Re: The weird men behind Bush's war

[Jim Farmelant <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>]

And I also wrote this too, concerning Allan Bloom and
Straussianism.

Jim F.
-----------------------------------------------------------
>On Sun, 11 Nov 2001 23:18:53 +0000 "Justin Schwartz"
<jkschw@xxxxxxxxxxx>
writes:
>
> >
> >Justin Schwartz wrote:
> >

>Also,
> Nietzsche was right, there is no objective value and no God, but we
> must
> never ever say this or society will collapse. Thus Strauss wrote
> books like
> Natural Right and History, defending an objectivism he thought was a
> lie.
>
> Strauss' students include, most famously, Allan Bloom, whose Closing
> of the
> American Mind is a classic Straussian esoteric text.


A point that was not always understood by reviewers at the time
*The Closing of the American Mind* came out (although I recall
running across one or two that seem to have understood
this point. Exoterically, Bloom
seemed to be bashing postmodern theory, and especially the
widespread acceptance of relativism among American university
students and to have been promoting a moral objectivism,
 but esoterically, Bloom actually thought that the pomos
were right but that widespread acceptance of their conclusions
would be destructive to American society & culture. This is
not really so surprising when we consider that Bloom's teacher,
Leo Strauss had after all been a student of Martin Heidegger.


Also, while Bloom wrote respectfully concerning religious piety,
a careful reading of his text suggests that he was in fact an
atheist, who considered the religious virtues to be distinctly
inferior to the philosophical ones. But as a true Straussian,
he of course endorsed the teaching of religion's noble lies
to the masses.


It is also interesting to consider in this light William Bennett's
(the former education secretary under Reagan) equivocations
on creationism. Thus Bennett has attempted to promote
the teaching of creationism in public school curricula, yet
when asked in interviews whether or not he accepted
creationism over evolutionary biology, he would always
give equivocal answers, which presumably as a Straussian
were perhaps the only answers that he could give.


Jim F.




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