A few weeks ago, I was writing an unsophisticated friend on the subject of "explanations" of why some things are as they are, and, in doing so, on a point slightly resisted by her, I insisted: "Conservatives lie. They always lie. And they all lie."
Though I wrote this out of my interpretation of my own experiences of them, I have recently come across an explicit theoretical justification of that behavior. But to give my words a "scientific" accuracy, I need to modify the word "conservatives" to "NeoCons". It's NeoCons who all, and always, lie, and here is the straight dope:
It turns out that the philosophical underpinnings of the Neocon position come from one Leo Strauss, a political and social philosopher who died in 1973. All of the major theoreticians of NeoCon policies were schooled either directly by Strauss himself, or by his proteges.
This is important because a major thrust of Strauss' anti-democratic, anti-collectivist, anti-liberal, authoritarian theory comes from the avid adoption of Plato's "Noble Lie", wherein the emotional reaction of the people is to be considered unworthy as a mechanism for ruling society, and that philosopher-kings need to hide their "truths (which they'll discuss among themselves) from society, theoretically for the benefit of that society.
The validation, though, of a lie, of any kind, which facilitates any kind of power, can combine with the tendency of power to corrupt, and then evolve into lying about a benefit to society, whether or not there is any real segment of society validating the lying in the first place. What I'm saying is that such lies are criminality.
In regard to the starting point of Strauss' intent, he considered Collectivism to be a form of "tyranny" (describing it in his book "On Tyranny") that was an impediment to what he considered "freedom". Only his own version of "collectivism" was entitled to special dispensation -- that of the conspiracy of "philosophers", separating themselves from the masses. Collusion of the masses in protecting their own interests was to be dissuaded, as if the "emotions" valuing those interests, was "bad." He opposed the education of the masses that might empower them to assume more power than that of slaves. He considered it efficient and proper to trick them away from any such inclinations with his own "Noble Lying". This is an important focus in considering what might be fearworthy in the lies of Straussian NeoCons.
So, though Strauss is represented as only musing about "Noble Lies", Strauss clearly believed in them as a primary tool. Doubt injected about this needs to be examined as one of the "Noble Lies" itself, propounded by the Straussians. Strauss proudly believed in writing at two levels, the "exoteric", which itself would be the layer which contained his own lies, while the deeper truths were to be gleaned by not ignoring any single hinted-at interruption. Common men -- "careless readers" -- were intended to be duped, it being their own "fault" if they took the meanings from his words that they did.
Consider a critique of his daughter's defense of his reputation:
Lenny Gray was, at one time, a Conservative Libertarian who eventually noticed the "well let them die" attitude that served his Right Wing compatriots as the common answer to the complex problems of the life of communities. He now considers himself a Leftist, where "Left" denotes the interests of the "common man". He's a computer programmer by trade.
What we have on view here is, the contorted "logic" of the psychopath which has now been labelled "political ponerology".
As your brief bio suggests, this is an ideology (and i mean that in the most perjorative sense) of ENTITLEMENT and privilege that trumps even real survival. Aye! There's the rub! Examined closely StrassISM, is totally insane but the problem is that they don't CARE.
This sick doctrine is what allows the Dick Cheneys of this world to carry out such extreme agendas and play both sides against the middle, resulting in countless deaths (literally, countless!) and total destruction as its adherants to feel privileged due to their totally nebulous bank accounts (remember they don't carry around all that lovely money with them)
It's of absolutely no use to try to argue with people with this world view: they simply are above logic or heart., completely robbed of humanity.
I just wish more people would "get it"! Your article, for the newly initiated, is a fine start.
by
ladybroadoak (37 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 391 comments)
on Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 11:54:35 PM
This is the group that claims that if you posted The Ten Commandments everywhere we would live in Utopia. Just posting these would not stop anybody, either an athesist or a person who goes to church, from breaking them. I wonder if they ever read them? I guess the answer to that would be no, since there is not one that says, 'Thou shall not have gay marriage'. There is one of them, specifically the 9th one, that says you should not bear false witness. That is a nice Biblical way of saying that you shouldn't lie. So you would think that these religious nationalists would have demanded that Scooter go to prison. Well just the opposite, they are the ones who applauded the fact that he got off. These people have an agenda and it is not Biblical at all, it is called taking over the government. Just look what their agenda stands for. Lying for God. Stealing for God. Killing for God. Cheating for God. Racism for God. Adultry for God. and my favorite Genocide for God.
by
Willard Russell (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 41 comments)
on Friday, July 27, 2007 at 9:05:23 AM
