If you make a show of going against the times, flaunting your unconventional ideas and unorthodox ways, people will think that you only want attention and that you look down upon them. They will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch. Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.

Many have found success by contradicting that above statement. But once again, like many of the “laws” in Greene’s book, this law is not all that it seem’s. If you enjoy history, specifically Greek and Spartan history and how we can learn from the ancient wars of our past, continue reading.

Around the year 478 B.C., the city of Sparta sent an expedition to Persia led by the young Spartan nobleman Pausanias. The city-states of Greece had recently fought off a mighty invasion from Persia, and now Pausanias, along with allied ships from Athens, had orders to punish the invaders and win back the islands and coastal towns that the Persians had occupied.

Both the Athenians and the Spartans had great respect for Pausanias — he had proven himself as a fearless warrior, with a flair for the dramatic. Pausanias and his troops took Cyprus, then moved on to the mainland of Asia Minor known as the Hellespont and captured Byzantium (modern-day Istanbul).

Now, master of part of the Persian empire, Pausanias began to show signs of behaviour that went beyond his normal flamboyance. He appeared in public wearing pomades in his hair and flowing Persian robes, and accompanied by a bodyguard of Egyptians. He held lavish banquets in which he sat in the Persian manner and demanded to be entertained.
It’s clear power and success had clearly exposed Pausanias true character.

He stopped seeing his old friends, entered into communication with the Persian King Xerxes, and all in all, affected the style and manner of a Persian dictator. His army — Athenians and Spartans alike — at first thought this a passing fancy: he had always been a bit exaggerated in his gestures. But when he flaunted his disdain for the Greeks’ simple way of life and insulted the common Greek soldier, they began to feel he had gone too far. Although there was no concrete evidence for this, rumours spread that he had gone over to the other side and that he dreamed of becoming a kind of Greek Xerxes. To quell the possibility of mutiny, the Spartans relieved Pausanias of his command and called him home.

Pausanias, however, continued to dress in the Persian style, even in Sparta. After a few months, he returned to the Hellespont, telling his compatriots he was going to continue the fight against the Persians.

Actually, however, he had different plans — to make himself ruler of all Greece, with the aid of Xerxes himself.

The Spartans declared him a public enemy and sent a ship to capture him.

Pausanias surrendered, certain that he could clear himself of the charges of treason. It did come out during the trial that during his reign as commander he had offended his fellow Greeks time and again, erecting monuments, for instance, in his own name, rather than in those of the cities whose troops had fought alongside him, as was the custom.

Despite the evidence of his numerous contacts with the enemy, the Spartans refused to imprison a man of such noble birth, and let him go. Now thinking himself untouchable, Pausanias hired a messenger to take a letter to Xerxes, but the messenger instead took the letter to the Spartan authorities. These men wanted to find out more, so they had the messenger arrange to meet Pausanias in a temple where they could hide and listen behind a partition. What Pausanias said shocked them — they had never heard such contempt for their ways spoken so brazenly by one of their own — and they made arrangements for his immediate arrest.

On the way home from the temple, Pausanias got word of what had happened. He ran to another temple to hide, but the authorities followed him there and placed sentries all around. Pausanias refused to surrender. Unwilling to forcibly remove him from the sacred temple, the authorities kept him trapped inside until he eventually died of starvation.

People who flaunt their infatuation with a different culture are expressing disdain and contempt for their own. They are using the outward appearance of the exotic to separate themselves from the common folk who unquestioningly follow the local customs and laws and to express their sense of superiority. Otherwise, they would act with more dignity, showing respect for those who do not share their desires. Indeed their need to show their difference so dramatically often makes them disliked by the people whose beliefs they challenge, indirectly and subtly, perhaps, but offensively nonetheless.