Sparta Vs. Athens

In my "Intellectual Devotional" I recently read about "Sparta vs. Athens: The Battle for the Ancient World."

Sparta had the scariest military in the ancient world. They started training at birth. Babies unlikely to become strong soldiers were tossed into a gorge. Sparta won all of its wars.

Sparta was the Brawn.

Athens, on the other hand, was the birthplace of democracy and home to some of the most extraordinary accomplishments of philosophy, art and science. Aristotle, Plato and Socrates were all from Athens. For all we know, these guys may have had nice abs but they weren't trying to pick a fight all the time.

Athens was the Brain.

The contest is still waging. When I was in high school I "went steady" with a guy who was huge, and excelled in basketball, football and he knew how to put the shot. I'm not sure that we ever had an actual conversation but I felt safe with him.

That was before I realized that I was really turned on by big brains.

Sumner Redstone is Sparta.

Bill Gates is Athens.

I think for the last few years the rest of the world has seen the U.S. as Sparta. I'm hoping the future will bring us back to an Athens image.



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