Make New York Post a Preferred Source US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks at the Pnyx hill with the ancient Parthenon temple atop the Acropolis in the background Wednesday, October 7, 2026, in Athens, Greece. The hill is where ancient Athenians held democratic assemblies. via REUTERS Kudos to Secretary of State Marco Rubio for his profound and essential words before the Athenian Parthenon, where he boldly defended democratic principles, republican government and “the Western desire to uncover all that ignorance, darkness and distance had kept hidden from the mind of man.”
His speech came not a minute too soon, as advocates for barbarism — who root for the destruction of all that is good — are on the march around the world.
Indeed, unlike in past ages, when these enemies of enlightenment stood outside the gates of civilization, today they are very much in our midst.
Nurtured in universities, enflamed by violence in the streets and raised to power through the politics of resentment, apostles of the anti-Western ideology of hatred and ignorance are now firmly rooted in once-great cities.
They denounce private ownership and seek to impose an equality of misery across the population.
They encourage open hatred for the ambitious and successful and claim it’s big-hearted and charitable to seize other people’s money.
In New York, mobs scream and cheer for an Islamist death cult and chant genocidal slogans while crying about a genocide that never happened.
In London, it’s more dangerous to denounce a multi-decade epidemic of gang rape than to participate in one.
Parisian rioters wave terrorist flags and burn schools while the media calls them school-funding activists.
Across the West, cherished values of ordered liberty, equality before the law, national integrity and love of country are derided as corrupt masks for greed and entrenched power.
Rubio’s speech was a vigorous and necessary corrective to the malaise and doubt infecting the West.
“We are at an inflection point,” noted the Secretary of State, “an inflection point not only in the history of my nation, but an inflection point in the whole of our civilization.”
A civilization whose contributions to humanity are enormous, starting with its promotion of individual rights, the value of truth and freedom itself.
A civilization that developed and systematized the scientific method, paving the way for the industrial revolution and explosion of technological innovation that’s led to unimaginable human flourishing.
A civilization, in short, that is absolutely worth saving.
“Ours is the inheritance of great heroes,” roared Rubio.
“The story of our civilization is the greatest story ever known to man. And it began here, with the first men and women of the West. From them . . . we can rediscover the virtues, the courage and the strength to confront the dangers that we face in our time.”
Pray his words are heard — and heeded — everywhere.
