“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.” ― Henry Ford.
There is a well-intentioned (I will give them the benefit of the doubt) naive, and misguided belief among the gun-nut, 2nd amendment absolutists that guns will ensure their freedoms. So be it. But they want to have their cake and eat it.
What do I mean? Let me explain.
These ‘swear by my gun’ types are typically libertarians with an explicit antipathy to “statism”. Their rallying call is “Molon Labe”. A phrase – meaning “come and get them” – attributed to King Leonidas I at the Battle of Thermopylae, in response to the Persians’ demand that the Spartans surrender their weapons. It is guaranteed to send shivers up every survivalist’s spine.
Celebrating statism (Note: the numbers are hyperbolic – what’s new?)
But if you think this rallying call is positively dripping in libertarian individualism – it isn’t.
The Sparta that Leonides ruled, and in which his “3oo” were raised, was dominated by the state. The state mandated exactly how the young Spartiates should be raised – the agoge. (Deformed children were not even allowed to live.) It was an oligopoly in which rights were doled out by the state. And a large part of the population was officially second class citizens – especially the Helots, the slave/indentured servant class.
In short, Sparta was the antithesis of the libertarian utopia so beloved of the “molon labe” crowd.
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