It has been said that Leo Strauss is the father of, or at least one of the political thinkers most responsible for, the neo-conservative moment. His teachings were apparently a large influence on people like Vice President Dick Cheney and the organization the Project for the New American Century.
My understanding of Strauss is that one of his core beliefs was that America needs an enemy to battle at all times. The enemy was needed to keep the American population focused in order to prevent chaos in society. Needless to say, I find this line of thinking creepy and authoritarian, but I wonder if it is accurate (based on the actions of Cheney it probably is).
After a quick perusal of the Wikipedia entry on Strauss, I’ve decided that I really don’t know enough about the man or his philosophy. As with many things on Wiki, the entry seems to be a good starting point in my research but it is not the place to finish. I will be heading to the library later to look for some books on Strauss. If anyone has done an research, can suggest any books or websites, please send the info my way.
7 comments:
For what it's worth, Strauss appears in The Conservative MInd's bibliography, but not in the index. I do not recall reading of him in that book, which would automatically make me think that he cannot have been all that great an influence on conservatism, proper, as the book at least alludes to every significant conservative thinker since Burke. After perusing the Wikipedia article to which you linked, I couldn't help but think that he might well have been an influence on neoconservatism, especially via the way alluded to in the Wikipedia article on neoconservatism:
For the neoconservatives, religion is an instrument of promoting morality. Religion becomes what Plato called a noble lie. It is a myth which is told to the majority of the society by the philosophical elite in order to ensure social order... In being a kind of secretive elitist approach, Straussianism does resemble Marxism. These ex-Marxists, or in some cases ex-liberal Straussians, could see themselves as a kind of Leninist group, you know, who have this covert vision which they want to use to effect change in history, while concealing parts of it from people incapable of understanding it.
This would definitely not be classical conservative thinking, but I can easily picture it amongst the neocons, quite possibly including former Vice President Cheney.
Congratulations: you are the first (relatively) liberal blogger I'm going to put in my blogroll. After perusing your blog, I think you're the sort of liberal with whom one can converse reasonably.
As a conservative I will tell you that Oklahoma Lefty (dave) is indeed a liberal with whom you can have a reasonable conversation.
sorry.. here is a link to the great grandson of conservatism.. a 13 year old who spoke at CPAC yesterday on the meaning of conservatism.
LINK
Man of the West – I agree that the Straussian philosophy has more to do with neo-conservatism than conservatism. I actually agree with a lot of traditional conservative ideas, but not with the neo-conservative ideas. The truly interesting part is that modern conservatism was born out of reacting to the English Enlightenment and the work of John Locke; conservatism in America can be traced back to Alexander Hamilton.
Thanks too for stopping by and for adding my blog to your blogroll, I shall be doing the same.
Red – A 13 year old conservative?
A soon to be growing army of young conservatives... the Yin to Obama-Pelosi-Reid's Yang, if you will.
Yin and Yang huh?
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