The Greatness of Being Small

I've been listening to a lot of Greek lately, in addition to all my regular current events reading, and one thing that has really impressed me was the ability of the Greeks to do great things given a small amount of resources. I mean really crazily great things, like defeat 100 million Persians with 300 Spartans.

In light of my other readings, about current events, and especially the current battery of failed attempts to reform various aspects of US culture and political economy one thing became clear to me: smallness can be a huge advantage in both adaptability and creativity.

The question has been asked many times before by historians: After seeing how successful the Greeks were with their hoplites and war tactics, why didn't they copy it? Was the Perisan empire not the largest empire then ever seen? Was it not the richest? The largest? etc.

Of course it was, but it's very hugeness became a factor, in my opinion that impeded it's progress. The Persian monarch was in the habit of collecting from the subject peoples around him to form an army, would it not be very difficult to break this tradition and make his own in the Greek school? Arrogance, that of the large toward the small, no doubt also played a factor. Why should the great Persians copy the puny Greeks? We have the empire, after all, not they. Maybe their victory was a mistake. Persia is still #1. So the logic goes.

For the Greek city-states, much like the Italian city states or the modern European Nation-states, none of those excuses holds water though. Each of those small units, without any excuses to fall back on, does it's best to get the best results. If they fail they pay for their failures, historically sometimes pay with their very existence, and then try to make a better solution. The result of this is progress, technological as well as cultural on every front.

Looking at the modern us Healthcare debate through this lens I can't help but laugh a little and remember the Persians. We are the greatest, the biggest, the strongest, why learn from the little guys around us?

(Beware, the above is a dangerous attitude)