Transcript [00:00] Hey everyone, let's get right to it. [00:01] Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a [00:04] speech in Greece standing at the [00:06] Acropolis about where the West comes [00:08] from and why it's lost its confidence. A [00:10] fantastic speech. I highly recommend [00:13] looking it up. It's on YouTube all over [00:15] the place. A lot of people have been [00:16] talking about it and for good reason. [00:18] That's why I watched it. There's a lot [00:19] in it I agree with. But there's also [00:22] something missing and that and what's [00:24] missing turns out to be, I believe, the [00:26] most important thing. That's what this [00:28] video is going to be about. So, let's [00:30] take a look. Here is the first clip of [00:32] the speech. I'm just playing you an [00:33] excerpt of uh of the speech. Here we go. [00:41] Athens gave us democracy. Plato and [00:44] Aristotle gave us western philosophy. [00:46] Our ideas of law, of virtue, of [00:49] citizenship, and republican government [00:51] were shaped in the Greek citystates. [00:53] Even much of our political vocabulary, [00:55] words like democracy, tyranny, the the [00:58] word politics itself found its origins [01:00] here. All of that is true. [01:04] But the things we owe to this place as [01:06] Americans and as westerners [01:09] are actually far far deeper. [01:14] These institutions and ideas these [01:16] institutions and ideas were the outward [01:18] expression of a of more fundamental [01:20] qualities we see in the ancient Greeks. [01:24] Qualities that can't be reduced to any [01:26] particular political system or theory. [01:29] Here in Athens [01:33] we found the first full realization of [01:36] all the essential traits that would come [01:39] to define the West. [01:42] Fierce individuality and relentless [01:44] ambition. Daring exploration and [01:47] invention. A yearning for discovery, for [01:50] adventure, risk and glory. An insatiable [01:53] curiosity about the world and the [01:55] principles by which it operates. A a [01:57] hunger to know the mysteries of nature [01:59] and grasp the secrets of the cosmos. and [02:02] impatience with the notion of [02:04] impossibility, chafing at all [02:06] boundaries, at all limits, straining to [02:09] peer into the depths of the unknown. [02:13] These were not just the formulas or [02:15] precepts of a particular school of [02:17] philosophy. [02:20] They were the characteristic of a people [02:23] expressed in their tradition, their [02:25] stories, their imagination, and the [02:28] qualities that they demanded of their [02:30] citizens. [02:31] and the things they lived and fought and [02:34] died for. [02:36] To know them [02:38] is to know ourselves. [02:41] All right, let's pause it there first. [02:44] To know them is to know ourselves. Look, [02:47] none of this is wrong. [02:50] Want to be clear. We owe the Greeks an [02:52] enormous amount. philosophy, democracy, [02:55] the word politics itself, curiosity, [02:58] ambition, the drive to explore, all [03:00] real, all part of who we are. But listen [03:02] to the claim here in Athens. He says, we [03:04] find the first full realization of all [03:08] the essential traits that define the [03:10] West. And to know them is to know [03:12] ourselves, all of them in Athens. Keep [03:15] that in mind because in a minute the [03:17] speech gets to the Bible and watch how [03:20] it does it. Here [03:23] we go. Hold on. [03:26] Let's hit it. There we go. [03:27] >> What blossomed here in this place was [03:31] the western desire to uncover all that [03:33] ignorance, darkness, and distance had [03:36] kept hidden from the mind of man. [03:41] The Greeks did not just shape history. [03:45] The Greeks gave us history itself. [03:49] Much about much of what we know about [03:51] many ancient civilizations comes almost [03:54] entirely from the records of Greek [03:56] explorers and historians. [03:58] Explorers and historians who didn't just [04:00] chronicle the histories of their own [04:02] people, but ventured outward to observe [04:05] and record the sagas of foreign peoples [04:08] and cultures all across the world. [04:13] Where others looked inward, [04:15] the Greeks were the first to direct [04:17] their focus outward [04:19] to chase the thrill and glory of seeing [04:21] all that was strange and new. [04:24] It was this trait, it was this trait [04:27] that would push the West to create and [04:29] build things [04:31] that others could not, marking us out [04:34] from so many other cultures and [04:35] civilizations where stability and [04:38] subsistence were the highest ends of [04:40] life. [04:42] But it is not just the ambition to [04:44] explore the unknown that we inherit from [04:46] the Greeks. [04:48] It is the conviction that the unknown [04:51] can be known. The confidence that the [04:54] world can be charted and measured and [04:57] mapped and understood and that there is [05:00] a rational order to the cosmos governed [05:02] by certain fundamental flaws. [05:05] Laws that men can observe [05:08] and the mind can come to understand. [05:12] This was the foundation of the western [05:15] mind. Our math, our science, our [05:18] medicine, our philosophy, ethics and [05:21] religion. It paved the way for the [05:23] gospel of Jesus Christ to find fertile [05:26] soil in Europe and flourish into the [05:29] empire of Christendom. [05:31] It was the foundation of the riches of [05:34] Christian theology of Augustine and [05:37] Aquinas and the whole tradition of [05:39] natural law. [05:44] Very interesting. I'm telling you, it's [05:46] a fantastic speech. The Greek idea of a [05:49] rational ordered cosmos [05:52] is the foundation is what he's saying. [05:54] And it paved the way for the gospel to [05:57] find fertile soil. That's the order [06:00] here. The Bible shows up as a seed. [06:04] like biblical religion, biblical faith [06:07] here in this speech is planted in Greek [06:11] ground as it were. Let me put it the [06:13] other way round. There's a classic book [06:15] from 1946 that I'm very fond of. It's [06:18] called The Intellectual Adventure of [06:20] Ancient Man. It was edited by Henri [06:23] Frankurt at the University of Chicago. [06:25] It's about the ancient near east. And [06:27] Frankfurt showed that in the ancient [06:29] world, the gods were powerful, but [06:32] nobody assumed they were good. [06:35] You didn't try to be like them. You [06:37] tried to manage your relationship with [06:38] them. Make the right sacrifices, say the [06:41] right words, right? And then maybe [06:43] they'll leave you alone, [06:45] your crops will grow, [06:47] etc. The Greek gods fit that description [06:50] perfectly. Read Homer, right? Zeus is [06:52] not a moral example. He's a force. The [06:55] Greeks had brilliant philosophers who [06:57] reasoned about virtue, but their gods [06:59] did not call upon you to be good. [07:03] The Bible introduced something the [07:05] ancient world had never seen. It was a [07:06] God who is good, whose goodness is real [07:09] and can be known, and who made human [07:11] beings in his image so they could know [07:13] it, too. [07:16] In Genesis 18, for example, God tells [07:19] Abraham that he's going to destroy Sodom [07:20] and Gomorrah. Right? Abraham, a human [07:22] being, stands before God and says, [07:24] "Shall the judge of all the earth not do [07:27] justice." Right? He's holding God to a [07:29] standard called justice, [07:32] which only works if there's a concept of [07:34] justice that's real and that Abraham and [07:36] God are both bound by. This is before [07:39] Sinai, before God gave commandments. [07:41] Meaning there's there's a concept of [07:43] good, of justice, of righteousness. [07:45] That's the foundation that good and evil [07:47] are real objective concepts that human [07:50] beings can know them [07:53] right and they can and even the most [07:56] powerful being in the universe ought to [07:58] be bound by them [08:01] right it not only god al you know and [08:04] the king also king David takes another [08:06] man's wife bacheva [08:09] arranges for her husband to be killed in [08:11] battle the prophet Nathan walks into the [08:13] palace and tells David, a story about a [08:15] rich man who steals a poor man's only [08:17] lamb. David, you know, and and at the [08:19] and David is furious. He says, "Oh, the [08:21] man deser, you know, should die." And [08:22] Nathan looks at him and says, "You're [08:23] the man." Meaning, holding a prophet, [08:26] holding the king accountable, standing [08:28] in front of the most powerful man in the [08:30] country, telling him to face the moral [08:32] truth, the ethical truth that he's [08:34] guilty, right? In Egypt or Babylon, that [08:37] prophet would have been dead before he [08:38] finished a sentence. [08:41] In the Bible, the king listens because [08:44] free speech, the rule of law, the idea [08:46] that nobody is above the objective moral [08:48] standard comes from the Bible. [08:52] And notice the names that Rubio chose. [08:54] Augustine, Aquinas. Aquinus spent his [08:57] life bringing Aristotle into Christian [08:59] theology, right? He took Greek tools and [09:02] put them under the authority and the [09:03] structure of of Bible. You take the [09:06] Bible out of Augustine and Aquinas, you [09:08] don't get Christendom, right? you get [09:10] Athens. [09:12] And one quick point because Rubio is [09:13] speaking as America's secretary of [09:16] state. When the American founding [09:17] generation quoted the ancients, the one [09:19] they quoted most was Plutarch, but they [09:22] quoted the Bible far more than all of [09:25] them. There's studies done that show [09:26] this. And the single book they quoted [09:28] most was Deuteronomy. [09:30] The Declaration of Independence, here's [09:31] my point. The Declaration of [09:32] Independence isn't Greek philosophy [09:34] dressed up in maybe some faith, some [09:38] faith in God language. It's Genesis [09:40] applied to governance. All men created [09:43] equal, endowed by their creator. That's [09:45] Genesis. That's the image of God and [09:47] man. All right, let's uh let's continue [09:51] with this clip. [09:54] It gave birth to a civilization marked [09:56] not just by a common culture, was marked [09:59] by a common anthropology, [10:02] a common view of man and of his place in [10:04] the universe. [10:06] Its descendants would share not just the [10:09] idea of a natural order, but a [10:12] distinctive understanding of virtue, of [10:15] destiny, of fate, of truth, goodness, [10:18] and beauty, of a code that dictates how [10:22] men ought to live, of objective [10:25] standards and ideals to strive towards. [10:28] For the Greeks of antiquity, [10:31] the pursuit of excellence [10:34] was the very principle of man's [10:35] existence. [10:37] They organized all of civic life around [10:39] contests and ambition and competition, [10:43] in philosophy and poetry and sculpture [10:45] and drama, in athletics and art, in war [10:49] and statescraft. [10:50] The classical Greek city was an arena [10:54] for great men to test and prove [10:56] themselves, to hone their potential [10:59] through perpetual struggle, to be the [11:02] best, the strongest, the most beautiful, [11:06] straining to inch ever closer to [11:09] perfection. [11:11] Now, I know that to modern ears, what I [11:13] just described this way of life may [11:15] sound odd. It may even sound cruel. [11:19] The ideal of many ideologies in our time [11:22] is frankly become a world of perfect [11:24] safety, a world devoid of risk or [11:27] failure, where neither the glory of [11:29] victory nor the shame of defeat. [11:33] Too often these days, we build [11:37] downwards. [11:38] We design our standards to ensure that [11:41] no one will lose. We preoccupy ourselves [11:44] more with the comfort of the worst than [11:47] the potential of the best. We hold the [11:50] most exceptional things among us hostage [11:52] to the average, the ordinary, the [11:56] mediocre. [11:58] The men who made the parthonon, [12:01] they built upwards. [12:03] They held that the highest and most [12:05] noble aspiration in life was to surpass [12:08] all others, to strive to be the best in [12:11] all things. [12:13] The ancient Greek citystates were [12:15] filled, they were filled with intense [12:17] passion and rivalry and faction and [12:20] conflict. But from that constant [12:22] struggle for distinction, [12:25] from that came the great flowering of [12:27] art and philosophy and political and [12:30] intellectual energy that would transform [12:34] a collective of Mediterranean cities [12:38] into the birthplace of the greatest [12:40] civilization in the world. [12:44] The thumos, as the ancient Greeks called [12:46] it, the fire of passion, strength, [12:48] courage, pride, is the heart of great [12:51] civilization. [12:53] And without it, [12:55] without it, nations lose their will to [12:57] fight, the will to strive, [13:00] the will to survive. [13:04] All right, let's pause it there. [13:06] Good clip. Really good clip. There's a [13:08] lot I agree with here. He's right that [13:09] we build downward. He's right that we [13:11] design our standards so that nobody [13:13] loses and so that we hold the [13:16] exceptional hostage to the mediocre. [13:18] That's real and that's the market the [13:19] Marxist leveling instinct at work. But [13:22] look at what he's offering as the [13:24] answer. Thumos, pride, glory, the drive [13:27] to surpass all others. The Greek city, [13:30] right, as an arena where great men prove [13:32] themselves. [13:34] But here's my question. [13:37] Who wasn't in the arena? Right? [13:39] Aristotle, one of the greatest minds in [13:41] history, taught that some people are [13:42] slaves by nature. [13:45] Plutarch, the same Plutarch the founders [13:47] loved, records that in Sparta, newborn [13:49] babies were brought before the elders, [13:52] and if a baby was judged weak or [13:54] deformed, it was left to die. Right? [13:57] That's a society built entirely on [13:58] excellence and strength, [14:01] which are good things, but not in but [14:03] not if you build your society on them [14:05] entirely. It's what Thumos looks like [14:07] with no objective moral standard, no [14:09] righteousness and justice. Right? The [14:12] Bible says something the Greeks never [14:13] said. Every human being is created in [14:15] the image of God. [14:18] Not just the king, not just the [14:20] champion. Everyone, [14:22] the slave, the stranger, the weak, the [14:25] disabled baby in Sparta, right? In the [14:27] ancient world, that was a revolutionary [14:29] claim. And there's a reason no earthly [14:31] and it's the reason it is the reason [14:32] that no earthly power can own you. why [14:35] everyone is free, [14:37] right? Greece did not preach universal [14:39] freedom and equality of all men. The [14:41] Bible did. So when Rubio says we care [14:44] more about the comfort of the worst than [14:46] the potential of the best, I'd say this. [14:48] The answer to Marxist mediocrity is not [14:51] to stop caring about the weak. Marxism [14:54] takes the biblical concern for the [14:56] widow, the orphan, the weak, and turns [14:59] it into a power struggle, right? Which [15:01] is like a counterfeit type of ethics. [15:06] But the answer to that isn't a return to [15:08] Sparta. [15:11] Look, the Bible demands excellence, too, [15:13] right? Ambition, building, [15:14] responsibility, but it puts it in the [15:17] context of a covenant. You strive [15:20] because you're created in God's image [15:22] and because you were given the world to [15:23] take care of, to guard and protect. You [15:26] answer to an objective moral standard. [15:31] Right? Thumos without that standard is [15:35] is it's not good. It's nichi. It's not [15:40] America. It's not Washington. [15:42] Now, before we finish up with the uh [15:44] last part of this clip, I just want to [15:46] remind you about a fantastic event that [15:48] we had uh we had uh this past Sunday. [15:50] You want to sign up, you want to watch [15:52] this. It was an election event in [15:54] Jerusalem. We had uh representatives of [15:56] 10 of the parties there. They all made [15:58] their case. They all answered tough [16:00] questions. And you can watch the whole [16:01] thing uh on replay if you click the link [16:03] in the description of this video. [16:05] Israel365.com/occtober [16:07] 4th. You don't want to miss this [16:09] fantastic event. We sold out the Bagan [16:10] Heritage Center. It was really quite an [16:12] amazing evening. All right, let's uh [16:15] let's go back to the rest of this video [16:17] or the rest of the clip I'm going to [16:18] play you at the very least. [16:20] And this will be the last clip that [16:22] we'll play. [16:25] Today, too much of the West has [16:28] forgotten this quality. [16:30] Over time, we in the West came to feel [16:33] ashamed of the very things that made us [16:35] exceptional. We felt embarrassed that [16:38] our achievements set us apart from the [16:40] rest of the world. Our prosperity [16:42] somehow became a source of guilt. [16:45] We no longer believed we deserved and [16:48] had earned our greatness. [16:50] The word nationalism became a dirty [16:52] word. And so we tore down our monuments. [16:56] We condemned our own history. And in too [16:58] many places, we taught our children to [17:00] be ashamed of the countries they would [17:02] inherit. [17:03] In the process, we opened our borders [17:06] and outsourced our industry and allowed [17:08] our militaries to wither and to decay. [17:11] And with every passing year, [17:14] we seem to outsource more of our [17:16] sovereignty, [17:17] transferring our decisions to global [17:19] bureaucracies far beyond the reach of [17:21] our control. [17:24] But others were all too happy to fill [17:25] the vacuum that we left. The la vacuum [17:28] left behind by our weakness. And as the [17:31] West's confidence faltered, its [17:34] adversaries and its rivals only grew [17:36] more assertive, [17:37] building up their own wealth and their [17:39] own power in ourstead. [17:43] And now today [17:46] we find ourselves at a crossroads [17:48] because the next decade and the [17:51] decisions we make will write the story [17:53] of the next century. [17:57] Yeah, [17:59] we'll stop it there. [18:02] Every word of that is true. We came to [18:04] feel ashamed of the things that made us [18:06] exceptional. Prosperity became guilt. [18:10] We tore down monuments. [18:14] We taught our children to be ashamed of [18:16] the countries they were going to [18:17] inherit. None of that happened by [18:18] accident. [18:20] Teaching children that their country is [18:21] a story of oppressors and oppressed, [18:23] that success is evidence of guilt, [18:27] that their own civilization is a [18:28] problem. Right? That's the Marxist [18:30] framework. And it was carried into our [18:32] universities or schools over decades. [18:36] Some on the left call it the long march [18:37] through the institutions. You don't need [18:39] to defeat a civilization by force if you [18:41] can teach its children to hate itself, [18:44] right? They'll do the rest. And Rubio's [18:46] right that others were happy to fill the [18:49] vacuum. But who filled it? Iran, the [18:51] Muslim Brotherhood, right? Its network [18:54] of organizations in the West that we're [18:57] currently battling. [18:59] And they found the Marxist left waiting [19:01] for them as a willing partner, right? [19:03] The Red Green Alliance. [19:05] two movements that should have nothing [19:07] in common on the surface, but they [19:09] marched together [19:12] trying together to destroy Western [19:13] civilization. So on the diagnosis, [19:15] Rubio's right. The West lost its nerve [19:17] and it and its enemies its enemies [19:20] rejoiced. But here's what I'd ask him. [19:23] What civilization are is our enemy [19:25] actually attacking? Right? If you want [19:28] to know what a civilization's foundation [19:29] really is, look at what its enemies are [19:31] attacking. Right? After October 7th, no [19:33] one was storming the parthonon. No one [19:35] was protesting Plato, right? They tore [19:37] down posters of kidnapped Jewish [19:39] children. They tried to shut down the [19:42] Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller [19:43] Center. They walked into St. Patrick's [19:46] Cathedral during the Easter Vigil Mass [19:49] to protest, you know, to protest Israel, [19:52] to protest, you know, to on on behalf of [19:55] Hamas. They were attacking Jews and [19:58] Christians together. They were attacking [20:00] Jerusalem. [20:02] The Marxists and the Islamists agree on [20:04] very uh on on some things, right? What [20:06] do they agree on? They agree on their [20:08] enemy, the civilization built on the [20:10] Bible. They know what the West's [20:12] foundation is. [20:14] And one more thing, Rubio says that the [20:16] West has lost the will to fight, to [20:18] strive, to survive. Maybe it certainly [20:20] has in certain quarters. [20:23] But there is one country that still has [20:25] a lot of will to fight and to strive and [20:27] to survive. You know, young people who [20:30] marry, build families, serve their [20:32] country. A people that buried its dead [20:35] on October 7th and went back to building [20:38] Israel. [20:39] And it didn't get there through Greek [20:41] thumos. It got through it through the [20:43] covenant of the Bible. So, Secretary [20:45] Rubio, listen, it's a great speech. [20:47] You're right about so much in it, and [20:49] you're right about the problem. But if [20:50] we want to get back to what we've lost, [20:52] we need to remember really where it came [20:54] from. You know, Athens gave us a lot, [20:57] but it didn't give us the moral content. [20:59] Jerusalem gave us what's really worth [21:02] defending. Anyway, that's what I wanted [21:03] to say today. I hope you found this [21:05] interesting and enlightening. Please [21:07] drop a comment. Let me know what you [21:08] thought. God bless.
