Xenophon, History Lessons and Optimism

If history is going to change, it better change now.

I had the good fortune to spend a little part of my summer in Rhodes reading Xenophon’s The Persian Expedition under a baking Greek sun. If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s quickly summarised as follows: around ten thousand highly skilled and well-led Greek mercenaries are partially tricked into following Greek generals allied with the brother of the Persian King, Cyrus, who is secretly attempting to overthrow the throne and take power himself. When the true purpose of their march into the Occident is revealed to the soldiers, they are prepared to unite with Cyrus’s ambitious plan only if they receive a hefty amount of lucre in return. This is promised to them and they continue alongside the sizable force that Cyrus has gathered.

When the major, decisive battle is fought, despite Cyrus’s troops being victorious, the army falls apart on learning that Cyrus himself is killed in battle. The Greek hoplites, cavalry and peltasts find themselves stranded one thousand miles from any friendly territory, surrounded by enemies and ‘barbarian’ tribes. They are offered terms by the Persian King through his satraps and the Greek generals go to meet with those of the Persian state who are empowered to give them safe passage, but at this meeting Greek leaders are arrested and killed. The Greek men are thus left leaderless and friendless, facing certain annihilation from an opposing army comprising hundreds of thousands of men.

Xenophon, a young aristocrat, steps forward and helps marshal the soldiery, reminding them of their prowess and their valour. They can overcome what seems like a hopeless predicament. They must. For the logic of their situation is inexorable and certain annihilation will ensue unless they march for Greece, relying solely on their arms and courage. The army elects new leaders and they begin the trek to the Mediterranean. Xenophon, at least in his account, rouses them with a final speech before departing on their route. He says, from now on, no more complaints and pointing fingers, but ‘each man must ask themselves, “What have I done? What actions have I taken to secure a victorious outcome?”

What follows is an account that over the course of two and a half millennia has inspired young boys fortunate enough to receive a classical education, not least of them, Alexander the Great. Certainly, the young Etonians, the boys from Harrow and Westminster have all had their world framed and ambition lit a good deal by the writings of Xenophon.

Nonetheless, aside from wishing to create a blaze like a comet across the night sky of history, there was a dark, more depressing message that I took from the book. Greek society was one of the dialectic, of reasoning, and they were exceptional at it. Possibilities at each stage, confrontations with local tribes, messengers who brought word of troop movements, every predicament was explored and logical conclusions reached. All of them cynical.

Hostages were always taken from tribes if they wanted a guide or to pass through a land unmolested, sometimes they were killed for no good reason. Villages were always destroyed if they posed a potential threat. No word was trusted, no oath was sacred. It was similar on the Persian side. It was betrayal after betrayal; if trust was granted, you could be sure that it would not be fulfilled if circumstances changed. A very bleak picture of humanity was presented - tribes at war with each other continually, the Greeks offering to intervene to punish long-standing grievances for their own profit, the inability, with a couple of exceptions, to act correctly without the threat of punishment and the overriding desire to gain financial reward that meant women, children and cities were expendable. No empathy, much cruelty. And even when the Greeks achieved their goal, the back-biting, the resentments, the lack of gratitude were all on display like peacock feathers.

The poet Ezra Pound once wrote that the thought of the Classics being widely read in the United States keeps him awake at night. I can understand that sentiment. The Ancient World is a cynical, brutal one of little learning, minimal generosity and scarce humanity. To have that as the gauze through which you viewed mankind would be dangerous to others and a despoilment of your own soul.

When you think about it though, it is very likely that the ‘Elite’ who have put us in this situation of scarcity, with an overriding desire for control, have had a Classical education as the likely lens for their viewing of the world, and with it the strife-riven, treacherous world that Xenophon portrays. If you add into their psychological mix a poor bond to their attachment figure, their parents being too busy being ‘successful’; they’ve likely had a wet nurse or a series of wet nurses before being shunted off to boarding school where they live a cold, competitive existence amongst their peers, then the perspective of the Ancient Greeks would fit very well with their infant and child experiences. Making them the inhumane, rapacious, emotional restricted people they are today. (These problems do not only apply to the upper class though.)

This is why their playbook is set out this way, it fits naturally with a shaped subconscious that perceives an ugly world and engages with it exploitatively: intensify by discrimination, oration - media, politicians - and economic dislocation any divisions that exist and, despite all the deliberately superficial multi-cultural and inclusive rhetoric, have always have existed; fan the flames until it seems like runaway chaos, then bring overbearing force with the promise of order, albeit with the loss of rights and status. The savage tribalism of man will be contained by a unifying governing force, and, in our technological age, regulated and modified more efficiently and to better ends than ever before. As in Alexander’s Dream, a worldwide empire in which people can dwell peacefully and achieve civilisation. I wonder though, at heart, if it’s not their own psychology that this satisfies rather than the realities of the world.

It’s peace by the sword. In other words, it’s a future state of quiet, intermittent war against anyone that thinks differently or wishes to live in their own way. And, given the pattern of ‘Elites’, it’s a ‘squeeze’ as Joseph Conrad might say. People will be worked for their economic value; their economic value determined, ultimately, by the rich. A state of indentured slavery, but safe and comfortable (another cynical ploy).

However, for some reason, I’m not sure if this is how events are going to play out. Yes, the hands that mould history into the familiar forms look like they are emerging from the shadows, ready to be apply pressure to fashion the masses, but this time I think it might be different. We have exchanged so much information over the past thirty years, since the internet began, visited each other’s countries so many times, had so many different conversations with such a variety of people, that I think that there is a huge reservoir of good will that can be appealed to. We are no longer a society that has never been abroad, never met a German or views different races as subhuman.

Already the rabble rousers who shout ‘fascist’ or ‘communist’ on either side are beginning to sound a little stale. There’s a very significant proportion of us that know we are being played. There’s an even greater amount who latently suspect it. There are so many divisions that the confusion itself might placate people or at least have them so overwhelmed they are at last ready to listen to some reason.

It’s perhaps a wild, hopium-filled speculation on my part, but I can’t help feeling that people want unity. They want clarity and they want a clear understanding of the situation and a path to the future. And they want it to be peaceful and just. I know that it does not seem apparent, yet I cannot help feeling that it’s there. The masses have been wildly provoked by incident after incident and scandal after scandal, nevertheless, despite paid provocateurs on all sides, people aren’t biting. Not yet anyway and not with any enthusiasm. This isn’t 1914 when people were protesting and demanding war.

In such circumstances, I think the unvaccinated have a pivotal role to play. Similar in this way to the 10 000 Greeks of Xenophon’s army, we have found ourselves stranded in alien, hostile territory, not knowing who is a friend or an enemy, our trust has been betrayed and we have had no choice but to fall back on our own resources. Still, there are nine million of us in the UK alone. Nine million with a point of view that should blow all these fake dichotomies of ‘us versus them’ apart. The more our truth is put out there, the more people have to question themselves rather than raging against the ‘Other’. Our truth shows the self-betrayal that feeds the anger; the recognition of the anger leads to the root of all these feelings - our childhood and our upbringing. Each individual must confront that and work it out for themselves.

Nonetheless, our position as not submitting to the pressure provides a model to resist the need to join with a mob and exert some kind of revenge on other groups. If we can continue to promulgate the damage done by lockdown and the jabs, then we direct ill-will to where it belongs, the criminal instigators and the willing participants. It won’t be pleasant for the majority. In fact, I think the Unvaccinated are going to be deeply, deeply resented by a lot of people. But that is good. It is the negative of admiration, as Kirkegaard noted. It is a step on the road to regaining a Self.

The flip side to this coin is to build. Build a system we want to be part of, and as we do so, we start to bring into being a future that people might want to be part of. Small and local is fine.

The world might be slipping in war and civil strife - maybe - but, although it might be wishful thinking - the hundreds of millions who have been betrayed by the governments, and who are now being called to arms by that self same government, will, I think, not buy into it. Governments will collapse before millions of men and women don a soldier’s uniform. Ideally, it will leave room for a peaceful, cooperative creation, without the need for conquest or bribery or interference.

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