Thursday, 22 May, 2003

Straussians gonna git you sucka! I have to laugh. I've seen at least five articles over the past week or so pronouncing themselves aghast upon discovering the existence of adherents of the University of Chicago professor Leo Strauss in the Bush Administration. Well, two of these articles [alternet, Tompaine] seem to be written by the same person, Jim Lobe. What appears to have kicked this off is a New Yorker article by Seymour Hersh, who really does seem to be casting himself as this administrations most "domestic terrorist". The New York Times doubled up on it by running a piece in its week in review section Sunday, O8May03. Metafilter got into the act with a post called Neoconservative Kabbalism. The title, there, pretty much set the tone. At one point someone inquired whether this dark conspiracy was taking over political science departments across the nation. To which someone else dryly commented: the political philosophy sections; perhaps, not to be understood as being quite the same thing. I always wondered why back years ago when I was a genuine undergraduate, every time I went to Prof. Dr. Butterworth, or anyone in that corner of Tydings hall, and asked him; "this Plato fellow, what the hell was he trying to say, and why couldn't he just come out and say it." He would always direct me to go out and read some Karl Popper, Allen Bloom (always with the Allen Bloom), or Leo Strauss. Of, course this is the same teacher who couldn't understand why the department wouldn't let him show the film "Days of Rage" in class. I'm not convinced that reading Strauss automatically makes one a Neo or Paleo con. Nor, that it leads one to stop worrying and learn to love the bomb. 9:43:43 AM    comment [];

© Copyright 2003 Paul Bushmiller. Last update: 6/02/03; 10:10:40.