Rubio At The Greek Acropolis: The West Has Forgotten What Made It Great

Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Wednesday that the West faces a choice between reclaiming its strength and accepting a future of “atrophy and servitude and decline” after decades of abandoning the qualities that once made it the world’s dominant civilization.

Speaking in Athens, Greece, with the Acropolis behind him, Rubio argued that Western civilization owes its strength not only to democracy and political institutions, but to a deeper set of qualities inherited from ancient Greece: “fierce individuality and relentless ambition,” “daring exploration and invention,” and “a yearning for discovery, for adventure, risk and glory.”

“These were not just the formulas or precepts of a particular school of philosophy,” Rubio said. “They were the characteristic of a people.”

He said the ancient Greeks made the pursuit of excellence central to life, organizing society around competition in everything from philosophy and art to athletics, war, and statecraft.

Modern Western ideologies, he argued, increasingly favor safety over achievement.

“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.

“We hold the most exceptional things among us hostage to the average, the ordinary, the mediocre,” Rubio added.

The ancient Greeks instead “built upwards,” he said, continually pushing themselves to achieve more. 

Rubio described the Greek concept of thumos — which he defined as “the fire of passion, strength, courage, pride” — as essential to a civilization’s survival.

“And without it? Without it, nations lose their will to fight, the will to strive, the will to survive,” he said.

Rubio said the West forgot this quality and that Western nations have become increasingly uncomfortable with their own history and accomplishments, while rejecting nationalism.

“Over time, we in the West came to feel ashamed of the very things that made us exceptional,” Rubio said. “We felt embarrassed that our achievements set us apart from the rest of the world.”

Rubio said that loss of confidence has been accompanied by policies he argued have weakened Western nations, including open borders, outsourcing, reduced military strength, and the transfer of decision-making to international institutions.

“The word ‘nationalism’ became a dirty word,” Rubio said. “And so we tore down our monuments; we condemned our own history.”

“In the process, we opened our borders and outsourced our industry, and allowed our militaries to wither and to decay,” he added.

Rubio argued that America’s rivals have taken advantage of the West’s retreat and are “all too happy to fill the vacuum that we left — the vacuum left behind by our weakness.”

“The next decade and the decisions we make will write the story of the next century,” Rubio said. “The course we take will determine whether the West maintains its place at the head of the world or resigns itself to a future of atrophy and servitude and decline.”

Rubio said the Trump administration had chosen to rebuild American strength.

“Under President Trump, the United States has made its choice,” Rubio said. “We choose the unapologetic pursuit of national power.”

He pointed to efforts to regain control of critical supply chains, reindustrialize the American economy, rebuild the military, and compete for dominance in emerging technologies.

Rubio also called on Europe to strengthen its own defenses, arguing that the continent must “awaken from its long slumber and rekindle the fire that was lit here millennia ago.”

Increased European defense spending, new partnerships, and expanded manufacturing show that the continent is beginning to reverse course, he said.

But Western nations must also be willing to defend their interests when diplomacy fails, Rubio argued, pointing to the ancient Greeks.

“They understood that statecraft requires prudence and diplomacy, but it also requires the ability to wield force when prudence and diplomacy fail,” Rubio said. “Power requires not only having the means to defend yourself, it requires the credibility that you are willing to use it.”

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