Does anyone else have a problem with glorifying the Spartans?

Question

There's a new movie "300" about the Spartans' battle with the Persians at Thermopolae. But even a casual glance at the history of the Spartans should have high schools and colleges dumping Spartans as a mascot. The Nazis were efficient, organized and passionately devoted to nationalism. All that sounds great, if you don't see the wole picture. But nobody's choosing the Fighting Nazis for a school's nickname. Aside from military training and heroism, just about everything about the Spartans is a legacy of inhumanity.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

We were Spartans at one of my high schools. These days, I am far from proud of that.

Recently I watched a documentary about ancient Sparta. They were militant to say the least. For example, there was a saying: "come home with your shield or on it," meaning return a hero or die trying. "Cowards" were not acceptable. Many parents of soldiers today have adopted that same attitude.

Something I seriously doubt will be mentioned in the movie is how Spartan soldiers were paired with young boys whom they'd sexually abuse. Adult male homosexuality was the norm. Wives did exist, but they were solely for procreation. When it was time for the woman to have sex with her husband, servents would cut her hair short and otherwise dress her to look like a young boy for him.

Today, 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 5-6 boys (more than 25% total) of u.s. children are sexually abused, and much if not most of that abuse is from family members or people they know. More than 90% of cases are never reported to the authorities.

There have been investigations into pedophilia that have implicated military bases and prominent government figures. And recently, the 1700 year cover-up of pedophile Catholic priests was finally exposed. In fact, there was a documentary about it last night on PBS's Frontline.

Every single day, my web essay on "Child Sexual Abuse" gets hits from people looking for child pornography. I'm terrified to see how many more hits it would get if I included additional information containing more keywords. And I'm disgusted by what a detective told me: merely searching for child porn is not a crime.

Everyone from schoolteachers to Disney executives to the Homeland Security press aide have been convicted of such offenses. Clinton's Justice Department even attempted to legalize soft-core child pornography. Child sexual abuse has become entrenched in society, much like in Sparta.
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Source(s):

Former Senator John DeCamp investigates a child sex ring in his book "The Franklin Cover-up" that went as high as the Reagan/Bush White House. A documentary was filmed entitled "Conspiracy of Silence," but unknown members of Congress ordered all copies destroyed. Luckily one survived.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=…

Frontline's "Hand of God" documentary:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/…

Statistics and other facts:
http://www.skewsme.com/abuse.html

Answer 2

Yup the Spartans were cruel barbarians. For want of a better word.

Answer 3

The battle at Thermopylae was fought in a totally different era in human history. I have not seen the movie so i am not sure how the Spartans are glorified, but i am not sure how it differs from romanticizing tales about pirates or the middle ages.

Answer 4

Spartans and their way of life was awesome. I'm sorry it's human nature at its' worst i guess.