From: Steve Davies (steve365@btinternet.com)
Date: Mon Jun 02 2003 - 10:55:31 MDT
> In a message dated 6/2/2003 8:44:26 AM Central Standard Time,
> steve365@btinternet.com writes: Ron, you keep on saying this. I can only
say you clearly
> haven't read any political journalism until recently.
>
> Steve,
> And maybe one day you will listen. I hear enough conservative
> conversation to know that Neo Con is not a term used very often in
conservative
> circles.
Two points in response to that. Firstly it *is* used in certain conservative
circles, specifically among those conservatives who disapprove of the
general thrust of the neoconservatives' arguments (the self-styled
paleocons). I can clearly recall the last outbreak of internecine arguments
among American conservatives in the late 1980s where these two terms were
used by both sides. Secondly and more to the point, the term is used (or was
until *very* recently) by the very people it's used as a label for eg the
Kristols, and the contributors to the various books I cited.
Most times it seems to be a clue that the speaker is from the
> non-conservative side.
Not neccesarily (see what I write above). It does mean nowadays that the
writer may belong to one of the other varieties of 'conservatism' such as
the paleos. The neoconservatives themselves are using it less than was the
case five or six years ago, partly because they have been so successful in
the internal argument among conservatives that their views are coming to be
seen as the conservative mainstream, so making a specific label redundant.
(That's what makes the paleos livid of course)
> I haven't read much Leo Strauss, so far, but it sounds like his
> critics take his actual ideas and stand them on their head. However I
have often
> been made to wonder how many people have actually read him. Only Alfred
> Korzyski writes a denser style.
> Ron h.
You and me both! I find Strauss *very* hard going and I think Straussianism
is one of those strange cults academics are prone to. There's actually two
varieties (East Coast and West Coast - a bit like rap) but it's very
difficult for an outsider to distinguish between them. I don't think there
is any substantial connection between Strauss and his followers and
neo-conservatism, there's some overlap of personnel but nothing else. Steve
D
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