- "Are the ideas of the conservative political philosopher
Leo Strauss a shaping influence on the Bush administration's world
outlook? Danny Postel interviews Shadia Drury -- a leading scholarly
critic of Strauss -- and asks her about the connection between Plato's
dialogues, secrets and lies, and the United States-led war in Iraq."
-
- "The ancient philosophers whom Strauss most cherished
believed that the unwashed masses were not fit for either truth or liberty,
and that giving them these sublime treasures would be like throwing pearls
before swine."
-
- "...the ancients were determined to keep this tyrannical
teaching secret because the people are not likely to tolerate the fact
that they are intended for subordination; indeed, they may very well turn
their resentment against the superior few. Lies are thus necessary to protect
the superior few from the persecution of the vulgar many."
-
- "The effect of Strauss's teaching is to convince
his acolytes that they are the natural ruling elite and the persecuted
few. And it does not take much intelligence for them to surmise that they
are in a situation of great danger, especially in a world devoted to the
modern ideas of equal rights and freedoms. Now more than ever, the wise
few must proceed cautiously and with circumspection. So, they come to the
conclusion that they have a moral justification to lie in order to avoid
persecution. Strauss goes so far as to say that dissembling and deception -- in effect, a culture of lies ñ is the peculiar justice
of the wise."
-
- "They are capable of looking into the abyss without
fear and trembling. They recognise neither God nor moral imperatives. They
are devoted above all else to their own pursuit of the 'higher' pleasures, which amount to consorting with their 'puppies'
or young initiates."
-
- "...the tensions and conflicts within the current
administration reflect the differences between the surface teaching...and
the 'nocturnal' or covert teaching, which the philosophers
alone are privy to. It is very unlikely for an ideology inspired by a secret
teaching to be entirely coherent."
-
- http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-3-77-1542.jsp#
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