On the bedside table:
Philosophy: Leo Strauss (1899 - 1973)
This is a forum for me to capture in digital type my thoughts on various philosophies and philosophers. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the interpretations.
When is individual liberty a bad thing? The answer is, when it distracts citizens from society's goals as a whole. How, then, to combat such a thing? Create a myth for the people to believe, something to divert their attention from their selfish, animal beings. Religion will suffice. The masses need to be led by someone possessing a higher knowledge. That is the duty of the philosopher kings.
Does the above sound like the philosophy of Plato? Or maybe the Taliban? In actuality, it is that of Leo Strauss, in many ways the philosophical father of American Neo-Conservatism, the doctrine driving the current Bush administration.
Leo Strauss was, in essence, an elitist: he taught his students, most famously at the University of Chicago in the 50s & 60s, that it is necessary for social stability that the masses be energized and given a collective purpose through the use of myths. The myths are to be promoted and maintained by an elite vanguard. Individualism is to be discouraged in the masses, as it can lead them to challenge the myths and lessen their sense of purpose. Without a sense of purpose, the masses might not be comfortable with their place in the hierarchy. This would decrease social stability and endanger the long-term interests of the society as a whole. Strauss’ thinking was influenced by his first-hand observations of life in Weimar, Germany.
Strauss taught that liberalism, strictly speaking, contained within it an intrinsic tendency towards relativism, which in turn led to a sort of nihilism — a kind of decadent, value-free aimlessness, and hedonism which he believed he saw permeating through the fabric of contemporary American society. In the belief that 20th century relativism and nihilism were implicated in the deterioration of modern society and philosophy, Strauss sought to revive Classical political philosophy, principally the ideas of Plato. 1
Strauss noted that thinkers of the first rank, going back to Plato through Machiavelli, had raised the problem of whether good and effective politicians could be completely truthful and still achieve the necessary ends of their society. By implication, Strauss asks his readers to consider whether "noble lies" (Plato) have any role at all to play in uniting and guiding "the republic."
Cite;
1. Wikipedia
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