Thursday night my roommates and I went to see Frank Miller’s new 300 (a nearly sold out event). I thought it was a lot of fun to watch and had amazing visual effects. CNN news has been running a negative review that complains about the mismatch between futuristic special effects on the one hand and the ancient historical setting on the other. I don’t really care about this matter one way or another. I’d rather comment on one brief historical and cultural point of the film. I am highly skeptical that any society can both raise their male children to be lean mean fighting machines from birth and also place a high value on liberty and freedom as Miller’s Spartans did. My roommates and I came out of the film pointing to the obvious parallel between the Spartans and current neo-cons. Both ride to war and battle for liberty in rhetoric only.