When I arrived in Almonte I was immediately taken by the collaboration of all levels of society,  young and old, men and women, professionals and trades, student and teacher, minister and disciple, retailer and producer, farmer and townsfolk, clerk and customer, rich and poor, private and municipal.  It was a bountiful environment, fresh, teeming with vitality and variety, and predominantly egalitarian; that is, “believing in or based on the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities”. In that regard it resembled the purity and goals of what I understand to have been the Spartan way of life. Specifically Sparta exemplified the democratic model of government.

Sparta: a city in the southern Peloponnese in Greece, capital of the department of Laconia; population 14,400 (est. 2009). It was a powerful city state in the 5th century BC, defeating its rival Athens in the Peloponnesian War to become the leading city of Greece. Wikipedia

Not everything about the limitations of the Spartan way of life is – at first blush – enviable or laudable. For instance,

Xenophobia: Spartans were famously xenophobic, often discouraging outside contact to avoid the introduction of foreign ideas that could undermine their military focus.

“For this reason he (Lykurgus) would not allow citizens to leave the country at pleasure, and to wander in foreign lands, where they would contract outlandish habits, and learn to imitate the untrained lives and ill-regulated institutions to be found abroad.”

Excerpt translated (1894) from the Greek
Plutarch, “Plutarch’s Lives, Volume I (of 4).”

Plutarch was born probably between A.D. 45 and A.D. 50, at the little town of Chaeronea in Boeotia. His family appears to have been long established in this place, the scene of the final destruction of the liberties of Greece, when Philip defeated the Athenians and Boeotian forces there in 338 B.C. Idem

The prevailing analysis of government tends to distinguish the xenophobic label as isolationist; but the ambitions of either are the same, to increase the homegrown people, augment production and preserve military strength.  Nor was the experience of tariffs entirely void, where the bargaining power was water resource (critical even to an invading army). Notwithstanding the favourable elements of xenophobia, I am however persuaded that the modern community is more inclined to unity than division, not merely as a  “leftist” philosophical mandate but rather as one which has proven to have common advantage.

Traditionally the less insular recommendations were celebrated as the Spartan lifestyle (though they are all related to the same purpose and objective). Notably the Spartans maintained a hierarchy of community, the bottom of which was the Helots (who were virtual immigrants and slaves). This gave new meaning to laconic (terse and taciturn), deriving from “Latin for Greek Heilōtes (plural), traditionally taken as referring to Helos, a Laconian town whose inhabitants were enslaved”.

A Spartan lifestyle emphasizes discipline, resilience, and simplicity, focusing on physical and mental fortitude over material possessions or luxury.

Key components include rigorous physical training, a communal and unadorned way of life, and a prioritization of duty to the community over individual desires.

This can be translated into a modern lifestyle through practices like waking up early, consistent exercise, healthy eating, minimalism, and a strong mental commitment to one’s goals. Idem

One cannot think of Rome without mentioning America.

It has been frequently remarked, that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country (United States of America), by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not, of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and force.

In Federalist No. 10, Madison discusses the means of preventing rule by majority faction and advocates a large, commercial republic. Federalist No. 10 is an essay written by James Madison as the tenth of The Federalist Papers, a series of essays initiated by Alexander Hamilton arguing for the ratification of the United States Constitution. It was first published in The Daily Advertiser (New York) on November 22, 1787, under the name “Publius”. Federalist No. 10 is among the most highly regarded of all American political writings. Idem

It is these unanticipated brushes with the Sparta way of life which continue to echo through the halls of intellectual and psychological enquiry. There is in consequence much to be said of the laconic lifestyle, marked by simplicity, regularity and evenness generally. So pervasive is the influence that it extends to what we eat.

Mediterranean 5 recipes (portable document format)

Stephen King once said, “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration; the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

If you want to live a Spartan lifestyle, get up and go to work.