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 did he represent when Donald Trump humiliated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky –a leader whose country has suffered a brutal invasion by Russia– inside the Oval Office, while Rubio watched in silence? What kind of West is it when American foreign policy amounts to a revival of some of the darkest forms of imperialism in history? The ancient Greeks were hardly strangers to imperial ambition. But what does it say about the West’s claim to their legacy when the U.S. captures Nicolás Maduro and kills Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei? Where is the respect for sovereignty? Under Rubio, international law has been left in tatters. What kind of West is it when crushing sanctions are imposed on Cuba, punishing ordinary citizens, the poor and workers instead of the elites? What kind of West does Rubio lecture us about when the Trump administration targets immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for over two decades, own homes, and have children who serve in the American military or police force?

Rubio’s West is as close to the greatness of ancient Greece as Elon Musk is to Mars. Furthermore, ancient Greece does not belong exclusively to the modern West. Its ideas traveled far beyond its borders, and Greek thought was itself influenced by other cultures. History is far too complex to be reduced to a straight, convenient line stretching from ancient Athens to the White House.

It is a tragedy for modern Greece to offer its most sacred stage –the very ground where Theodoros Kolokotronis once spoke, the man Greeks revere as a liberator– to such an opportunist. America, a great nation in so many respects, is in dire need of leaders in the mold of Abraham Lincoln or Franklin D. Roosevelt, who embody the courage, knowledge, and integrity of the Founding Fathers. Instead, we are witnessing a political class that views democracy not as an active, daily responsibility, but as a historical trophy or tool to justify raw power.

Within the history of the West, democracy and civil liberties were never freely handed down by benevolent elites. They were won in the streets through the raised fists, strikes, and immense sacrifices by everyday people.

The real issue is not whether American politicians can admire ancient Greece. The issue is that Washington, D.C., uses those classical values to legitimize its global dominance, demanding that other nations respect an international “rules-based order” that the U.S. itself applies selectively. No nation has the right to pose as the ultimate guardian of democracy while simultaneously flouting the sovereign equality of states. The legacy of ancient Greece cannot be twisted into a shield for the doctrines of “America First” and “This Is Our Hemisphere.” (A worldview that treats the rest of the world as expendable.)

I support the West, and I firmly believe that if the West falls, the planet will be lost too. But to survive, the West must take the exact opposite path from the one championed by Rubio’s actions—not his spoken words. The fifth century BC belongs to all of humanity, not to the Greeks alone. It cannot become an excuse for 21st-century America’s failures. The departure of U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle, amid reports and allegations concerning her tenure, is another reminder of the gap between proclaimed ideals and political conduct. In Rubio’s West, integrity and parrhesia have become rare words. Hubris, by contrast, is everywhere.  

Dimitris Eleas is a writer and political scientist based in New York City. He is originally from Greece. His e-mail is: dimitris.eleas@gmail.com.  

Dimitris Eleas was born in Athens. He is a New York City–based political scientist, writer, and independent researcher. His essays and articles have appeared in The Washington Examiner, Foreign Affairs (Hellenic Edition), To Vima (Greece’s leading newspaper), The Books’ Journal, The National Herald, and SLpress, while his letters have been published by The New York Times (4x, three selected as the lead letter), The Wall Street Journal (2x, each appeared as a standalone piece), and The Washington Post (4x, one selected as the lead letter). He is the author of books in Greek and English. His latest novel-essay is When Shakespeare Was Lost, 1585–1592 (Govostis Publishers, 2025), and he is currently developing an English novel-essay, The Black Birds of Warsaw, set against the backdrop of the Holocaust.