It is not self-forgetting and pain-loving antiquarianism nor self-forgetting and intoxicating romanticism which induces us to turn with passionate interest, with unqualified willingness to learn, toward the political thought of classical antiquity. We are impelled to do so by the crisis of our time, the crisis of the West. ~ Leo Strauss, The City and The Man (1964)
“…before the villains are rounded up and put away, it is necessary to determine to which party they belong. They may be our villains…” ~ Donald Barthelme, “The Inauguration”
The Legacy of A Realist
Leo Strauss, to look at the man, was probably the last fellow on the planet who’d have thought much about running the world. He looked like a turtle in tweed: hunched, thick wide glasses, a man balding his way to death in a worn greyish sportcoat. He liked to quote
Xenophon in Greek, or Machiavelli in Italian, all in a thick Germanic drawl. His death in 1973 was grieved by his friends, family and pupils at the
University of Chicago political science department, and many of his peers in classicist circles around the Western world, but Strauss was hardly a household word.
However, since running a piece about the man and his legacy, the New York Times
1 has set off a ripple effect of interest in Strauss, and the working whereabouts of his pupils, many of whom now stand as intellectual bastions of the
neoconservative community throughout the world. One acolyte
Henry Jaffa, for example, went on to teach Straussian thought to the editors of the
New Republic (Andrew Sullivan) and
the Weekly Standard (
William Kristol). Bill Kristol then went on to co-found
the Project for a New American Century (with the help of
Rupert Murdoch). Another pupil and acolyte,
Alan Bloom, would go on to write
The Closing of the American Mind, one of the opening shots of the American
culture wars. Even
Paul Wolfowitz, deputy defense secretary, schooled at the
University of Chicago as a political science grad student and came under Strauss’ sway.
In other words, Leo Strauss has become an
imminence gris behind world power at the moment, the intellectual grand father of American
neo-con foreign policy. All this is, rather overtly, laid out in the Times article. And as is wont to happen, papers and periodicals around the globe ran with the notion.
2 How much truth is there to it, that a single (and by most accounts far from charismatic) professor could dazzle so many powerful men?
Expansive Influences, Expansive Influence
“A mighty Power terrifies more widely than it hurts, and with good reason, for where power is absolute men think not of what it has done but what it might do.” – Seneca, “On Clemency,” sec. 8.
First, Strauss was a polymath: philosopher, historian, political theorist. Born just outside Marburg, Germany, in 1899, his family were traditional, devout middle-class. Leo was a self-avowed and educated Zionist since his early teens, who after reading
Friedrich Nietzsche and
Schopenhauer, planned to raise rabbits and spend his life reading Plato. Instead, he was drafted into the German army in
1917, and acted as a squad translator in occupied Belgium. He returned to his studies during his country’s chaotic inter-war period, under the tutelage of
Edmund Husserl at Marburg and
Martin Heidegger’s lectures at Freiburg. This was in the spring of
1922, and there in Freiburg Strauss also encountered the writings of Thomas Hobbes for the first time, and was intrigued. Two years later,
Baruch Spinoza caught his interest. Then, in
1932, he went to Paris for a welcome change of scenery from the crises in Germany, and there met
Alexandre Kojeve and
Walter Benjamin. In
1934, several high-placed academics resolved to get Strauss out of Germany, the year Hitler became Furher. He arrived in Britain where he began his first major work,
The Political Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, probably one of the best accounts written on the English philosopher. He moved into a small flat at 38 Perne Road in
Cambridge, and finds himself enchanted with British town life after some unpleasant times studying in France.
Second, Strauss was impressively prolific. Works on
Xenophon’s “Oeconomicus”, Machiavelli’s
Discourses on Livy,
Maïmonides,
Aristotle,
Aristophanes and
Plato’s “Symposium” followed, as well as broader themes such as
Liberalism: Ancient and Modern,
On Tyranny and
The City and The Man. In 1938, Strauss’ reputation is well-cemented and he takes a position at the
New School for Social Research, New York. Later, after having settled down to an academic’s life in America, from 1949 to 1973 Strauss teaches political philosophy at the
University of Chicago. Although the man is cast at the moment as a political exponent of
Realpolitik, the main focus of his writing was comparative philosophy. His articles ranged in subjects from medieval theology to
Thucydides, from
natural law to
Lucretius, from
relativism to
Max Weber.
Third, Strauss was a
close reader and unabashed antiquarian of vast scope. In the 1940s and 50s, his reach would have seemed almost awesome at an American institution before pupils just coming to intellectual maturity. A combination of historical range, pragmatic
realism and adherence to difficult political truths gleaned from often obscure texts would likely have been captivating for many students. But Strauss himself often changed his tune. Over the course of his career, his focus changed frequently – sometimes from ancient history to early modern politics, sometimes from religious issues to legal questions. By times he was smitten with
Hobbes or
Machiavelli, while in other periods he felt Athenian politics needed to be the focus of his attention. In other words, he was hardly the dogmatic political schemer as currently portrayed in many media articles, and any journalist even remotely familiar with his actual writing would see this.
Unfortunately, in the late 1990s, due to Strauss’ affiliation with
Martin Heidegger and
Friedrich Nietzsche, his thought has been interpreted by some as latently
anti-democratic,
authoritarian, even pseudo-
fascist.
4 This is peculiar, given the man witnessed Russian pogroms, was drafted into Germany’s imperialism and could easily have ended up in a concentration camp. Strauss himself wrote, in
On Tyranny, “when we were brought face to face with tyranny – with the kind of tyranny that surpassed the boldest imagination of the most powerful thinks of the past – our political science failed to recognize it.” He is speaking here of the world’s slow condemnation of fascism in the 1930s, to which he saw only one solution: “to make the world safe for Western democracies, one must make the whole world democratic.” Many academics see this, along side his assertion of
natural right, as embracing
cultural intervention,
imperialism and
colonialism, none of which are popular concepts in university lounges in the Western world. So what did Strauss really think?
Acknowledge the Darkness
“Of all the opinions held by ancient writers of man in the mass, those that I most readily accept and most strongly adhere to are those which are most contemptuous, most vilifying and most annihilating.” – Michel de Montaigne, “On Presumption,” fr. Essais (II, 17)
“Harmony, universal or otherwise have never existed and will never exist. As for justice, in order to believe it possible, in order to even imagine it, we must have the advantage of a supernatural talent for blindness.” – Emile Cioran, History and Utopia, 116.
Strauss developed a political and ethical worldview based on a long chain of transmitters dating back to Antiquity. For example, in his opinion, the zenith of political narrative was
Niccolo Machiavelli’s
Discourses on Livy. However, his real earliest fascinations drew him to another figure,
Thomas Hobbes, a devout rationalist and materialist, who in turn was also drawn to the darker realities of the classical period (Hobbes’ rendered a brilliant translation of Thucydides’
Peloponnesian War). Strauss spent his first years in London at the British Museum poring over Hobbes’ manuscripts for his
Elements and
Leviathan, each seeming to reflect the gathering storm in Europe:
Men have no other means to acknowledge their own darkness, but only by reasoning from unforeseen mischances that befall them in their ways. ~ Leviathan, c. 44.
To kill is the aim of them that hate, to rid them selves of fear. ~ Elements, I, 9, vi.
Men from their very birth, and naturally, scramble for everything they covet, and would have all the world, if they could, to fear and obey them. ~ English Works, VII, 73.
When all the world is overcharged with inhabitants, then the remedy of all is War. ~ Leviathan, c. 30
From these maxims and the brutalities of European politics at the time, Strauss derived some harsh lessons: “man would not think of the preservation of life as the primary and most urgent good, if the passion of fear of death did not compel him to do so,” appears in his first major work discussing Hobbes. He goes on to conclude approvingly, “every effective rule is
eo ipso legitimate. The words ‘
tyranny’ and ‘
despotism’, therefore, lose all significance … any state is based on usurpation without the least prejudice to its legitimacy.”
5 In other words, flying in the face of political idealism, Strauss returns us to a world where ends, not means, matter. Fear (phobos), self-interest (kerdos) and honour (doxa) take center-stage in human affairs and freedom from violence and anarchy become the most moral of political goals. However, his study of the ancients, particularly the prescriptions of Plato in his
Symposium when contrasted against the inevitable decline of the Athenian state, brought Strauss to reflect darkly on our democracies. Here he is in 1959, addressing a graduating class at the
University of Chicago,
“The salt of modern democracy are those citizens who read nothing except the sports page and the comic section…
Democracy is then not indeed mass rule but mass culture. Liberal education is the necessary endeavor to found an aristocracy within democratic mass society. Liberal education reminds those members of a mass democracy who have ears to hear, of human greatness.”
As so-called enlightened Westerners, we dislike these notions: that a ruling elite might be desirable, even vital, that religion may be yet another
noble lie, that deception in politics is often necessary. Collectively, until quite recently, it seemed we’d evolved past these grim realities. Kant and Hegel certainly hoped we had, and their hopes for our collective progress underpin the evolution of human rights, conservation, international law and international co-operation. But there is another view of politics, one that states any consensus or legality will buckle under the right combination of
violence,
nihilism and
desperation. Civilizations are preserved by their own inner ideals and strength, Strauss would argue, and some of these 'truths' are unpleasant. He stands, like
Diogenes with his lamp, pointing to the darkness and shadow of our collective past.
The unfortunate thing is that a whole generation of public figures and policy wonks are now abusing this principle and comporting themselves as if these rules of power were the
only truths. It is a grave, pessimistic, black and white worldview, based on
antagonism and
insecurity. It is, at its essence, as reductionist and inhumane as the extremism and terrorism it claims to counter. The core advocates of applying Strauss to state security and war (which is precisely the situation in America at the moment) are ultimately bookish men playing the part of centurions and generals. So dogmatic and righteous are they, I doubt very much Strauss would have approved of his own acolytes' actions on the world stage, however defensive and well-intentioned they are supposedly.
Further Reading:
- Strauss, Leo. Leo Strauss on Plato's Symposium / edited and with a foreword by Seth Benardete (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c2001).
- ---. Leo Strauss : the early writings, 1921-1932 / translated and edited by Michael Zank (Albany, N.Y. : State University of New York Press, 2002).
- ---. Natural right and history (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1974, c1953).
- ---. On tyranny : including the Strauss-Kojove correspondence / edited by Victor Gourevitch and Michael S. Roth Rev. and expanded ed. (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2000).
- ---. Liberalism ancient and modern / foreword by
Allan Bloom
(Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1995).
- ---. The rebirth of classical political rationalism : an
introduction to the thought of Leo Strauss : essays and
lectures / selected and introduced by
Thomas L. Pangle (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1989).
- ---. Thoughts on Machiavelli / (Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press, 1984, c1958).
- ---. The city and man (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1977).
- ---. The political philosophy of Hobbes, its basis and its
genesis. Translated from the German manuscript by Elsa M.
Sinclair
(Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1966).
Notes:
1 James Atlas, “A Classicist’s Legacy: New Empire Builder’s,”
New York Times, New England Edition, Sunday,
May 4, 2003, Week In Review, Section 4, p.1.
2 If you want to know what will be in the arts and culture section of your local paper a week or two later, pick up the Times Sunday edition and you’ll see into the future editorial meetings and story assignments of a hundred publications in North America for the next couple of weeks. Here are some of the stories on Strauss which followed:
- J. Spengler, "The Secret that Leo Strauss Never Revealed", Asia Times May 13, 2003 (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/EE13Aa01.html)
- William Pfaff, "The long reach of Leo Strauss", International Herald Tribune, Thursday, May 15, 2003 (http://www.iht.com/articles/96307.html)
- Jim Lobe, "Leo Strauss' Philosophy of Deception", AlterNet.org, May 19, 2003 (http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15935)
- Gary Leupp, "Philosopher Kings: Leo Strauss and the Neocons", CounterPunch, May 24, 2003 (http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp05242003.html)
- Robert Locke, "Leo Strauss, Conservative Mastermind", FrontPage, May 31, 2003 (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1233)
- Peter Berkowitz, "What Hath Strauss Wrought? : Misreading a political philosopher," Weekly Standard, June 2, 2003 (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/717acusr.asp)
- Paul Knox, "The Strauss Effect", Globe and Mail, Saturday, July 12, 2003, F9 (http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030712/FCSTRA/TPScience/)
For earlier exculpation see
University of King’s College professor Neil Robertson’s “Leo Strauss’ Platonism,”
Animus, v.4, 1999 (http://www.mun.ca/animus/1999vol4/roberts4.htm#N_4_) or “The Closing of the Early Modern Mind: Leo Strauss and Early Modern Political Thought”( http://www.mun.ca/animus/1998vol3/robert3.htm). There is also Jeffrey Steinberg ‘s “Leo Strauss,
Fascist Godfather of the Neo-Cons” in
Executive Intelligence Review March 21, 2003 (http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2003/3011profile_strauss.html) or Shadia Drury’s criticism in
Leo Strauss and the American Right (St. Martin's, 1999) or her article "The Esoteric Philosophy of Leo Strauss"
Political Theory 13:3 (1985), pp. 315-37, as well as Ken Masugi’s rebuttal of Drury in “A Leo Straussian Conspiracy”
The Washington Times,
February 4, 1998.
3 There is a detailed chronological bibliography at http://www.straussian.net as well as a long-list of self-styled Straussians teaching in institutions around North America.
4 A whole generation of academics made their names re-writing interpretations of the ancient world,
contra the ideological classicists who tended to romanticize or ignore a great deal of the social brutality underlying the achievements of Antiquity. The historical recasting are impressive, challenging some dubious assumptions about the Classical Hellenic world as it is usually portrayed, and it would have been this generation that would have challenged the Straussian adherence to Greco-Roman ideals. Let me quote a few as example: first, Carroll Quigley from her
The Evolution of Civilizations (NY, 1961): “We still hear a good deal of emotional talk about the ‘Greek miracle’ or the ‘Greek genius’…a term applied to the erroneous belief that Greek culture sprang up, fully formed, in no more than a couple of generations out of complete barbarism…to mention only one point: any culture that came from a mixture of
Cretan,
Phoenician and
Indo-European elements did not start from nothing.” (170) She goes on to point out that
Hellenic culture, as we know it, was only ever shared by a tiny, rich Mediterranean minority whose wealth was based on
land tenure and
slavery – i.e. hardly the democratic Athenians we like to imagine. There is also Arnaldo Momigliano, who wrote in “The Fault of the Greeks” (fr.
Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography, Wesleyan, 1977, pp. 9-24), “…we are never allowed to forget our debt to
Greece,
Latium and
Judea. There are powerful pressure groups (whether classicists, theologians or rabbis) to keep us, quite properly, ashamed of our failure to read the right texts in the right language,” or finally Maurice Bowra, who pointed out in
The Greek Experience (1957): “Athens provides a signal refuation to the optimistic delusion that democracies are not bellicose or avid of empire.” (88) In other words, between the late 1950s to early 80s, showing an old-school, unapologetically elitist interest in the classics was clearly rubbing people the wrong way. This goes a long way to explaining the suspicion doled out the Straussians and their ilk today.
5 Leo Strauss,
The Political Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, trans. E. Sinclair (London, 1952), 68.