Spartan living, today?

Right now I'm currently reading "Gates of fire" by Steven Pressfield, he's the fellow who gave us "Bagger Vance". This book is a historical fiction, like Bagger, that details the Battle of Thermopylae. In this battle, an ancient day version of the Alamo, the grossly undermanned Spartan armies held the large imperial amries of King Xerxes at bay and helped Greece fend off the Persian invaders. The book doesn't try to give a factual play by play, that would be hard, but tries to provide insights into the Spartan culture.

The Spartan region was home to the proud warriors of ancient Greece. While the thinkers came out of Athens, the toughest men came from Sparta. They had an elaborate and harsh warrior code that dictated Spartan living. At age 9 Spartan boys would enroll in the Agoge and would focus on warrior skills and working together in victory. Their training regiment bordered on brutality and young men, beaten down and exhusted by the training, were taught that it was better to keep going and die then to give in and submit. After all, are breaks given for the tired during warfare? As a result of this training the Spartan armies were among the envy of the ancient world and their lines were rarely broken. While training was extreme, these boys learned the value of brotherhood, honor, and competition.

Now to my question. How would the Spartans fare in today's world? Theirs was a world that broke down the individual and built up a unit. Ours is a world that breaks down the group while catering and celebrating the individual. While I would agree that some of Spartan life was extremely brutal, I do greatly admire what they were able to accomplish and what they stood for. I am not alone. The greatest leaders and thinkers throughout history have studied and celebrated the Spartan code. But sadly we live in a time when we couldn't truly live according to their code. Heck, the Boy Scouts can't even function without being intruden upon by someone whose "rights" have been violated.

The reason that the Spartan's were so feared and effective was due to their code and the way they lived. Without those those harsh conditions they wouldn't have been great. Our modern society today wouldn't allow for alot of the conditions that made the Spartans what they were. Personal rights are great and necessary, but sometimes it seems that their excessive emphasis can also be an excuse for not truly being great or not truly being responsible.