Prologue: The Modern Ephialtes
On a hot August day in 480 BC, seven thousand two hundred Greek hoplites faced off against an estimated four hundred thousand Persian troops. This would be the largest invationary force the world see until D-day, nearly twenty five hundred years later. For three days the Greeks fought off the Persian forces, driving back wave after wave, until even the most battle-hardened Persians had lost their taste for warfare. Little did they know, but the Greeks and Persians had begun a war which has lasted millennia. The clash of civilizations, East versus West, has continued unabated for much of human history.
What happened to these brave Grecian warriors, the defenders of a West still in its infant stages? They were betrayed, betrayed by one of their own. Ephialtes, a local Greek shepherd, led the Persian army to a secret trail through the mountains and behind the Greek forces. The situation had become hopeless, yet three hundred Spartans and seven hundred Thespians remained to stave off the Persians while their allies retreated to fight another day. As the hoard of Persian troops advanced, the remaining Greeks stood firm fighting to the last man. After their spears broke, the Spartans and Thespians kept fighting with their short swords, and after those broke, they were said to have fought with their bare hands, teeth and nails. Though they lost, the Greeks achieved their goals. They held off the Persian advance long enough to allow their allies to regroup, and before being defeated killed an estimated forty thousand troops, including two of the Persian Emperor’s brothers. Although it took many years and many losses, the Persians were eventually defeated, preserving the birthplace of democracy, freedom, individuality, namely of Western culture and civilization.
From the Romans and Sassanids to modern day Europe and the Middle East, the struggle between Eastern and Western cultures and ideologies which began over two and a half millennia ago has continued into the modern era. The East and the West have been at odds since the dawn of their civilizations due to their proximity and polarizing ideals. And although no other cultures have fought as much, none have influenced each other as deeply. Each has ebbed and flowed, vying for supremacy in this endless cycle of civilizational conflict. But we now stand at a precipice, a turning point in history. Exacerbated by hundreds of years of European imperialism and dominance, the sectarian violence which has been erupting for decades in the Middle East threatens to plunge the world into a new world war, as the Islamic culture begins to reassert itself. Just as Napoleons invation of Egypt in ___ was a wake up call to the Muslim world, the events that occured on September 11th, 2001 were a wake up call to the Western world.
The catalyst for this conflict lies in a fundamental difference in cultural perceptions and ideals. The West's birthplace, as previously stated, lies in Greece, a land divided by numerous natural boundaries. Because of these boundaries travel was difficult, causing completely self-reliant and individualistic cities to form. In the small Grecian peninsula hundreds of these independent city-sates were founded, which helped to instill the individualistic spirit which is so prevalent and distinct in Western culture. The first democracies were formed in Greece, most notably in Athens, and although most city-states did not adopt this new form of government, many maintained the ideal of individualistic freedom.
The Greeks successors, the Romans, adopted many aspects of Grecian culture, forming a Republic which would last nearly 500 years before degrading into an Empire. Although the Romans abandoned the ideal of democracy, they created order in Europe, and laid the foundations for the West's secular rule of law. The Roman Empire also spread the Christian faith, and, along with Greek political philosophy and Roman law, this new religion would form the final pillar in Western civilization. When Rome fell, it gave way to Medieval Europe and the Dark Ages which embodied the individualistic spirit of the Greeks in their feudal system, replacing the city-state with the provincial lord’s castle. The English began returning to the Greeks democratic ideal when they wrote the Magna Carta in 1215, limiting the kings powers. First formed in the monestaries and abbeys of the 9th century, later adopted by Florence, Genoa, and Venice, the economic system of capitalism slowly became the primary economic system of the West. Capitalism spread northward to the Low Countries of Belgium and the Netherlands, and eventually came to prevalence in England and Germany. The Italians reexamined ancient Roman and Greek ideas, sparking the Renaissance in the 15th century, creating humanism and emphasizing the questioning nature of the West. The West continued to grow through the Enlightenment, which resulted in the introduction of new perceptions of what government should be, and how different political systems could address these views.
Then, in 1781, humanities greatest achievement, Western Civilization, gave birth to America, a new nation which encompassed nearly all of the West's fundamental ideals. This new breed of peoples, Americans, were self-reliant, democratic, and had a fiercely individualistic spirit. And, like the Greeks before them, Americans were split into many separate states. Thirteen in fact, each with nearly as many differences as their Greek predecessors. Yet where the Greeks failed, the Americans succeeded. After the Persian invasion, the Greeks attempted to unify, but old rivalries between Athens and Sparta tore apart the alliance, leading to the Peloponnesian War. America was able to bring New Englanders, Virginians, Carolinians, and Georgians together to form the United States. The great successor of America’s Declaration of Independence and Constitution was France’s Rights of Man. In the beginning of the twenty-first century, European dictatorships had been discredited and democracy became the norm. Western Civilization has grown, evolved, and finally culminated into its present form, placing great importance on freedom, equality, and civil liberties.
In contrast, the East has largely stagnated. Unlike Greece, Persia, the birthplace of Eastern Civilization, had a large, authoritarian, bureaucratic government, where one man was seen as a god-king, and had unquestionable authority. This form of government was common in the ancient world, appearing in most notably in the North African and Middle Eastern civilizations. The Persians were tolerant of any religious minorities living in their empire, and although they created hierarchical society, the Persian culture still maintained a questioning nature. Human ingenuity is difficult to extinguish, and can only be suppressed with something as powerful as religious fervor. But with the advent of Islam, Eastern culture was taken to an entirely new level. Religious minorities were forced into dhimmitude, repressed and crushed until they were nearly extinguished in the Muslim world. But the most devastating effect of Islam was on the East’s innovative spirit. The Koran is seen by Muslims as the direct word of God, perfect and incontrovertible. There is no analysis of the Koran, no scholars questioning its message, because if they did then they would be blaspheming, questioning the very word of God. This led to a culture which did not question, which lost the technological ingenuity and curiosity of its ancestors, and which was forced into a collective mindset. Nowhere in the Muslim World does one see the types of divisions seen so prominently in Europe. They are by no means homogenus, as there are divisions between diffent ethnic groups and the Sunni and Shia, but the muslim communities are imbued with that Islamic mindset, that refusal to question authority or think for themselves.
Why are there only two main sects of Islam while we have innumerable ones in Christianity? The Sunni and Shia do not even have many ideological differences, and are split because of a disagreement over who should have inherited the Caliphate back in 656. There are no major divisions because independent thought is discouraged, and because Islamic culture demands conformity. Today the Middle East's situation is similar to what Medieval Europe faced in the Dark Ages. Collective thinking was required and religion dominated the daily lives of every man, woman, and child. More astoundingly, there was even a trivial split in the Christian Church which parallels the one found in modern Islam. Due to a disagreement between the Pope and the Byzantine Emperor, Christianity split into Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
Once Europe began accepting the forgotten ideals of individualism and began understanding the force of reason during the Renaissance, the church lost much of its power. The Reformation gave way to the splintering of the Catholic Church as more and more people were able to express their world views. All the while the East remained stagnant, never changing. Islam is a pre-Renaissance, pre-Enlightenment, pre-Reformation religion, one fastened in a feudal mentality. They still deny the series of scientific discoveries made since the sixteenth century, at least any that come in conflict with their preconceived notions and beliefs, and this refusal of logic has been the cause of their decadence.
We see on one side the Western ideals of freedom, individually, and democracy. The Western mindset encourages the introduction of new ideas by allowing anyone to freely express themselves. The West places a great emphasis on education and progress, with a focus on the future and the betterment of its populous. Then on the other side we see the East, whose culture is based on obedience, collective thinking, and authoritarianism. Rather than focusing on the future, the East is oriented towards the past, obsessing over their golden ages and former dominance. With an overbearing, radicalized Islamic religion, any dissent or originality is silenced, and an entire gender is viewed as inferior, shackled in ignorance. When coupled with Islam's message that the worlds infidels must submit, convert, or die, a militaristic, intolerant, inflexible, and expansionist society is born. And, since the Persians first crossed from Anatolia into Greece, the East's eyes have been fixated on Europe. Yet due to Europe's overwhelming technological and military superiority, the West has not been threatened by the East since the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683. We have however, become complacent, and many of us are ignorant to the eminent danger forming in the Islamofascist theocracies and terrorist states.
A new breed of evil has surfaced in the Middle East, one that Modern Europe has never faced before. Although we experience terrorist attacks, they are mere side notes, diversions which aim to demoralize. The Islamofascists know that they cannot win in an open military conflict against the West. The true battle that is being waged is one of ideas. And sadly, we have our modern Ephialtes, people who are so shortsighted that they would willingly endanger the very survival of the West in order to further their own selfish agendas. The West's most admirable traits are being turned into our greatest weaknesses. Our open and accepting societies are easily infiltrated by the dedicated Islamic fundamentalists, and those who attempt to speak up against their blatant attacks on our culture are silenced by the Ephialtes, ie: by the defenders of “political correctness”, demonized as islamophobes. But we cannot sit in silence as freedom is extinguished. Now is the time to speak up, now is the time to be heard. Now, more than ever, is the time to follow the example set by the Greeks at the Battle of Thermopoly twenty five hundred years ago and stand up unwaveringly against the forces of totalitarianism and fundamentalism in the defense of freedom and democracy.
Seventy years ago Winston Churchill was accused of warmongering as he warned the West of the Nazi threat, and was left unheard until it was nearly to late. We now face a threat even greater, yet, once again, much of the West has blinded themselves to the emerging conflict. I have written this book in the hope that it will open eyes and change minds. To survive as a culture, as a people, we must unite under the banner of Western values. I hope that this book will create more “warmongering” Churchills to help combat the appeasing Chamberlains of the West, and to warn our civilization of the impending danger of a resurgent Islamic threat.
