." 

The Libertas Creed is dedicated to anything that brings about and maintains such an age. While many disparage America and the world for declining and falling, The Libertas Creed refuses to take this view, preferring to, by it's efforts maintain whatever Golden Age heritage is left, and perhaps revive it; or, if this fails, to provide some basis for a golden age to come. There is a time when everyman must decide where he stands and what price he must pay. Will he flop into the dirt, degenerate and bestial; Or  will he stand like a man akin to God?




If you found this post illuminating, you may also like these other Libertas Creed posts:

Freedom to Increase

Hector: A Pillar of Strength

Humanism is Shortsighted I

Grecian Golden Age and The Libertas Creed 1

When upon cracking the ancient spines of the surviving Greek works, there is a general golden thread throughout all of them that hints at what it takes to launch a golden age for a civilization. In The History Of The Peloponnesian War, there is related a time before Greece ever be came great, or powerful, or influential; but where Greece was perhaps among the lowest of barbaric countries:

"For instance, it is evident that the country now called Hellas had in ancient times no settled population; on the contrary, migrations were of frequent occurrence, the several tribes readily abandoning their homes under the pressure of superior numbers. Without commerce, without freedom of communication either by land or sea, cultivating no more of their territory than the exigencies of life required, destitute of capital, never planting their land (for they could not tell when an invader might not come and take it all away, and when he did come they had no walls to stop him), thinking that the necessities of daily sustenance could be supplied at one place as well as another, they cared little for shifting their habitation, and consequently neither built large cities nor attained to any other form of greatness. The richest soils were always most subject to this change of masters; such as the district now called Thessaly, Boeotia, most of the Peloponnese, Arcadia excepted, and the most fertile parts of the rest of Hellas. The goodness of the land favoured the aggrandizement of particular individuals, and thus created faction which proved a fertile source of ruin. It also invited invasion. Accordingly Attica, from the poverty of its soil enjoying from a very remote period freedom from faction, never changed its inhabitants. And here is no inconsiderable exemplification of my assertion that the migrations were the cause of there being no correspondent growth in other parts. The most powerful victims of war or faction from the rest of Hellas took refuge with the Athenians as a safe retreat; and at an early period, becoming naturalized, swelled the already large population of the city to such a height that Attica became at last too small to hold them, and they had to send out colonies to Ionia." 

Hence all Western Civilization arose out of a land so poor, that it was unattractive to thieves and tyrants, but once people were left to enjoy their liberty and the fruits of there own labor, their population boomed so immensely that their influence began to colonize more fruitful lands nearby. The history continues to share another factor that attributed to the barbarism of the times: 

"There is also another circumstance that contributes not a little to my conviction of the weakness of ancient times. Before the Trojan war there is no indication of any common action in Hellas, nor indeed of the universal prevalence of the name; on the contrary, before the time of Hellen, son of Deucalion, no such appellation existed, but the country went by the names of the different tribes, in particular of the Pelasgian. It was not till Hellen and his sons grew strong in Phthiotis, and were invited as allies into the other cities, that one by one they gradually acquired from the connection the name of Hellenes; though a long time elapsed before that name could fasten itself upon all. The best proof of this is furnished by Homer. Born long after the Trojan War, he nowhere calls all of them by that name, nor indeed any of them except the followers of Achilles from Phthiotis, who were the original Hellenes: in his poems they are called Danaans, Argives, and Achaeans. He does not even use the term barbarian, probably because the Hellenes had not yet been marked off from the rest of the world by one distinctive appellation. It appears therefore that the several Hellenic communities, comprising not only those who first acquired the name, city by city, as they came to understand each other, but also those who assumed it afterwards as the name of the whole people, were before the Trojan war prevented by their want of strength and the absence of mutual intercourse from displaying any collective action." 

Thus was Greece not one state, but thousands of small tribes, which condition practically describes barbarism. It wasn't till these tribes were united into the larger powers called Athens or Sparta, that civilization started it's long assent to the top. It is important however to note that while a central authority is useful, a corrupt and overly powerful central authority is the best equipped to takedown the civilization it was originally established to promote. (While centralizing authority was a pedestal for civilization to build upon in the beginning, centralizing authority was also responsible for Greece's post golden age by initiating stupid wars, welfare, and fiat money.)

Read More: 

A Novel Idea: Make The Poor Rich

How should we, the rich, help the poor? 

Here's a novel idea: how about we help them to become rich too!

Instead of giving the poor lame, broken down apartments, why not help them into luxury condos?

Instead of trying to scrap together menial jobs, we help them into lucrative businesses!

Let's replace the dissolute public schools with reputable private schools.

Is it unimaginable that without lowering our own standards of living that we might raise the living conditions of the poor?

How should we, the poor, help ourselves?

Here's a novel idea: how about we become rich!

Instead of living in the slums, why not become what it takes to live in wealth?

Instead of trying to scrap together a pitiful living working for "The Man", we should work for ourselves!

Instead of blaming a crapy school for corrupting our children and keeping them ignorant, we should learn what it takes to teach them ourselves.

Is it unimaginable that we can become rich without anyone else becoming the poorer for it?

Question: What is Property?

Thomas Jefferson, upon writing the American Declaration of Independence, wrote "We hold theseJohn Locke, who was one of Jefferson's favorite political and philosophical authors. Here is the idea used by Jefferson, originally penned down by Locke: "The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions: for men being all the workmanship of one omnipotent, and infinitely wise maker; all the servants of one sovereign master, sent into the world by his order, and about his business; they are his property, whose workmanship they are, made to last during his, not one another's pleasure: and being furnished with like faculties, sharing all in one community of nature, there cannot be supposed any such subordination among us, that may authorize us to destroy one another, as if we were made for one another's uses, as the inferior ranks of creatures are for ours." While it makes sense on a fundamental level that these rights are every man's just due, what baffles is how widely each of these rights are interpreted.
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." However, this was not what was originally drafted. Prior to editing, Jefferson had written "Property" instead of "happiness" in imitation of

Take property for example. Suppose there existed an apple tree, who owns it? Locke would say the rightful owner of the tree would be him who labored to produce it. According to Contract Theory in economics however, whoever owns the land the tree is planted on, owns the tree and the person who grew it is a trespasser and a vandal. On the other hand ever since biological patents, the owner of the genes, owns the tree. Or, perhaps, the tree belongs to the common domain and used by all but owned by none. Or is it possible that all things under creation are the possessions of God? Or are all things in a country owned by the state, who sometimes think their God? Maybe property doesn't exist, or "Property is Theft" as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon contradictorily sloganeered. Property might merely be low liquidity assets on a balance sheet! Perhaps proper ownership goes to him who paid for it. perhaps property is voted upon by democratic majorities. perhaps only a small minority of lords and knights should own property and everyone else should be serfs. Perhaps what counts as yours is whatever you can claim and defend. Perhaps property is whatever you "mark" as yours? Etc.

That is fourteen different ways to define and assign property …and we wonder why everyone else thinks that there view of property is just and yours is not! If we want to come to any conclusions about anything, we had better define what is life, liberty, health, happiness, and property?

A Grand Estate Is Built With Assets

Almost everyone wants to be a millionaire, but few would want a million dollars is assets over strait, liquid cash. Consequently, everyone tries to build up there financial estates by the primitive means of the savings account, thinking that all they want is x amount of dollars with which to live upon in old age. To achieve this goal most would get a degree from a highly credible collage and find a job that supplies for there current needs plus a little extra to build their nest egg. They then plan to eat of their nest egg over the rest of their life span, perhaps leaving a little extra yoke for their posterity. Perhaps they own an acer of land, a paid-off car, and a paid-off house, but this is the entirety of their financial plans. When a majority of a population comes to accept this as the ultimate success formula, nations crumble.

What the "modern man" dose not grasp, is that $1Million in cash is not more valuable than $100K in cash and $900K in assets. While cash sits in a vault collecting dust and a pitiful 0.06% interest rate; assets, like a Swiss Army knife, retain that same store of value, and do many, many other valuable things. Assets appreciate, becoming more valuable. Assets in the form of inventory can churn a handsome profit. Assets, such as real-estate can produce rents for the owner, assets in the form of stocks can be kept for the dividend or flipped at a profit. Assets in the form of land, can be farmed, or developed, or used for natural resources, or kept for personal use. Land is especially useful because in the event of disaster, land 

will keep you from starving to death. 

To illustrate, think of two men who work the same job at the same hours and at the same rate. While one eats his paycheck, saving some to eat latter, the other also eats his paycheck, but rolls the excess into assets. several years pass and the two men are still hard at the grind stone, living the at the same standard of life; one has a savings account which is growing well, but only at the rate at which it is grown. The other, while he has some savings, also has shares in various companies which result in annual dividends, the dividends he uses to buy more assets. Eventually the second man is able to buy a plethora of diverse assets, exponentially growing his estate, whereas the first man has the exact sum of what he's saved plus 0.06%. Eventually, at age 65, the first man is able to retire comfortably, but the second can't because he has to work part time to manage all his wealth. When both men go the way of all the earth, there legacies live on. While both men raised happy families, and bought their children up well, the first man leaves his children what little left he had, while the second leaves his children a financial empire full of assets. A grand estate is built with assets. 

Thomas Jefferson's Own Books: A Glimpse Into Genius

The best books come used and may be tattered and stained, but often they also come annotated. Depending on the previous owner of the book, there might be additional gems of wisdom that you would miss if you bought new. One of the best examples of this are used textbooks. If you happen to ever be in a class where the teacher has not changed the curriculum in years, and you happen to own a well annotated textbook, studying becomes easier by spades: you can skim the book, only reading the highlighted sections, you can be prepared for essay prompts because the motifs have been discovered and analyzed by the previous owner, vocabulary words are not only circled but defined, etc.

What if on the other hand, you possessed a used book that wasn't some text book? What if you had a used, annotated book that had some higher significance? What if you owned the beloved, annotated book of some late genius, and you had a glimpse at their soul, and you too could develop your faculties to the same level of brilliance?

Take Thomas Jefferson. What if you could read what he was reading, with his notes and thoughts? Such a thing is possible. The Library of Congress houses a room, recreated to resemble Thomas Jefferson's library, full of his books. It was Thomas Jefferson's private books that did comprise much of the library at one point in it's early days:

"The book collections of the Library of Congress were reestablished, after their destruction in 1814, by the purchase of the private library of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). At the time of the purchase, Jefferson's collection contained 6,487 volumes in the fields of politics, history, science, law literature, fine arts, and philosophy and was recognized as one of the finest private libraries in the United States. While several members of Congress object that the collection "was too philosophical, had too many books in foreign languages, was too costly, and was too large for the wants of Congress," as Librarian of Congress Ainsworth Rand Spofford wrote many years later, the purchase was authorized on January 26, 1815, for the sum of $23,950. The Jefferson Library forms the nucleus around which the present collections of the Library of Congress have been assembled. For nearly a century the subject arrangement that Jefferson developed from Sir Francis Bacon's division of knowledge was used to organize the Library of Congress book collection. Jefferson's statement, "There is, in fact, no subject to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer," is still the guiding principle for Library acquititions.

While many of the Jefferson books were lost in the Library fire of 1851, the remaining volumes have been assembled as a unit in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Many books bear Jefferson's ownership markings as well as the original Library of Congress bookplates and classification. The contents of the entire 1815 purchase were reconstructed by E. Millicent Sowerby and described in a five volume set entitled which is now made available digitally." http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/130.html

To think that his books, along with a piece of his soul in annotation form is available to read is astounding, but rather inaccessible if you live a thousand miles away. Thankfully, such literature is available to the general public in an accessible form. Here is a link to an internet sight for the Rare Books and Special Collections Reading Room of the Library of Congress, which can be found a collection of PDF files for
a selection of Thomas Jefferson's books at:httwww.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/130.html

3 Inspiring Disney Quotes

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."

"All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you."

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."

Walt Disney

The Last Library Is Yours

What would the world, in a thousand years from now, know about the present and the past if all they had to go on was from was your house and personal library? A hypothetical question perhaps, but just suppose that a great apocalypse happened, and all knowledge was lost. The world goes through another dark age, and then conditions become just so to spark a renaissance, resulting in countless scholars involved in a desperate search for ancient knowledge;  scholars just like Gemistus Pletho, Leonardo Bruni, and Petrarch. These renaissance scholars scour ruins and search through the rubble for the relics of our time, only to find garbage and trifles not worth mentioning. But one day, fateful archeologists uncover a secret; not unlike Howard Carter, who discovered Tut's tomb, or the archeologist who uncovered Troy, Heinrich Schliemann. This discovery is a house, your house, mostly intact and undamaged. Excitement in the academic community spreads to all parts of future society as huge secrets about the past wait to be told. What would your house and library reveal?

The future inquirers would search through your preserved home and bring to light pre-apocalyptical inventions like light bulbs, television, and rotating fans; treadmills, computers, and synthetic clothing; refrigerators, automobiles, and Phoenician blinds. All of these are mind shattering revelations that have the potential to turn a early renaissance economy into a full scale modern economy, capable of feeding billions. The only way to tap that potential, however, is to also be equipped with the philosophy behind the inventions. After all, what can one do to make a car if they don't know what an assembly line is? How could millions of cars be manufactured when war is the constant condition and no protection from foreign invasion and internal tumult exists? If everyone in 3000 AD are under oppressive monarchies, then what are the incentives to produce cars when all they make is the property of the king? Can you see how useless our inventions would be on a grand scale if our libraries were not included with them? It would be like the  saying: "give a man a fish and he will be hungry the next day. Teach a man to fish and he will be fed forever."

So, what would your library unveil? What would it teach? How would it be a benefit to future generations? How will it not only be of historical significance, but also of spiritual, temporal, philosophical, moral, theoretical, empirical, rational, biological, artful, scientifical, theological, legal, economical,  geographical, mathematical, astronomical, importance? If you are looking through your library (if you even have one), and are starting to feel proud that you own a large selection of classics from many of the different sciences, than good. You would be the future founder of an empire of light and knowledge. But If you are looking through your library and all you see is teen fiction, trashy romance, abridged novels, and goofy picture books, then congratulations, you gave the future a rational for why there was an apocalypse.

If all that existed were these, it would give the future the impression that we were pagans believing in magic dragons as evidenced from our fiction, and adulterers as evidenced from our romance, and uneducated from our novels, and deathly drunk from our picture books. If all we had from greek culture was the pantheon and low-rate plays, we'd be likely to dismiss their entire culture, but those things, mixed with the philosophy, math, and science enhances our own understandings, and having both good writings and bad writings better reflect reality. Therefore, I'm not suggesting that you purge every last paperback novel you picked up from the airport bookshop from your library, these books obviously have value, but exclusively owning these kinds of books would not only reflect poorly on us from a futuristic standpoint, but bluntly, omitting the great classics is grounds for an apocalypse.