Another Neo-Con thread (Straussianism)

[Wetzelbill]

Ok, I - and many others - have posted quite a few PNAC threads over the last year or so, so this time I'm taking a different look and posting some Leo Strauss related articles. The man has some serious influence on Wolfie, Perle and the boys, that's for sure. The first link has a great list of further recommended articles at the end of the paper. I just got fascinated on Strauss one day and started printing out all of these. They give great insight on the Neo-Con mind, so happy reading.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-3-77-1542.jsp
http://www.iht.com/articles/96307.html
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15935
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1233
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/717acusr.asp

[boobooday]

1. Ah, but we have a defense weapon!

Old-moldy Machiavelli never had to deal with the internet! muhahahaha

This is what I keep thinking. Is it possible to pull off the big lie when we have such a rowdy, unfettered tool for discourse, and so many awesome people devoted to exposing the truth?

They are finding out that their medieval methods are coming up against some postmodern obstacles.

The jerks.



http://www.wgoeshome.com

[Wetzelbill]

2. their arrogance and ignorance is leading to a colossal failure

Neo-Conservatism is the only intellectual movement Conservatives have ever had, yet it is wrought with such blatant idiocy that their storm to power went down in flames. None of them have any credibility now. Wolfowitz and Co. are being pushed aside by old school guys like Jim Baker now. They are just too radical. Too ignorant, as well. I doubt any of them know much about anything really. Other than a set ideology. Wolfowitz and Perle are obviously bright men, but the live in an echo chamber brought about by preconceived notions. Take Iraq for instance. It was doomed to fail from the beginning. All of that lining the streets with roses shit was totally goofy, but these guys believed it. This idea of perpetual preemptive warfare is the dumbest policy ever.

[OneBlueSky]

3. there's an article in the June "Harper's" . . .

by Earl Shorris entitled Ignoble Liars: Leo Strauss, George Bush, and the Philosophy of Mass Deception . . . not online yet, so no link available, but here's a brief excerpt . . .

The Study of History is the Road to Perdition

Historical events as such had little to do with the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Wise men advised the President to do what he thought was right. Bush consulted with heaven, not with events on earth, and heaven, as he often said in the esoteric part of his speeches, told him what to do. That Richard Perle and William Kristol were his prophets and the Christian right his congregation was our American misfortune. The misreading of the events of 9/11 led to an attack on the wrong enemy for no other reason than the presumed need of a clearly defined enemy to make our liberal democracy strong. This triumph of principle over history initiated a series of contingent events, not only in the Middle East but also in large parts of Asia, that may not be resolved for decades.

Strauss, buffeted by history in his own life, railed against historicism, which holds that meaning can only arise from within a particular historical context. The Straussians contend that historicism leads to relativism and thus to nihilism, finally to the crisis that could bring about the destruction of the American liberal democracy -- a crisis, as Strauss himself said, that comes of the loss of the American sense of superiority.