“The most magnificent speech in the last 50 years,” is how journalist and novelist Robert Bidinotto described U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s address last week from the Acropolis.
“Here, in Athens, we found the first full realization of all the essential traits that would come to define the West: fierce individuality and relentless ambition; daring exploration and invention; a yearning for discovery, for adventure, risk and glory,” Rubio told his audience.
“The ideal of many ideologies in our time has, frankly, become a world of perfect safety, devoid of risk or failure, with neither the glory of victory nor the shame of defeat,” he said, adding that “we preoccupy ourselves more with the comfort of the worst than the potential of the best. We hold the most exceptional things among us hostage to the average, the ordinary, the mediocre.”
The Secretary refreshingly sounds a bit like Ayn Rand.
“Over time, we in the West came to feel ashamed of the very things that made us exceptional. We felt embarrassed that our achievements set us apart from the rest of the world. Our prosperity somehow became a source of guilt. . . . we condemned our own history. And in too many places, we taught our children to be ashamed of the countries they would inherit.”
Of course, one of our central tenets is the right, even duty, to criticize our government. But only a woeful lack of historical perspective or a perverse ideological malice (or both) allows some to pretend that ripping apart our society is a thoughtful critique.
Europe, Rubio urged, must “awaken from its long slumber and rekindle the fire that was lit here millennia ago.”
So, too, should America.
We must stand up for our core values. Or watch them expire.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Illustration created with Nano Banana
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
See recent popular posts
3 replies on “Will the West Awaken?”
How do we defend our values in this era of globalization? All cultures are now considered sacrosanct. The UN is dominated by third world countries. For a child of Western civilization to render judgment or point out shortcomings in another country is considered a form of hate crime.
I’m pretty sure Bidinotto is the pseudo-Objectivist who informed me, in the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq, that violating human rights was of no concern because Iraqis didn’t have human rights and wouldn’t until and unless US troops brought those rights to them at bayonet point.
Which is pretty consistent with the vile slop you’re celebrating here.
Little Marco! What a wimp.
“ Yes, people in the United States virtually exterminated the American bison and gray wolf populations during the 19th and early 20th centuries. These near-extinctions were not accidental; they were the result of deliberate, government-backed campaigns driven by economic expansion, agricultural growth, and the forced subjugation of Native American tribes.
The American Bison (Buffalo)
Something to be proud of:
“In the early 1800s, an estimated 30 million to 60 million bison roamed the Great Plains. By the late 1880s, fewer than 1,000 remained alive.”
And Athens Greece:
“ The city of Athens officially stopped dumping untreated sewage into the Saronic Gulf and the coastal waters of the Athens Riviera (including Glyfada) in 1994.
This milestone was achieved when the Psyttalia Wastewater Treatment Plant was commissioned. Located on a small island off the coast of Piraeus, the opening of this plant provided primary treatment for the entire metropolitan area’s wastewater, putting an end to decades of direct, untreated disposal into the sea. The facility was later upgraded to full biological secondary treatment in August 2004.”
And Native Americans:
“ The primary methods used against Native Americans include:
1. Mass Killings and Massacres
Throughout the colonization of North America and the subsequent westward expansion of the United States, military forces and state militias engaged in numerous targeted massacres. Notable examples include:
• The Pequot War (1637) & Great Swamp Fight (1675): Early colonial conflicts where entire villages were burned and hundreds of non-combatants were killed.
• The Sand Creek Massacre (1864): U.S. volunteer cavalry attacked a peaceful village of Cheyenne and Arapaho, killing and mutilating over 150 people, mostly women, children, and the elderly.
• The Wounded Knee Massacre (1890): The U.S. Army intercepted a Lakota camp, killing nearly 300 Native Americans, which marked the final major armed conflict of the Indian Wars.”
“ During the February 28, 2026, U.S. missile strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran, 120 schoolchildren were killed.”
Some great accomplishments!!!