A story told by a First Century (CE) Greek philosopher and moralist recounts the following:

Amidst the crowded throng at the Olympics there was an elderly and feeble man searching desperately for a place to sit from where he might watch the events.  As the old man passed from section to section, vainly seeking a seat, the common Greek citizens in the crowd mocked him for his age, and teased him mercilessly about his stumbling and fruitless endeavor.  When the beleaguered old fellow came to the section in which the Spartan’s sat, however, every man among them rose to offer him their seats. Somewhat abashedly, but nevertheless admiringly, the common Greeks in the crowd applauded them for this behavior.  ”Ah”, said the old man, ”I see what it is—all Greeks KNOW what is right, but only the Spartan’s do it.”

As I read this ancient tale, I am given to thoughts of our modern age, and myself ashamed by the knowledge that for as far as the Western Man has come, far, far too many “Common Greeks” remain among us.  Fortuitously, this ancient tale provides me an opportunity to demonstrate how we Odinists, Spartan-like in our willingness and ability to stand up for what’s right even amidst so many who will not, can make a difference, perhaps leaving tales future philosophers find worthy to tell.

All of us, I am sure, have met the “Common Greek” types, those individuals who profess to treasure their individuality and freedom while persistently living as slaves to a group-think ethos that would deny them the distinctions that make each man and woman individuals to begin with.  These are the people who possess the intelligence to recognize the culturally corrosive effect of universalist ideals not in keeping with the Western worlds instincts or interests, people whom we know, even, to have an ACUTE understanding of said effects, yet people who lack the courage to take a stand publicly over these self-same issues.  You know the types: The man who will, complain bitterly among the regulars at the local coffee shop or pub about the dearth of employment opportunities in his community created by the influx of illegal Hispanic immigration, but who will not consider participating in a march to protest the issue because he “doesn’t want to make trouble”; or the woman overheard at the beauty parlor who has insisted her husband find their family a home further out in the suburb’s as the busing of inner-city negro children has turned the schools of her off-spring into gang war zones and open-air drug markets, but at the slightest challenge to this instinctual protectiveness of her children, her home, her future, she will trip over herself in apology and the attempt to prove she’s not a “racist”.  Such are the “Common Greeks”, KNOWING what is right (or WRONG) while lacking the ability to do it (or do something about it, as it were.).

Because history (such as that recounted above by the likes of Plutarch) shows us that the moral duplicity of the “Common Greeks” is by no means a modern phenomena, I offer that, for the purpose of self-assurance (and indeed self-preservation!), we Odinists like the Spartan’s of old, gird ourselves with the strength of an acceptance that gives rise to resolve.  I implore you, my AllFather’s people, my Mother Frigga’s children, to embrace an acceptance that permits you to understand that we cannot “save” everyone, indeed an acceptance that permits you to understand that ours is a faith that should not EXPECT to “save” everyone; For when, EVER, have the SHEEP answered the WOLFS call?  It is by this Truth that I have myself found new strength and resolve, this Truth that allows me to know that the sheep of this world, the “Common Greeks”, are NOT MEANT to hear the Wolfs Call, or the Ravens Cry, but destined, as sheep have ever been, to be herded, to be shorn, and to be slaughtered.

There will be those who take issue with such a stance (as if they do not already take issue with most everything we believe). They will call such a mindset “callous” and “incognizant of the needs of the innocent and the ignorant”.  Truly?  WHAT, I ask, could be more callous than the (in)actions of those who stand IDLY BY while their people are herded through that shearing and slaughter, WITH foreknowledge of that end?  How did those of us WILLING to stand and offer our proverbial seats to the Elders (the offer of honor to our ancestors!) become the BAD GUYS?  Obviously(for I write this!), I am not opposed to educating the ignorant, nor opposed to aiding the Truly innocent, but simply here advocating an awareness, the awareness that, like those “Common Greeks”, there are far many more people who KNOW what is RIGHT but ELECT NOT TO DO IT than there are Tru innocents and/or Tru ignorants, and we enter an era of Lokian Fates in which we can ill afford to be blinded by misplaced compassions, or led to our own demise by the duplicitous.  The time has come to HONOR THOSE WHO HONOR US.
 
In this age, when fortitude is no longer “in fashion”, when fidelity seems a “sin”, wear your Hammers with Pride and choose your words for their Power, not their appeasement.  Let not your children see a race of apologists ,a people ashamed of their strength, beauty or past glories, but a race of pugilists, ever ready to fight, in word and deed, for the preservation of that Pride, and the reconstruction of a culture on which that Pride is BASED.  Like the Spartan’s at Thermopylae, the horde we face will be immense, but in standing our ground, the inspiration we cause, the things beyond the pass that we save, will be the difference we make.

Leonidas lives inside us
Boru and Caesar too
Don’t bow your heads! The blood they shed
Now flows in me and you!
The mark we make should not forsake
The sacrifice they made
Wolves cry out! And Ravens shout!
The gauntlet is now laid!