05-23-2009, 02:21 AM
I believe it was. Socrates "admired" (if that's the right word) the austerity that was the Spartan goal. I do agree with your line about fooling yourselves before you can readily fool others. The "shows" put on for visitors from other states reinforcing the Spartan elan might throw light on this.
Indeed hypocrisy was one the main Spartan virtues. Letting laws "lie" or "sleep" at the state's convenience became the norm as oliganthropy took a suffocating hold on the Laconian state. This was a condition the state was not equipped to deal with as land ownership continued to concentrate into fewer hands - of ever strengthening grip - as to do so will have meant throwing over one of the great pillars of the Spartan myth: that the state had never had and would never suffer the same suffrage / debt / civil strife that most others went through as they evolved over time. The lie was put to that during the agonies of Spartan resistance to the cancer of oliganthropy which metastised into painful and certain decline over the two centuries following Leuktra. Periodic outbursts of land / sufferage redistribution were like bursts of failed radiation or chemo. In the end, the state could not do what Athens and others had done and address the issue. That would have meant abandoning the myth of the "Lycurgan" system and dealing with the benficiaries of the oliganthropy who'd little interest in parting with their accruals.
Indeed hypocrisy was one the main Spartan virtues. Letting laws "lie" or "sleep" at the state's convenience became the norm as oliganthropy took a suffocating hold on the Laconian state. This was a condition the state was not equipped to deal with as land ownership continued to concentrate into fewer hands - of ever strengthening grip - as to do so will have meant throwing over one of the great pillars of the Spartan myth: that the state had never had and would never suffer the same suffrage / debt / civil strife that most others went through as they evolved over time. The lie was put to that during the agonies of Spartan resistance to the cancer of oliganthropy which metastised into painful and certain decline over the two centuries following Leuktra. Periodic outbursts of land / sufferage redistribution were like bursts of failed radiation or chemo. In the end, the state could not do what Athens and others had done and address the issue. That would have meant abandoning the myth of the "Lycurgan" system and dealing with the benficiaries of the oliganthropy who'd little interest in parting with their accruals.
Paralus|Michael Park
Ἐπὶ τοὺς πατέρας, ὦ κακαὶ κεφαλαί, τοὺς μετὰ Φιλίππου καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τὰ ὅλα κατειργασμένους
Wicked men, you are sinning against your fathers, who conquered the whole world under Philip and Alexander!
Academia.edu
Ἐπὶ τοὺς πατέρας, ὦ κακαὶ κεφαλαί, τοὺς μετὰ Φιλίππου καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τὰ ὅλα κατειργασμένους
Wicked men, you are sinning against your fathers, who conquered the whole world under Philip and Alexander!
Academia.edu
