Book Review: Leo Strauss and the American Right by Shadia B. Drury

[Guest guest]

http://www.buzzflash.com/hartmann/05/08/har05008.html

 

August 4, 2005

 

Leo Strauss and the American Right by Shadia B. Drury

 

Thom Hartmann's " Independent Thinker " Book of the Month Review

 

 

How is it, some have wondered, that the Republican Party has been

taken over by a relatively small band of radical ideologues who don't

believe in democracy or honesty or any specific religion, but

relentlessly flog the language of " freedom, " " honor, " and

Christianity? How is it that people who run the government into

deficit can campaign on fiscal responsibility? Or that people who

campaign on a " pro life " position can be responsible for lying us into

a war that has killed well over 100,000 human beings, nakedly advocate

torture, and openly promote the death penalty in American?

 

Most of it goes back to one man - Leo Strauss. To understand what has

happened to America since the dawn of the " Reagan revolution, " one

must first understand Strauss and his disciples.

 

Several of my previous monthly book reviews for Buzzflash have been

about books that provide insights into the history of modern American

liberalism and its contrast with traditional European and American

conservatism. But the folks who today call themselves " conservatives "

- from Limbaugh to Gingrich to Kristol to the senior Bushies - are not

conservatives in either the American or the classical European mold.

They represent something entirely new in the experience of America,

breathtaking in its sweep and horrifying in its reach and ambitions.

They are the " new conservatives " or " neo-conservatives. "

 

Arguably, the last two political philosophers who both influenced

world events and shared many of the worldviews of today's neocons were

the Nicolo Machiavelli (who published " The Prince " in Italy in 1515)

and Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels (who inspired a young Adolf Hitler with

his magazine " Ostara " ). Following in their tradition - relatively

obscure men who peddled cynicism and faux patriotism while deeply

influencing some of the world's most powerful people - came Leo

Strauss, a professor at the University of Chicago through the 1950s

and 1960s. A Jewish émigré from Germany, Strauss was obsessed with the

noble goal of figuring out how to prevent America from falling into

the same trap of a decline into fascism that Germany had. Ironically,

he himself fell into the trap of fascistic ends-justifies-the-means

thinking, and has taken a large segment of the American conservative

movement with him.

 

As Canadian (University of Calgary) political science professor Shadia

B. Drury notes in her brilliant critique of Strauss, his work, and his

students' influence:

 

" Strauss's students and their students have occupied important

positions in the Reagan and Bush administrations and continue to play

a significant role within the Republican party. Prominent figures on

the American political scene include Reagan's ambassador to Indonesia,

Paul Wolfowitz; Caspar Weinberger's former speechwriter, Seth Cropsey;

National Endowment for the Humanities Deputy Chairman, John T.

Agresto; National Security Council advisor Carnes Lord; Assistant

Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, Alan Keyes;

legal scholar and judge Robert Bork...; Justice Clarence Thomas of the

Supreme Court; former Secretary of Education William Bennett; former

Education Department Chief of Staff, William Kristol (later former

vice-president Dan Quayle's chief of staff and then the chief pundit

and policy maker of the Republican party). Journalists have been fully

cognizant of this influx of Straussians into Washington and of the

power they have within the Republican party. So much so that the New

York Times has dubbed Leo Strauss the godfather of the Republican

party's 1994 Contract With America. "

 

What's particularly useful and fascinating about Drury's book is that

she not only lays out the core and evolution of Strauss's philosophy,

but puts it into the context of the history of modern conservatism and

modern liberal thought and history. (There are several other books on

Strauss available and most fail to provide this useful historical

context.)

 

Drury is an academic, and it shows in her writing style, which often

lapses into textbook-ese. The information she's providing is so

compelling, however, that this is merely a distraction and not a

deterrence from reading this brilliant and deeply researched book.

Drury also assumes her readers know the philosophies and histories of

Max Weber, Martin Heiddeger, Carl Schmitt, and other Germans who

influenced the Nazis (or became Nazis), and of other somewhat more

obscure historical details such as the arguments Jefferson and Madison

had with Plato's critiques of democracy. Some reviewers have said that

because she assumes such depth of knowledge on the part of her

readers, this book should be only for post-graduate students of

history or philosophy. I disagree - her references to philosophers and

philosophies (and histories) are sufficiently contextual that the

reader can easily and readily infer who unfamiliar people may have

been and what their positions were, and thus not only extract

Strauss's philosophy and impact from the book, but get a running start

on many others as well. (You'll become an armchair expert in famous

philosophers in no time, and amaze your friends!)

 

About the neocon philosophy itself, Drury notes:

 

" The truth of the matter is that neoconservativism is not

conservative, but radical and reactionary. Its radical nature is

manifest in Kristol's refusal to accept the basic tenets of the

American slate and start over. Neoconservatism is also reactionary in

the technical sense of the term. Reactionaries are not interested in

conserving the present as it is. On the contrary, it is the present

that they find intolerable. ...Neoconservatives are repelled by the

liberal present, and they hunger for radical change intended to

restore a lost golden age. "

 

Ironically, the " lost golden age " of the Neoconservatives never

existed. The Founders and Framers of America were not, by and large,

Bible thumpers, and the nation was founded on egalitarian - liberal -

principles. The Enlightenment, which led directly to the American

Revolution, was the dawning birth of modern liberalism. Thus, because

history doesn't support their story line, the Neocons have actively

set out to reconstruct America's history to their liking - producing a

flood or phony history flooding America's airwaves, bookstores,

churches, and schools.

 

They also determined that people must live in constant fear, and that

a religion - any religion so long as it was monotheistic, patriarchal,

hierarchical, and authoritarian - must be used to " opiate " (to

paraphrase both Strauss and Marx) the people.

 

The cynical neocon manipulation of Americans was done for the very

best of reasons. After all, the ends - in their minds - justified just

about any means, including the death of hundreds of thousands of

people. All this brought about the ultimate irony: Strauss's fear of

Nazism - and his misunderstanding of Nazism - led him and his

followers to repeat many of the philosophical and political errors of

the Nazis.

 

To understand how America got here, read Shadia Drury's brilliant

book, " Leo Strauss and the American Right. " Once you have, the path

back to democracy will become much more clear.

 

---> GET YOUR COPY HERE <---

 

* * *

 

Thom Hartmann (thom at thomhartmann.com) is a Project Censored

Award-winning best-selling author, and host of a nationally syndicated

daily progressive talk show and a morning progressive talk show on

KPOJ in Portland, Oregon. www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books

are " The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, " " Unequal Protection, " " We

The People, " " The Edison Gene " , and " What Would Jefferson Do? "

 

Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash.com