The New Spartan Warrior

In ancient Greece, economy was represented by the citizen-soldiers of Sparta, who lived only to fight. Each of them, it is said, owned nothing but his sword. Let us hope for the sake of decency that he also owned a loincloth, or at least rented one for important battles, but the point is, those Spartan dudes were very disciplined and efficient and didn't bother themselves with unnecessary vanities.

In the modern world, one can also be Spartan, but you need more than just a sword. You probably also need a medical plan and an internet connection. What you don't need is 99% of the stuff that modern capitalist propaganda says you need. Living up to the Spartan ideals means cutting the fat and reducing life to its essentials.

What are the essentials? They are the things that we need not only to survive but to remain productive in modern society. Pain doesn't have to be part of the equation. You can be Spartan and still be reasonably comfortable and connected with the world. Self-deprivation is not the primary goal. The essential elements of the Spartan way are economy, efficiency and freedom from distraction.

Thoreau built his cabin in the woods and thought he had things worked out. He said you need food, shelter, clothing, heat and, of course, books. Today, we would have to expand that list. For example, it is hard to get by in the modern world without some form of transportation, by which you can venture forth to the supermarket and capture your evening meal. You also need money to pay for the meal and some sort of economic activity to generate the money.

Even if you live on the fringes of society and cut your needs to the bone, your society still lays some requirements on you. You can't drop out completely without alarming your family, and you have to pay your taxes and renew your driver's license. Being Spartan doesn't mean you have to lose all contact with your fellow man, just manage it better, so it isn't always pummeling you with demands.

The Essentials

Below are the Spartan essentials as I understand them, moving from the concrete to the more abstract. I have left out only air to breath, a planet to live on and a place to pee, because these things are assumed.

Obviously, you need food and water. The food can be simple: a varied diet that meets your nutritional needs but that doesn't make you fat. Taste need not be ignored, but it is important to remember the true purpose of food: to give you the energy to keep going and the building blocks for a healthy body. Once it passes your tongue, all food turns into tasteless mush anyway, so you might as well fuel up with things that are both cheap and nutritious. The New Spartan eats only when he is hungry and his body is telling him to. Otherwise, there are better things to do than munch on donuts.

"Water" means just that—water. You can also drink juice, milk and soda, but when it gets to your stomach, it's all the same mush. What matters is the total nutritional, caloric and hydrating value, not how it got there.

Every warrior needs clothing. Nakedness can be uncomfortably cold much of the year, and in modern society it is forbidden anyway. If you wish, you can throw yourself against this cultural hypocrisy, but I'm telling you that it is far more practical to just put something on and not cause a ruckus. Whatever you wear should be simple, practical and low-maintenance. You don't have to be a fashion plate. The first goal of clothing is protection from the elements and the second is to be unobtrusive, not presenting any image that conflicts with your chosen social role. If someone you met in the morning is unable to recall in the afternoon what you were wearing, then you have dressed appropriately.

You need a safe place to sleep. Sleep, it appears, is a physiological requirement of the body. You can wander around the city all day long, but when night falls you have to "be somewhere," knowing that this mysterious unconsciousness is bound to overtake you. During sleep, you need more warmth and greater protection from the elements than when you are awake. You also need protection from thieves and predators who would take advantage of you while you are unconscious.

In prior ages, a place to sleep would be called "shelter," which usually meant a fixed piece of enclosed real estate for one family's exclusive use. There is no reason that the Spartan should feel restricted by this label. You need a "safe place to sleep"—that's all. Thoreau points out that a coffin-size railroad box would do the trick. I observe that a slightly larger space is necessary, as you need to be able to turn over at night. You need padding and warmth, but you don't have to check into the Hilton.

During the day, you need a workspace to do whatever it is a warrior does. The nature of this workspace depends on what your mission is. To the ancient Spartan, his place of business was the battlefield, but he also needed a place to train and at least sharpen his sword between wars. Your own workspace could be the same place you sleep, but this isn't necessary. If your field is knowledge and you work on a computer, than your workspace can be almost anywhere protected from the elements.

In the modern world, you need a secure storage space, because it is not yet possible to be entirely free of "stuff." Everyone has possessions—at least clothing they are not currently wearing, food they haven't eaten yet and printed records that can't be thrown away. Again, your storage space can be the same as your sleeping space, but it doesn't have to be so. To the true Spartan, this space required should be small, as he only has the sword and a few pieces of armor to put away.

Every modern warrior who regularly interacts with other humans must be concerned about hygiene—that is, he needs an opportunity to bathe, clean his teeth and attend to other personal maintenance. One shouldn't allow ones body to become too rank, as this can become a barrier to social relations.

Any modern warrior shouldn't go long without a medical plan. It may be honorable to die on the field of battle, but what if you are only wounded? You don't want to just lie there and bleed to death when you can possibly recover and fight again. You need Blue Cross or something.

Most warriors needs some form of transportation, at least to get them to and from the battlefield. A horse is okay but not terribly utilitarian nowadays. You'd be better off feeding a motorbike or a small foreign automobile. The subway is good but doesn't always get you where the battle is. You need to think this one through. You want the right equipment for the job.

A Spartan needs communication so he can coordinate with other warriors and bone up on the latest slaughtering skills. Ancient Greece didn't have the internet or cell phones, but if it did, you can guarantee that every soldier would be using them. It always helps, in any battle, to have as much relevant information as possible.

However, you don't want to get all fat and flabby with too much superfluous information. This is a major danger in the modern world. (See Data Obesity and The End of Rumination.) Like food, you want only the information that is nutritious and sufficient to the task. You don't want mental junk interfering with your clarity of mind.

Sadly, the modern Spartan needs money to pay for all of the preceding. Unless Daddy left you with a wad, you are probably going to have to get a job or engage in some other form of economic activity to supply your coffers. This is unpleasant business, as you may have to do someone else's will or support goals that you don't entirely believe in. Nonetheless, this distasteful activity is necessary to at least pay for your sword and loincloth.

It is easy to be seduced by the money-making game, especially after you start becoming successful at it. Please remember, however, what the real coin of the realm is: It is not money, but time. There's not much point in making a million dollars if you are almost dead by the time it happens. One of the aims of the Spartan lifestyle is to free yourself of unnecessary servitude to the economic system, so that you have more of your time to use as you wish.

A warrior also needs social relations. You can live alone on an island for a while, but sooner or later, you have to come ashore. To achieve any meaningful goal, you have to interact with your fellow man and/or woman. You were born into a society, and in the long term there is no living without it. Otherwise, you won't just be sleeping with your sword; you'll be talking to it, caressing it and perhaps even inviting it to cut you.

Finally, every warrior has to have a mission. In ancient Sparta, the mission was clear: You followed orders. In the modern world, we rarely have it so easy. How should you best use your warrior skills? There is no simple answer. Finding your mission is half the battle in life. You need only know now that there has to be one; it has to push you to your limit, and it has to be meaningful beyond your own temporary existance.

This mission, in turn, is going to require certain essential tools: a sword if you are fighting battles, a computer if you are writing, and an arc if you a transporting a large number of animals. There is no fixed spending limit when a Spartan needs tools. It is a matter of what the tool can do for his mission and how much it is worth in the long run. Always, of course, he is economical, acquiring only the essential aids and nothing more.

Marching To War

Whether or not he yet has a mission, the New Spartan should be guided by economy—economy of body, economy of activity, and economy of mind. He eliminates the fat wherever it can be found. He tries to identify his own natural skills, and he hones them. He looks for what is truly important in life, and he distills it.

The warrior must not be waylaid by the superfluous. No silly, frilly, girlie things for this Spartan, no sir! No sentimental attachments. No entangling alliances. Just the mission.

And there will be no daydreaming about silly, frilly, girlie things either. Snap out of it!

Keep your mind on the mission, man!

—G.C.

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