Since I was a little boy in Athens, I learned at school to cherish two words: integrity and parrhesia – the courage to speak frankly. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood at the Pnyx and presented ancient Greece as the birthplace of a civilization defined by excellence, ambition, duty and the pursuit of truth. Interesting. He also presented individualism and nationalism as fundamental characteristics of ancient Greek civilization. But that is a selective reading of a far more complex history.

What kind of West was Rubio talking about in Athens, standing before the Parthenon in all its marble splendor? What West was he wagging his finger at? Was it a West that has yet to learn that the heaviest price of war is always paid by the poor, their children, and the workers? Or perhaps a West where global wealth is concentrated in the hands of a tiny, privileged minority, while the masses struggle under economic hardship? Meanwhile, Rubio’s boss in the White House is estimated to be $2.7 billion wealthier than when he won the 2024 election. Rubio spoke of a West where, in his own home state of Florida, books are banned in public schools.

What kind of West........

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