As I understand it (from taking a course with a Straussian professor many years ago and reading a bunch of articles since then), their basic idea is that there should be an intellectual elite to help those in power. It's secret, since ... you know what happened to Socrates. The Straussian elite has to hide their ideas from the "weak" that they purport to help. (Among other things, they hide the fact that they're atheists.) Thus, they often write in code. Strauss argued that all of the great political philosophers (i.e., the ones he saw as "great") also wrote in code, but if you read them carefully (using a literal translation) it turns out that they agree with Strauss.
This kind of ideology is very useful to those in power, while those who believe in it flock to help those they like who are in power. It's not a conspiracy. -- Jim Devine / If you're going to support the lesser of two evils, you should at least know the nature of that evil. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
