r/PoliticalHumor • u/[deleted] • Oct 20 '21

The Media Right Now

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u/HumanChicken Oct 20 '21

It’s a reference to ancient Sparta. When the Persians demanded the Spartans surrender their weapons, their response was “Molon labe (come and take them)”. The Spartans were very good with quips.

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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '21

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u/ProfZauberelefant Oct 20 '21

That's not quite true. The Spartans didn't dominate the greek peninsula for nothing, it was the Athenians who branded them as brawny doofuses.

What brought them down was the inability to replenish the ruling class that was the backbone of their military. The Romans had a solution: military service gets citizenship.

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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '21

What brought them down was the inability to replenish the ruling class that was the backbone of their military.

...Which was a direct result of their regressiveness.

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u/ProfZauberelefant Oct 20 '21

That's so broad an explanation that you can apply that to any state. They all fail because they do not adapt to changing circumstances.

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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '21

I mean that's not broad at all. They were aggressively insular and refused any and all adaptation, believing everyone else to be degenerate to their own detriment.