LEO STRAUSS

German-Jewish political philosopher Leo Strauss, who died in 1973, believed that in order to control the ignorant masses, the elite should use:

DECEPTION

RELIGIOUS FERVOUR

PERPETUAL WAR

http://www.alternet.org/story/15935/

Paul Wolfowitz and other neoconservatives are fans of Strauss.

Working for Wolfowitz is Abram Shulsky, director of the Office of Special Plans, set up to find evidence of WMDs and make the case for the invasion of Iraq.

Like Wolfowitz, Shulsky is a student of Leo Strauss

Strauss taught at several major universities, including that attended by Wolfowitz and Shulsky's, the University of Chicago, before his death in 1973.

Fans of Strauss include William Kristol, godfather of the neoconservatives, Stephen Cambone, Undersecretary of Defence for Intelligence, and Gary Schmitt, director of the Project for the New American Century.

Strauss' philosophy:

First Principle: Deception

Strauss believed that "those who are fit to rule are those who realize there is no morality and that there is only one natural right – the right of the superior to rule over the inferior."

Rulers need to go in for "perpetual deception."

"The people are told what they need to know and no more."

Second Principle: Power of Religion

Strauss had a "huge contempt" for secular democracy.

Strauss viewed religion as absolutely essential in order to impose moral law on the masses who otherwise would be out of control.

He stressed that religion was for the masses alone; the rulers need not be bound by it, since the truths proclaimed by religion were "a pious fraud".

Secular Jews like Kristol in 'Commentary' magazine and other neoconservative journals have allied themselves with the Christian Right and even taken on Darwin's theory of evolution.

Third Principle: Aggressive Nationalism

Like Thomas Hobbes, Strauss believed that because mankind is intrinsically wicked, he has to be governed."

"Strauss thinks that a political order can be stable only if it is united by an external threat."

Following Machiavelli, he maintained that if no external threat exists then one has to be manufactured.

"Perpetual war, not perpetual peace, is what Straussians believe in."

"They really have no use for liberalism and democracy, but they're conquering the world in the name of liberalism and democracy."

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9 11

This was an example of an immoral deception. Elements of various security services carried out the attacks so that the USA could engage in perpetual war.

BUSH and RELIGION

The Bush people pretend to be good Christians in order to win votes.

The US government has secretly promoted fundamentalism in countries such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the USA.

IRAQ

The aim of the neoconservatives is to wreck Iraq; if Iraq splits into three parts, so much the better for Israel; the aim is not to produce a prosperous liberal democracy. The aim is perpetual war.

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The idea of using of fake terror, in order to control people, did not begin with Strauss. Nor did it begin with Machiavelli. It dates back to ancient times.

However, Strauss is important because he explained in great detail the thinking that lies behind the policies of the Bush government.


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