Commentary

In Athens, on Oct. 7, 2026, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed a gathering of Greek officials, European diplomats, and selected members of the public. Standing on that semicircular hill where the ancient Athenians assembled for debate and voting, and which is therefore known as the birthplace of democracy, and with the Acropolis and Parthenon behind him, Rubio spoke of the vital importance of preserving and promoting Western civilization and its values.

It is a brilliant political speech, rare for its erudition and for the connections it makes with the Greco-Roman ancients and the West today. Rubio reminded his listeners of the concepts developed by the Greeks, such as heroism, honor, duty, and “thumos,” the “fire of passion, courage, pride,” that became a guiding light for Western sensibilities and progress. He managed to slip into his survey of the past names such as Xerxes, Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Charlemagne, Hernán Cortés, Thomas More, Johannes Kepler, and other great figures of Western civilization.

At one point, Rubio said: “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.

“An insatiable curiosity about the world and the principles by which it operates, a hunger to know the mysteries of nature and grasp the secrets of the cosmos. An impatience with the notion of impossibility, chafing at all boundaries and limits, straining to peer into the depths of the unknown.

“These were not just the formulas or precepts of a particular school of philosophy. They were the characteristic of a people—expressed in their traditions, their stories, their imagination; in the qualities they demanded of their citizens; in the things they lived and fought and died for.

“To know them is to know ourselves.”

And right there, in those seven little words, Rubio unveiled a chief cause for the ongoing decline of Western civilization.

The truth is that tens of millions of Americans and Europeans are ignorant of the debt they owe to the 100 generations that link their present to their Athenian past. They know little about the builders of Western civilization; therefore, they know little about themselves. Many of their schools and teachers, and the culture itself, are directly responsible for this ignorance.

A tree whose roots are left unnourished will soon die. The same is true of civilizations.

This axiom holds true of our neglected and often untaught Western values. Offering a stark contrast with Iran’s mullahs, “whose cult of death hails child suicide bombers as national heroes,” Rubio said: “Our heroes—our heroes may be willing to die for their cause; but our heroes do not worship death. It is precisely because we value life that we come to recognize the heroism in those who would sooner sacrifice it than to betray their principles. Now, we take the West’s conception of these things—heroism, honor, duty—we take these things for granted.”

Some in the West may still take these things for granted, but for the most part honor and duty have become relics, hidden away, tarnished, and dust-covered in our age of narcissism and unmoored morality.

Rubio concluded his talk with these thoughts: “The history of Greece—the history of Greece does not just offer us a glimpse—it does not offer a glimpse of our institutions in their earliest forms. The history of Greece shows us an image of ourselves.

“It shows us that ours is the inheritance of great heroes, and that we should be proud—that we should be intensely proud—of where we come from. We should marvel at what our forefathers carved out of this countryside. The story of our civilization is the greatest story ever known to man. And it began here, with the first men and women of the West. From them—from them—we can rediscover the virtues, the courage, and the strength to confront the dangers that we face in our time.”

Rubio’s address in a dark time is a trumpet call to all who cherish the West to step up and defend its virtues and accomplishments from forces bent on its destruction. The histories, biographies, films, and other instructional materials needed for the rediscovery and preservation of that story are abundant. They are in our libraries, our phones, and computers, and are effective weapons in a defense of the West.

Yet weapons without warriors are useless. It’s up to teachers, parents, and grandparents to share these resources and the story of Western civilization with our children and our children’s children. Give them a strong dose of courage as well, and we have equipped them for the battles that lie ahead.