While I thoroughly enjoyed Alexis DeToquville's Democracy in America translated by Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop, so much that I e-mailed professor Mansfield at Harvard to say how much I appreciated his work on the translation and the book published in 2000, I found out something about Mansfield that I would have never known if I did not read the book titled Leo Strauss and the Politcs of American Empire.
Mansfield like Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle share something in common, they are neo-conservative Straussians. If you ever wanted to know why we went to Iraq, if you want to know about Bush's false war on terror, if you want to know what Bush's pentagon may have planned for the future ( besides that article in the New Yorker by Seymour Hersh), then this is the gateway into the neo-conservative Straussian cult. While Sean Hannity may chide congressman Charlie Rangel for his remarks about the Project for a New American Century member Wolfowitz's Defense Planning Guide on regime change in Iraq, calling it something to the extent of a conspiracy theory, I'd say that Hannity possibly too easily dismisses it as to not draw attention to the Straussian manifesto responsible for the bloodshed and destruction we now witness daily in Iraq.
The book I mentioned above written by Anne Norton, I feel is a must read book. The Straussians are a very powerful group that plague schools like Harvard and The University of Chicago to name a few. This cult like group originated from the teachings of Leo Strauss, a hard line critic of liberalism.
With regards then to Strauss' approach to philosophical texts, his most famous teaching was the distinction between 'esoteric' and 'exoteric' readings. Strauss maintained that philosophers very often concealed their true thoughts beneath a surface (or exoteric) teaching. Careful study would reveal the true or esoteric teaching. Primarily, philosophers did this to protect their own lives, and to guard against the detrimental effects of philosophy upon people who cannot understand it fully. The example of Socrates' execution at the hands of the many was not taken lightly.
Strauss it would seem believed in teaching with a hidden subversive meaning. He also had his own view on natural right and natural law. But in closing I'll also include an excerpt from Norton's book which strikes me as important to share.
There are Straussian foundations, or, more precisely, foundations which have a particular regard for Strauss and the students of Strauss: Earhart, Olin, Scaife and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. They fund fellowships and internships for graduate students, post doctoral fellowships, and fellowships for senior scholars. There are book subsidies, honoraria, fellowships designed to give young conservative scholars time to write, fellowships reserved for conservative scholarship and the advancement of conservative ideas, and subsidies offered to presses - and student newspapers - to represent "the conservative point of view."
This is why the left has got to wake up, and thankfully they have started to. The other side starts young and they fund their people. Young conservatives have so much more funding and opportunity. Young liberals and progressives ( like me ) are truly at a disadvantage.
As in the past when the nation feared the red plague of communism, we have not awoken to realize that a new cancer has already invaded this country and gone much deeper than communism has ever ventured. Just look at the new president of the World Bank for a clue...
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