How to Study Aristotle

I have read several philosophical books in my life. Some books flow like a novel and are easy to understand. Some, however, are gritty and full of terms and hard ideas. Socrates is very easy to read because he only used dialogue with others to express ideas. He follows a linear storyline. Imannuel Kant, however, uses very technical words that don't translate from German well. Aristotle is the same way. His work on mathematics requires the utmost attention to detail. Indeed, reading Aristotle is like reading the owners manual to your car, its very dry but can be very interesting if you are a mechanic are a car enthusiast. So, how do you get the most out of your experience in reading Aristotle's works?

First, don't be afraid to get a bright neon green highlighter. Aristotle isn't something you can just glance over. doing that will only result in you getting lost in the argument. highlighting keywords, phrases, and favorite passages is an essential step in understanding and retention. Additionally, don't be afraid to write notes in the margin. Try summarizing in your own words to check for understanding. 

Second, if your copy of the Nichomachian Ethics, or Aristotle's Physics that includes footnotes, use them! These footnotes provide context for what he said. They provide details on Grecian culture and history. They also reference philosophers that Aristotle took inspiration from as well as the thoughts and opinions of philosophers that Aristotle influenced in return. Sometimes, they simply define words that require a nuanced understanding. 

Third, be a peace with the fact that it might take you an hour to read just one page. Aristotle requires a lot of mental effort. You can't simply read over it! you have to think about what he said and judge the content. Aristotle didn't write for a mass market like authors do today. He didn't even write for students per se. His intended audience were fellow scholars and philosophers. His ideas don't come gift wrapped! They are raw and he expects you to challenge everything he says. 

Remember that understanding doesn't come all at once. It takes discipline. An experienced reader will have an easier time than a new one. If you are a new reader, or at least you don't feel up to reading Aristotle, don't let that stop you. It may be harder for you and take you more time to read, but if you want it badly enough you can do it. 

The rewards of reading Aristotle and philosophy are immeasurable. It may be hard but the benefits are worth it. Knowing wisdom will show a person how to live a good life, how to have discipline in life, and how to judge between right and wrong. It teaches logic and guides a person to wise choices. Wisdom is the greatest friend and most trusted advisor. 

Keep reading and keep learning!

A Rebellious Mouse, A Cat, And Tolerance

In a den craftily hidden under a bramble lived a family of field mice. They lived quaintly and quietly for many years until one of the younglings newly come to maturity decided to rebel from the precepts of his father mouse and befriended a barnyard cat. One day the young mouse took his friend with him to his place of birth, thinking in this way to please his companion and to overthrow the vein teachings of his father. When the cat and mouse entered the hidden den, the other field mice shrunk in fear, but the young mouse upon seeing the fear of his parents and siblings said "Fear my friend not, for he is a just cat! It is my father's animus and intolerance that should be feared!" The cat replying said "Tis true that I am just, and because it is my nature to devour mice, I do no wrong." And with that the cat ate every mouse present.

Thus we see that danger lies in extending tolerance to the insidious.

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

You, Thieves, and Hot Dogs: A Fable

Imagine that you are taking a stroll through the park when you are suddenly assailed by thieves, but before you are pilfered, the leader engages you in conversation in the most cavalier fashion: "I thank you generously for your contributions today, as you see, we are poor men, who would otherwise perish if it twern't for your kind soul."

And with that, he and his thugs proceed to brain you with a baseball bat and borrow your wallet. Afterwards the leader examines the contents of your wallet, he takes forty percent, and leaves the rest saying: "For milk and groceries. You are welcome. Come back in two weeks."

You walk away dazed, praying that the stolen money might actually do some good for the "poor" men, and not just enable them to live riotously. As you walk, you begin to recover some of your senses, including your sense of smell. Your clever nose quickly detects a park vendor selling hot dogs.  You realize that the beating has made you terribly hungry. You walk up to the cart decked in sausage links, and ask the man politely at what price his bratwursts are. You pay, and walk away happier than you arrived.

As you walk cradling your meal in your hands, you see a crowed surrounding a shouting man standing on a soap box. Normally, you might rather continue homeward, but a piping hot brat waits for no man, so you settle down on a park bench to eat and listen. The speaker shouted thus: "Everyone listen to me! A great evil has taken over our park!"

"Good!" you think to yourself while savoring the perfectly toasted bun. "Those park pirates are going to get it now!" Between the sweet relish and sweet revenge, you barely even feel the bump on your head anymore.

The speaker exclaims, "It is the evil of money grubbing hot dog vendors! They are strangling the poor with their twisted meats! They don't pay fair wages! They are deliberately poisoning us with processed meats! They have a monopoly on in-park food! You are tricked into buying their products through clever marketing schemes! They won't just give away hot dogs to disabled kids and single mothers! The hot dogs are greasy and the sellers are greedy! Hot dogs are built on minority privilege and class rule! Hot dogs stifle creativity! Vendors cut down rare trees in the Amazon to build their carts and hire seven-year-olds to work the meat grinders! Hot dog profits have rigged the 'Parks and Recreation' elections! Hot dog vendors only care about themselves and their own dirty self-interest; they don't care if hot dogs make you happy!"

The speaker finally took a breath and continued in a more rabble rousing manner: "What we need to do is to overthrow the cart! Let's seize the evil vendor's ill-gotten gains! Let's use that money to give to the poor desolates that sadly walk this park and whom will otherwise perish if it twern't for your kind souls!"

With that last remark your blood is boiling, for you knew that slogan all to well. All the speaker said may or may not have been true, but you knew this: that the vendor did you a service, and you paid him a service in return; but the stinking highway men, who claimed to be poor, clubbed you and stole a service from you without giving anything in return. You traded with the vendor using your freewill and were happier after you made the exchange. The poor thieves pounced on you like jungle cats and left you like a dying antelope.

Knowing all this you shout objection to this absurd plan only to be beaten again and stolen from, this time by the mob. Broken and bruised you make your sad way home, hoping that the vendor might be somehow spared the wrath of the vulgar mob. But, alas, the next morning as you walked through the park on your way to work, the vendor was gone and the cart lay on it's side. Empty.

Never again were delicious sausages sold in the park, and the mob, speaker, and the thieves ate all the hot dogs in a matter of hours. You resolved to avoid the park from then on, for all who walked through the park starved, were beaten, and stolen from until the park was made infamous and none wandered there. The poor thieves, bereft of victims, died from starvation or rolled out in search for fresh parks and fresh vendors across town.

The park was as desolate as the vendors cart: Empty.

4 Pillars of Economic and National Growth

As we witness the turbulence of the world, we begin to realize that a nation's first decline is not one where a volcano belches fire over the capital or where an invading army tramples over the border, but where whatever used to prop up the nation has suddenly been removed causing a nation to decline and fall like a three-day-old balloon; yes, I refer to the powers and mechanics of a nation's economic engine.  While, obviously, an economy is driven by many factors, here are 4 mighty pillars that if tampered with or removed will irrevocably remove a nation's foundation and force it down the abyss:

Firstly:

The morality of a people is essential to a nation's success, for, when a people start to act perversely they will degenerate into baser forms of life and will take their nation back with them. Typically, a people's morality is defined by a harsh environment which demands a strict moral code and punishes the malefactor with frostbite, sunstroke, and starvation. As you can imagine, natural selection allows only those to live who can keep the natural law. As a nation progresses however, this strict physical law becomes insufficient to keep a people moral for the same reason a full granary makes laziness easier than an empty one; when the food supply is depleted however, nature will have her revenge. It is possible to be immoral while the physical law is held off, but in this there is nor progress or growth; only the consumption of the earlier fruits of morality. "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls." Proverbs 25:28

Secondly:

Justice is a keystone element one step beyond the physical law, dealing not only among separate individuals, but communities. Where the first law of morality, or the physical law, may prosper one who steals the bread of another, the laws of justice will will punish him, for thieves are not tolerated in just society. Justice demands that everyone render's to their neighbor his just due. When this keystone element is respected, then one man becomes many, and the hunter-gatherer may enter into the farming stage because people are able to cooperate with each other. Nature cannot execute justice, and therefore man tries to do it himself with various degrees of success. When man serves justice well, then a nation prospers. When man abuses justice, then justice devolves from the courtroom to the street, to the knife, and finally to the original first keystone. "Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place." Jeremiah 22:3

Thirdly:

Fellowship is the blessing of justice: when man strives to be just among his superiors, peers, and inferiors, they are no longer on different planes than himself, but all become his equals and his friends; class warfare is essentially the rotten fruit of poor justice. When a people become truly united, the economic results are phenomenal. When a man treats another not only with justice, but friendship, then a people grow strong and wealthy as they unite together. This fellowship is not unlike a professional sports team who win championships when they are united and melded together but lose home games when all the players feel alone and isolated. When everyone in a society realizes that they are trying to win the same game and are on the same team, the economy and nation prosper.  "Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbor." Proverbs 19:4

Fourthly: 

Perhaps one of the most concrete features of a strong nation and economy is a georgic work ethic, without which there would never exist prosperous ports and markets in a nation to amply supply it with a happy surplus of goods and services. Without a hefty work ethic, one may scrape by on a subsistence level, but never will a nation ever achieve the heights of industry and commerce without a hearty people exercising a vigorous, georgic work ethic. The word "Georgic" is used in a title that Virgil pend wherein Virgil praises the art and craft of the farmer along with his work ethic. A farmer instilled with the work ethic Virgil speaks of, does not lay idle away his time while his fields lie fallow but takes the plow to them. A nation who is industrious and works hard when combined with the earlier factor absolutely will progress in power and economic might. "Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase." Proverbs 13:11

A nation, grand or modest, is the sum of it's supporting pillars: If these pillars are built of the finest marble by the finest artist-architects, then a nation is splendid to behold, whereas, if these pillars are made shoddy particle board and left to crumble into disrepair, then the souls that live upon them will plummet with them. Truly, nations and economies are the results of people maintaining these pillars  well.

Injustice: The Roots of War

War is a consequence of fraudulent justice. When justice is

not carried out between individuals, families, groups, peoples, and nations then war ensues and instead of persons asking for justice to be carried out, they take forcible reprisal. Take for example some small child who had his toy stollen from him by his brother. The boy, angered by this obvious outrage, immediately and sternly asks for the toy to be returned. When his brother laughs in his face and begins to tease his sibling, the deprived boy appeals to a higher authority for justice, and thus seeks recourse in a parent. If the parent fails to execute proper justice, then the despoiled boy must either retire from the field or counterattack and take his forcible reprisal. His brother however, refusing to see that he was the initiator, pretends that he is the victim of his brothers greed, seeing that his brother is trying to steal what he has already rightfully stolen. Thus a brutal argument and fight breaks out and every semblance of justice is shattered.

Although the story may seem juvenile, this pattern has been carried out countless times throughout history. The Trojan war was a consequence of the long abuse of justice between the Greek and the Persian, which finally came to a head after the said abduction of Helen by Paris and his fellow mariners that led to the destruction of the power of Priam and latter was held as cause for the Persian empire to invade the Greek inhabited Ionia.

Inadequate justice and war is not only a juvenile experience or in antiquated one, but it also seems to be a fundamental component in the modern experience, seeing how America has been founded on the basis of injustice, and that America continues to evolve as a state because of various miscarriages of justice. In the colonial beginnings, most of the colonists emigrated because it came down to vacating or fighting, for the justice was that bad. America continued to grow into a political power worth the control and regulation of the British, how began to impose unjust trade laws and taxes. America did not go bloodthirsty into revolution, but one injustice led to another and war became impossible to avoid.

The Civil War is another such example, for a long train of injustices led up to it, the first being that initial importation of slaves to James Town in 1619 which led to a schism between the northern colonies and the southern when the constitution was being drafted and all man kind was thought to be free. This schism between north and south led to aggressive legislation against the south, and eventually the southern succession which led to the North's lack of compliance to southern sovereignty which led to the civil war.

The Middle East and the frequent causes of their internal strifes and their relations with America and other supper powers has also been caused by a long abuse of justice dating as long ago as the crusades; Although the tumult in modern times has been more a result of Colonialism and WWII than general history. Before WWII, the middle east was colonized by European powers, meaning that when WWII came around, much of the Middle East saw that being pro-axis may result in their independence, thus sparking many other injustices that winds throughout history resulting in 9/11 and other unfortunate reprisals and counter attacks.

Injustice is, and has been with us all along and it shows no signs of being vindicated unless we as individuals can learn to be just with ourselves and each other. As in the story of the young boys, we need to be just to each other and leave each other's things alone. When we happen to be in the wrong, we need to take our punches willingly and give such reparations as we can. When justice cannot be satisfied between individuals, then a higher authority must do justice. When the higher authority is in the wrong, than it's the right of the citizens to do justice over their authority. When justice is satisfied then peace, good will, happiness, and wealth are free to work their blessings.

If Nerds Were Like Athletes

It seems like I might just be babbling to myself when I write this (for few if any agree) but how on earth is reading political philosophy text books and watching history documentaries any substitute whatsoever for reading actual great books?  Not only is doing this like the flag football of academia, it's also like saying that you'd rather play on the middle school team than play varsity. If athletes were to take this approach to sports, they'd be called nerds too.

If you really want to bulk up intellectually and be a real man than stop eating doughnuts and consuming bogus protein bars, and instead, eat right and conquer the weight bench. Give up on all the bias news, 30 min. TV programs, collage text books, presidential speeches, and whatever else you can think of. Just as 6 week programs won't whip you into shape, reading Uncle Tom's Cabin will not equip your mind to handle racism, slavery, egalitarianism, the human spirit, and organized religion as will reading Locke's Two Treatises on Government. Percy Jackson cannot compete with Prometheus Bound. The New York Times is feeble and pathetic compared to Tacitus… and he's been dead over 1500 years! Is Oprah Winfrey the indispensable authority on spirituality? Or is Jesus Christ?

Depending on the day, I moan or laugh when I see someone pretending they are smart. It's just like seeing the guy in high school who, while he has showy muscles, he's a weakling who can't play sports or hold a physically intensive job. He can wear Nike but he can't muster the discipline to go to work everyday.  

Smartness is not knowing about Logarithms alone; it is reading the works of Henry Brigs, and upping his logarithmic theories to a new level. Smartness is not reading economic news alone; it is reading the works of Adam Smith and pitting them against Marx. Smartness is not knowing how to debate; it is reading Roberts Rules of Order.

Ultimately, reading the non-fiction classics, is the academic equivalent to playing in the NFL. 

Forget Politics, Do It Yourself!

Are you tired of the stupid smiles and inflated promises? I mean when are the Democrats going to fix welfare/equality/healthcare so that it functions better than a $20 dollar toaster? When will the Republicans actually reduce government and taxes instead of TP-ing the Democrats?

Answer: Never!

After all, do we really have to be forced to help other people? do we really need government to reduce government? If we do, we deserve the bloated mess that tirades over us.

Forget Politics, "Be the change you wish to see in the world" as Gandhi so astutely said.

Forget Politics, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them" as Einstein so eloquently formulated.

Disregard the pathetic and feeble attempts of the "overlords" to force mankind to be charitable and kind and caring. They are fundamentally inept to service the poor and downtrodden and the harder they try the harder they fall… and when they fall, the poor will be the most squished.

THE SOLUTION IS YOU! You can exalt the poor with the rich. You can clean the environment and plant paradise. You can triumph over a low minimum wage by creating so much wealth that the poor would really have to try to be poor.

Why are we clowning around the public forum trying to help people by forcing Big Brother to force them to help/force them? You can do it, for it os well within your power. Lift yourself from the cobwebs of dearth, and triumph. Don't play the shame game with the rich, but play a game of wits. Instead of trying to crush the rich in the iron fist and sweeping their remains under the iron curtain, become rich yourself, for, after all in riches there is as much virtue and vice as there is in humanity. With your justly got wealth, build. If you want to lift the children of third world countries from handfuls of rice to PB&Js, then don't just feed them with a little fall of rain, but build canals, rivers, aqueducts, wells and dams with which they can subside and be empowered. Instead of giving them token shipments of relief, build their infrastructure, culture, and minds. While you can lead a horse to water, you may not be able to make him drink, but if the horse dies because you left him, t'would be a shame.

Stop trying to weed-wack government, it's not the problem whatsoever; the real problem is the soil the government is planted in. We need to water and to aerate the ground around, and the good fruit of the government will be reflected in our efforts. Don't reform education, teach. Don't reform healthcare, practice health, preach health.  Leave the government to shrink back to it's former functions, your help aggravates it. Instead, turn your attentions to the real world of humanity.

A Golden Age is built by you and I exclusively. Reason is in the act of doing. Brilliance is predicated upon brilliance.

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