Sparta

This article is about GritCult's view of Sparta. For a general overview, see Sparta on Wikipedia.

Sparta
“everyone still talks about sparta. its always better to stand up to a superior force. because the spirit…” (2 February 2024)
In the archive
Portal	Warlords & Empires
Posts	32
Retweets	45
Likes	517
First post	26 February 2018
Latest post	2 February 2024
Posts by year
201813
20192
20202
20213
20222
20239
20241
Related
Rome War Crypto Death Elon Musk

Sparta is GritCult's model of the underdog who stands and fights, studied mostly through Thermopylae. He admires Spartans as fighters more than Sparta as a state. Of the 32 posts, 13 came in 2018 and 9 in a burst in 2023.

Views

The centre of the page is a run of posts from July 2023 in which he worked through Thermopylae in public. He posted Leonidas on inventing work for idle soldiers, because their talk turns to fear while action produces the appetite for more action ^[1]. Then he asked what the lesson actually was: that a force of 300 in the right place at the right time can challenge a much larger one ^[2], or that preparation matters more than courage, given the Spartans' constant gruelling training ^[3]. He leaves both answers standing.

By 2024 the battle had become a general law of reputation: it is always better to stand up to a superior force, because humans are wired to relate to the underdog and “no one remembers those who give up” ^[4]. The strategic reading is older. In 2018 he argued that the Persians lost because they fought on Greek terms, on ground chosen by the enemy, when holding off would have let their size tell ^[5]. Courage earns the legend; position decides the battle.

Sparta also stands for one half of a pair. He quotes the warning that a society which separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools ^[6], and lists the Spartan and Athenian split among history's great dualities, adding his own twist: extremity should be countered not by moderation but by more extremity in another domain ^[7]. The admiration stops short of the state itself. Sparta “was never a glorious civilisation”, he told one enthusiast, but “a town at best, that had a short life” ^[8].

Recurring themes

• Thermopylae as a lesson in position and preparation
• the underdog legend outlives the defeat
• fighting on ground of your own choosing
• scholar and warrior in one man
• scepticism about Sparta as a civilisation

Notable post

The most retweeted GritCult post on the subject, with 12 retweets:

Selected posts

All 32 posts in the archive about Sparta, ranked by retweets. Select a column heading to sort.

Date	Retweets	Likes	Post	Media	Source
12 July 2023	12	114	If there is no work, make it up, for when soldiers have time to talk, their talk turns to fear. Action, on the other hand, produces the appetite for more action - Leonidas		View
2 February 2024	8	101	everyone still talks about sparta. its always better to stand up to a superior force. because the spirit of your legend, the underdog story is always an inspiration that humans are wired to relate to. no one remembers those who give up.		View
16 December 2022	6	52	On Sparta.		View
1 February 2020	3	31	A foreigner once visited Sparta. And was shocked by how bad the food was and remarked "I am not surprised the Spartans do not fear death"		View
22 July 2018	3	30	warriors => enlightened due to focus focus on enemy enemy thus creates internal harmony competition raises all boats free market => competition => you strive to beat your enemies to see them driven away, and their "business" turned to smoldering cinders spartan focus		View
26 June 2018	3	21	“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.” – Thucydides on Spartans and Athenians (i think - correct if wrong)		View
23 August 2018	2	11	has been espoused through history tao balance duality order and chaos difference between Spartans/Athenians my addition is that extremity is to be embraced countered not by moderation but by MORE extremity in another domain increase positive iterations		View
12 July 2023	1	37	The Spartans, in refusing to flee, had behaved like the great hero Achilles. In the ''Iliad,'' he stayed to fight at Troy, though he knew he would surely die.		View
20 March 2023	1	24	idea for a halo spin off game: a rogue spartan 2 who was sent on a suicide mission is captured by the covenant, he is tortured and held for over a decade, but due to his genetic engineering and spartan alterations he hardly ages, but his elite friend ages and then he ends up…		View
31 January 2021	1	21	the covenant had extreme specialties. their forces were highly segmented and thus less fluid, very rigid. this is highly optimised for highly specific foes. but against a fluid opponent you lose, because you fail to adapt. the Spartans could adapt to any situation.		View
6 March 2018	1	14	on xerxes/spartans: persians lost due to weaker strategical implement, they fought on the terms of greeks, not fighting or delaying is usually better than fighting on ground that is chosen by those you are fighting. shouldve held off attack, and use the advantage they had, size		View
12 July 2023	1	10	The second monument, the ancient one, is an unadorned stone engraved with the words of the poet Simonides. Its verses comprise perhaps the most famous of all warrior epitaphs: Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.		View
13 August 2018	1	2	parts of it are reminiscent of a particular LSD trip i had LSD trip : i saw everything around me on fire and i was covered in blood, i was in ancient greece, probably sparta, sounds fucked but the raw intensity of my most recent dream reminded me of the stench of rotting blood		View
12 July 2023	1	2	the spartans had metal armour, better weapons, they had actual tactics and the tactics based on their weapons, and they regularly practiced these. the persians, had cloth and wick based armours, a medley of random weapons, and huge disparities of skills and expendable fighters		View
9 August 2018	1	1	IYI publication, @spectator first by @MissDiagnosis, researched into her funding and ties by Israeli government, most "articles" are mouth pieces, arguments from identity now by @laraprendergast not as bad, but shouldve come at this topic via the Silicon valley Spartans route		View
20 July 2023	0	11	there are medical benefits and it helps with your spine, keeping it more alingned than a soft mattress and i have adapted to hard floor sleeping, so for me it feels much better but i also do it because of the aesthetic. there is something spartan and sublime in simplicity		View
12 July 2023	0	8	thinking alot about thermopylae what is the lesson here? a force of 300 in the right place at the right time can challenge a much larger one		View
20 August 2018	0	5	even in your own threads,@simpolism you adapted and evolved due to antifragile like pressure forced => new memetic environment => new memepool exposure fits in with the tradition of coming to age where one in sparta was thrust into the wild, and had to survive survive or die		View
2 March 2019	0	4	@cognazor @SteafanFox @thotpoizn well the spartans and helots are a interesting interaction @SteafanFox, also for the sake of history, if people in the future see this, i do think these moralities both subjective and changeable		View
10 September 2018	0	3	@jdconners @MimeticValue @cognazor @dopaminendreams @AlexanderBlum0 well on the other hand the black plague led to the age of enlightenment war as the eternal machine to thin the herd to select ubermensch up and elevate them above the normie plebs all societies had a underclass spartans used to hunt helots most ppl are descended from slaves		View
12 July 2023	0	3	or maybe that preparation is more important than courage spartans known for their constant gruelling training		View
26 February 2018	0	2	ive noticed a correlation of homoeroticism in highly masculine areas. both top gun and point break had homoerotic undertones, and sparta and greece were openly bisexual and even top commanders in nazi SS.		View
1 September 2018	0	2	jeff bezos elon musk taleb more and more of the elite are hitting gym being lean and meaty => mental capacity benefits silicon valley spartans		View
24 September 2019	0	2	We need to start the UNSC SPARTAN program ASAP.		View
6 June 2018	0	1	Herodotus, Xenophon or Aristotle ; the best to read regarding Sparta ?		View
9 September 2018	0	1	yes, look at contributors of wikis certain traits rise to the top of the heirarchy although it is open, decentralised and based on "merit" those traits create echo chambers naturally definition of merit varies athenian vs spartan cultural values		View
29 January 2020	0	1	@erin_nerung its lindy tbh. spartans used to throw babies off of cliffs. pre-islamic arabia, they used to bury them this is very common in many cultures.		View
9 June 2021	0	1	@HDPbilly Yeah but he’s not a Spartan lmao. Hes probably just a Hodler		View
6 November 2022	0	1	@ronin2011 sparta was never a glorious civilisation. it was a town at best, that had a short life.		View
20 March 2023	0	1	@candid_samuel rogue spartan but yh it would be a good take		View
3 April 2018	0	0	@8JnXn Lord of flies is a book on a society made by children. Society itself was emergent it wasnt planned yh i say human animal to highlight the fact we arent all that special. If children societies were at all successful there would be anthropology of them. See rome and sparta		View
31 March 2021	0	0	@AtlantaLiberal @0x49fa98 @FlightAstral @GraduatedBen Imagine thinking being pro life is right wing. Spartans would call you a female for such emotional thinking.		View

History

GritCult first posted about Sparta on 26 February 2018, and most recently on 2 February 2024. Across the archive the subject comes up 32 times, most often in 2018 (13 posts).

See also

Warlords & Empires portal

References

1. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (12 July 2023). If there is no work, make it up, for when soldiers have time to talk, their talk turns to fear. Action, on the other hand, produces the appetite for more action. X.
2. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (12 July 2023). what is the lesson here? a force of 300 in the right place at the right time can challenge a much larger one. X.
3. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (12 July 2023). or maybe that preparation is more important than courage...spartans known for their constant gruelling training. X.
4. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (2 February 2024). its always better to stand up to a superior force...no one remembers those who give up. X.
5. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (6 March 2018). persians lost due to weaker strategical implement, they fought on the terms of greeks...shouldve held off attack, and use the advantage they had, size. X.
6. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (26 June 2018). The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools. X.
7. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (23 August 2018). difference between Spartans/Athenians...my addition is that extremity is to be embraced countered not by moderation but by MORE extremity in another domain. X.
8. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (6 November 2022). sparta was never a glorious civilisation. it was a town at best, that had a short life. X.

External links

• Posts about Sparta by GRITCULT on X
• Sparta on Wikipedia