the greeks had to defend themselves against the damned persians, which is why alexander did what he did - he destroyed an empire that was in some ways worse than rome. the persians left us very little writing, sadly. but, they were white aryans, just like the romans - warlike, barbaric, hierarchical and in need of utter annihilation by the forces of freedom, anarchy and democracy.

and, the greeks are almost unique in their lack of hypocrisy, too. if you are convinced that power corrupts, that the new boss is just the old boss, then they offer a counter-example to history - because they read books. education is the solution we don't understand, because we don't read. see how that works?

they really hated war, in a way that we can only point to ourselves as analogues to; their world was created by the sword, and yet they refused to live by it.

they did not expand their borders. they did not launch imperialist conquests, or military adventures. they understood their borders as historical, and were content to trade with their neighbours.

unique.

well, almost.

i'm still waiting for the capital of our own empire to move to ottawa.