A boat by any other name…
In 2016, the Polar Explorer Program of the U.K. Government released an online poll in order to pick a name for their new £200 million scientific research ship. Winning the #NameOurShip poll by a long shot was the name Boaty McBoatface, a name which the Program chose to use for a lesser vessel, a submarine onboard the research ship. Instead, they named their ship the Sir David Attenborough. The incident lives on today as a reminder that decisions made via the internet can, and most likely will, lead a nihilistic world to mess with things rather than pursue societal good. Identifiable microcosms of this reality are called being “McBoatfaced” (New York Times, Oct. 28 th , 2020).
Victor Davis Hanson’s Carnage and Culture tells the story of the development of Western Culture through nine significant battles from the Battle of Salamis in 480BC to the Tet Offensive in 1968. I want to share with you a few important points of chapter 2, Freedom – or “To Live as you Please” that have stood out to me.
The Greek’s battle with the Persians in 480BC was, for them, a fight for their homeland. For the men of Athens, it meant regaining homes that they had already lost. In contrast, the Persians represented a culture of slaves under one supreme dictator. Every culture that had been conquered by the Persians became virtually lost to history and the individuals themselves nameless slaves. Persian King Xerxes watched the battle sitting on his throne on a nearby hilltop, every ship of his fleet being rowed and manned by slaves. The Persian fleet outnumbered the Greeks 3:1 and represented wealth far beyond that of the Greeks. The Greeks, however, were very aware that their comparative poverty lent itself to their liberty, and it was their liberty that they cherished, so much so that they even named their ships using words that the Greek language alone had coined – words like Demokratia, Eleutheria, and Parrhesia (democracy, freedom, and free speech).
Much of what we know today about this battle comes to us through Greek historians. Persian culture did not facilitate a class of people who would take the initiative to write down their stories for posterity. And Greek historians were very aware that they were fighting for love of freedom; their tales consist not only of names, dates, and places, but are tales of successes, failures, vices and virtues; metaphysical mythology intermingled with man’s fight for love and honor; transcendent truth and real-world consequences. The Greeks felt the weight of cultural danger and unified around principles that they could fight for; and well they did.
It does us well to study our history. Shared history and shared traditions help us to unify around common principles. We are facing astonishing levels of cultural “McBoatfacing” as the media, internet, and now AI not only transform our society but turn some of our most important monuments and institutions into embarrassing jokes. The Greeks clearly knew well that Persians had come to destroy and they rallied around loves that unified them. At Knox, we do this too. Faith, family, and Western culture are shared loves that bring us together.
With the summer, we will go our separate ways. I hope that this summer gives you and your family leisure time for study of great things. And now, let’s make our last week together our best! See you at Field Day!
