| While "liberty" and "freedom" are the bywords of the neoconservative Right, the cult's philosophers ? notably Leo Strauss ? were and are advocates of rule by an elite. The ignorant masses, according to Strauss and his followers, are kept in thrall by various delusions ? such as religion, ethics, and social conventions of one sort or another ? that keep society together and that it is the duty of the philosophers to uphold. While they (the all-knowing, all-wise philosophers, that is) know the awful truth ? which is that all values are relative, that good and evil are merely labels of convenience, and that brute force is what really rules the world ? the general populace is better left in happy ignorance, while the philosopher-kings alone are fit to bear the burden of truth. Strauss believed, as William Pfaff put it, "that the essential truths about society and history should be held by an elite, and withheld from others who lack the fortitude to deal with truth. Society, Strauss thought, needs consoling lies." HEY, I'M NOT CONSOLED!! |
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