From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Fri May 16 2003 - 13:25:36 MDT
Ron writes
> you [Mike Wiik] also wrote, "He [Leo Strauss] also argued
> that Platonic truth is too hard for people to bear, and
> that the classical appeal to "virtue" as the object of
> human endeavor is unattainable. Hence it has been
> necessary to tell lies to people about the nature of
> political reality. ***An elite recognizes the truth,
> however, and keeps it to itself. This gives it insight,
> and implicitly power that others do not possess.
> This obviously is an important element in Strauss's
> appeal to America's neoconservatives.***"
> That is straight out of the Marx-Lenin playbook.
> I guess after 150 years most people will have forgotten
> it and you can pass it off as something new.
I have to be skeptical that it can be documented that either
the Marxists or the neo-cons have actually stated things
like "truth is too hard for people to bear", and "it is
necessary to tell lies".
Now, I am pretty sure that Lenin did say that political
power comes out of the barrel of a gun, and I'm pretty
sure that Hitler did once say something about "the big
lie"---but it would be nice to even have a concrete
record of that.
It's also true that the Marxists conceived of an elite
in terms of "the vanguard of the proletariat", but I'm
not too sure it went further---in a documentable fashion
---than that.
Mike, in your reading, did you actually come across
anything where neocons can be caught actually saying
what they have been accused of, namely,
"He [Leo Strauss] also argued that Platonic truth
is too hard for people to bear, and that the
classical appeal to "virtue" as the object of
human endeavor is unattainable. Hence it has been
necessary to tell lies to people about the nature
of political reality."
This claim has all the hallmarks of propaganda.
And moreover, I deeply resent the claim that the conservative
movement was unintelligent before "just lately". There were
quite highly intelligent and perceptive people who called
themselves conservative all the way back to the 1940s. It's
just that they had no influence in the media, and for other
reasons had a hard time getting the message out.
Lee
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