Remember these words of advice from Leo Strauss, the PNAC Godfather,

[KlatooBNikto]

when you want to believe Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice.

1. Only a certain Elite are equipped mentally and physically to rule. They are the people without any illusions and are capable of being merciless when circumstances call for it. They do not need other people's approval and are essentailly seekers of power.

2. These Elite, by force of necessity, will be rquired to lie to the Masses to create a make believe situation that will pacify the masses.They should not be swayed by any advice that they are required to tell the truth.

3. Use of violence and other tactics will be necessary to contain the masses. Propaganda and lies are part of the arsenal of the rulers.

Along with these words of wisdom, this man, a jewish escapee from Nazi Germany thought we in America have too many people who are unfit to be considered equal citizens.He advised tolerance with contempt for these people.

It goes without saying that among his disciples he had some of the worthies of this administration: Wolfowitz,Kristol,Ashcroft come to mind.

If you did not read the title of his works, you would think you are reading the pages of Mein Kampf.

That is the bible of our current rulers.Keep this in mind when some
liar gets up and makes an announcement.

[Stand and Fight]

1. Reference and link please.

Thanks.

[KlatooBNikto]

2. Please look up Shadia Drury 's excellent biography of Leo Strauss.

It is available at Amazon.

[parasim]

4. There's this...

http://www.alternet.org/story/15935

[aquart]

3. When he was growing up, that was what worked.

For the rest of his life, he decided to fight fire with fire.

Very painful to read. In his mind, the only consequences of fascism were that they won. Somehow, their eventual destruction didn't penetrate. Probably because it came too late to save him from them.

In his mind, the only way out of the death camps is to be a Nazi.

[K-W]

6. It is interesting that there several direct ties

between German and other facist thought and this adminsitration.

It seems alot of people would rather forget that facism is a part human history and that facist thought had a large philisophical impact on alot of people around the world. Alot of people want to forget that facism proved to be somewhat contagious, it was not isolated to one time and place.

It is a very real thing, there have more than certainly been facists at work in America since the very beginning.

Facists arent demon creatures. They are regular people who believe terrible things.

[bhikkhu]

18. My view of Strauss includes pity...

it seems he was in some awe and wonder at the forces that controlled and destroyed much of the world he knew growing up. I wonder if his whole philosophical development didn't refer back to this awe and wonder, with the wish that such power might be turned to good.

Unfortunately for us, human nature, viz. "power", rears its ugly head yet again.

[da_chimperor]

5. I'd love to piss on his grave, but the neocons probably have it guarded

eom

[MatrixEscape]

7. Also see:

Machiavelli's, The Prince. A similar philosophy and instruction manual for the priviledged Elite.

[K-W]

8. Yep, its the same old song.

The amazing thing is that these people think they are so clever.

[Stephanie]

9. Some articles on Strauss:

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DU PNAC Links Archive

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The Philosopher
The late Leo Strauss has emerged as the thinker of the moment in Washington, but his ideas remain mysterious. Was he an ardent opponent of tyranny, or an apologist for the abuse of power?
By Jeet Heer, 5/11/2003
Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/globe/sunday/print_archives/051103_index.shtml
or http://www.mail-archive.com/[e-mail]/msg106270.html

<snip>

In his book ''The Anatomy of Antiliberalism,'' Stephen Holmes maintains that, in Strauss's view, only philosophers can handle the truth: that nature is indifferent to human values and needs.

So where did Strauss really stand? ''He was an atheist,'' says Stanley Rosen flatly. ''They all are. They are epicureans and atheists.'' (The epicurean comment is perhaps a reference to the late Allan Bloom, who was legendary for his enjoyment of the high life. After his death, Bloom's esoteric life as a closeted gay man turned out to be very different from his outward posture as a proponent of traditional values.)

While some Straussians dispute the idea that the master was a godless cynic, it does seem that Strauss wanted a regime where the elite lived by a code of stoic fortitude while governing over a population that subscribes to superstitious religious beliefs. ''He agreed with Marx that religion was the opium of the masses,'' says Shadia Drury. ''But he believed that the masses need their opium.'' Sociologically, Strauss's approach would seem to work well for the Republican Party, which has a grass-roots base of born-again Christians and a much more secular elite leadership-at least in its foreign-policy wing. <more>
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http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/050903I.shtml

Strong Must Rule the Weak, said Neo-Cons' Muse
by Jim Lobe
Inter Press

Thursday 08 May 2003

WASHINGTON - Is U.S. foreign policy being run by followers of an obscure German Jewish political philosopher whose views were elitist, amoral and hostile to democratic government?

Suddenly, political Washington is abuzz about Leo Strauss, who arrived in the United States in 1938 and taught at several major universities before his death in 1973.

Thanks to the ”Week in Review'' section of last Sunday's 'New York Times' and another investigative article in this week's 'New Yorker' magazine, the cognoscenti have suddenly been made aware that key neo-conservative strategists behind the Bush administration's aggressive foreign and military policy consider themselves to be followers of Strauss, although the philosopher - an expert on Plato and Aristotle - rarely addressed current events in his writings.

The most prominent is Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, now widely known as ''Wolfowitz of Arabia'' for his obsession with ousting Iraq's Saddam Hussein as the first step in transforming the entire Arab Middle East. Wolfowitz is also seen as the chief architect of Washington's post-9/11 global strategy, including its controversial pre-emption policy.

Two other very influential Straussians include 'Weekly Standard' Chief Editor William Kristol and Gary Schmitt, founder, chairman and director of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a six-year-old neo-conservative group whose alumni include Vice President Dick Cheney and Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, as well as a number of other senior foreign policy officials.<more at link>
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http://evatt.org.au/publications/papers/112.html

Saving America: Leo Strauss and the neoconservatives
Edited on Wed Sep-17-03 01:06 PM by T Roosevelt
By Shadia B. Drury

Shadia Drury gets to the bottom of neoconservatism.

There is a growing awareness that a reclusive German émigré philosopher is the inspiration behind the reigning neoconservative ideology of the Republican Party. Leo Strauss has long been a cult figure within the North American academy. And even though he had a profound antipathy to both liberalism and democracy, his disciples have gone to great lengths to conceal the fact. And for the most part they have succeeded -- as the article by James Atlas in The New York Times and the article by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker indicate. This picture of Strauss as the great American patriot, who was a lover of freedom and democracy is pure fabrication. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The trouble with the Straussians is that they are compulsive liars. But it is not altogether their fault. Strauss was very pre-occupied with secrecy because he was convinced that the truth is too harsh for any society to bear; and that the truth-bearers are likely to be persecuted by society - specially a liberal society - because liberal democracy is about as far as one can get from the truth as Strauss understood it.

Strauss's disciples have inherited a superiority complex as well as a persecution complex. They are convinced that they are the superior few who know the truth and are entitled to rule. But they are afraid to speak the truth openly, lest they are persecuted by the vulgar many who do not wish to be ruled by them. This explains why they are eager to misrepresent the nature of Strauss's thought. They are afraid to reveal that Strauss was a critic of liberalism and democracy, lest he be regarded as an enemy of America. So, they wrap him in the American flag and pretend that he is a champion of liberal democracy for political reasons - their own quest for power. The result is that they run roughshod over truth as well as democracy.

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Father Strauss Knows Best - NYT | 5/4/03

Click on the link for a great graphic:

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2003/05/04/weekinreview/030504_STRAUSSIANS_GRAPHIC.html
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[bobthedrummer]

12. Thanks for posting these links, Stephanie.

:hi:

[Stephanie]

13. No problem

Take a look at the NY Times graphic - it's pretty interesting.

[kodi]

10. vanguard of the revolution, meet the master race

and not a fig of noblisse oblige.

[RhodaGrits]

11. Sy Hersh discusses the Strauss influence on the NeoCons in

his book Chain of Command too.

[bemildred]

14. Sun Tzu would consider Leo Strauss to be an idiot.

My money is on Sun Tzu.

[Fiendish Thingy]

15. Fascinating- kick n/t

[Nordic]

16. this is the first time I've used DU's "bookmark" function

thanks, mods, for that.

[Malva Zebrina]

17. Looks to me like the "masses" are feared

more than anything.

Christ, look how the "masses" are the enemy that must be controlled!

Rise up all you "masses" and be proud to be one of the "masses" for because you are mentioned as the ones to be tacitly "controlled" gives you the power you may not know you have at this point. Just read the fear behind the attempt to quash the "masses".

Rise up and be counted as one of the "masses" and you and the rest of the "masses" will prevail over fascism once the power is realized.