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Despite the fact that Pericles’ Funeral Oration is believed to have been written by his wife, there is no doubt that his delivery of the speech likely had the desired effect on the people. It is unfortunate though that the Athenians, and all Greeks, of the time so deprived themselves of the wisdom of women leaders, when clearly there were brilliant women living and thinking. Athens became only half of what it could have been and likely their unwillingness to allow the democracy to evolve, as all institutions should, to a point where none are excluded from participation contributed to their eventual downfall. Every person, educated and uneducated, has something to contribute to the world, whether it be a small deed or significant enough to touch many. Society seems to still be struggling with this concept in everything from religion to business to education and politics. There is a severe lack of diversity in the United States government, though we are slowly improving. Many prominent churches don’t allow women to preach to congregations. Why is that? We are no less capable of communion with the divine. The business world seems to be evolving at a decent pace, but it still has its shortcomings. Education, while it appears to have made the most advances, still is not sufficient. Pericles’ mentioned in his speech that, “our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of things of the mind does not make us soft.” Art seems to be fading from our public school systems and philosophy is nonexistent. It is strange that a society built on the foundations of a culture such as Athens would so neglect these aspects in the building and rebuilding of their own society. Why is it not important? Our imaginations and dreams are what we use to construct a better future for the next generation; we should be fostering our youth in their imaginations not robbing them of their childhood. Art should be a requirement in all education from the start, because it allows for personal reflection and expression. It allows us to see the world differently from each other and to reinvent old and tired concepts. The study of philosophy is still held in high esteem by our society, yet most students won’t have ready access to it until college. There are young people alive today more brilliant than their predecessors, but we do not give them due credit because they lack experience. Wisdom does not necessarily come with age, for there are many old fools who still refuse to give up worn out ideals. We are all ignorant to some degree, but ignorance is its most dangerous when in the company of arrogance. This is when a person or society can do the most damage to themselves and others. To be so convinced that only your perception of things is correct to the extent that no fresh ideas are allowed to enter the mind is cultural suicide. In the Athenian dialogue with the Melians this is exactly what happens. That idea the Athenians held of “might makes right” had devastating consequences for their neighboring city/states and eventually for themselves. History shows time and again that the stagnation of thought leads only to the destruction of individuals and their countries. So, our society should take heed not to push out the new or radical ideas, because those concepts may end up being what preserves our culture. There are many great aspects to the Greek culture, ideas that are timeless and useful in any generation. However, there were also many areas of life they paid little or no attention to, perhaps because they thought them insignificant. No aspect of a society should be ignored; no person or group of people in a society should be ignored. You can not complete a jigsaw puzzle with only half the pieces, just as you can not build a lasting civilization with only half a people.
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