THE POSTHUMOUS WILD ADVENTURES OF A NICE JEWISH THINKER PART I

(This entry is being posted in three consecutive parts.)

The reader ought to be aware that I am quite seriously of two minds about the persona of Leo Strauss. On the one hand, I like many of his ideas, and in some ways I see him almost as a kindred spirit. On the other hand, there exists a significant body of evidence picturing him as effectively the mastermind of a brilliantly clever (devilish, one might say) plot to take over the power in the United States in a bloodless coup, relying on the extreme determination and superior brainpower of its predominantly Jewish conspirators, bringing forth frightening memories of the pernicious and indisputably utterly fictitious Elders of Zion, of the infamous Protocols fame. Hence, his spurious title of the father of the American Neoconservative Movement, which is thus being equated to the said political conspiracy. Ironically, Strauss happens to be just as controversial and just as significant as a particular representative of the species, as the whole of Judenthum is significant and controversial on the world-historical scale.

And one more thing: on the question of American neoconservatism, allegedly begotten by Leo Strauss and put into action by his “followers,” see my previously posted entry Lenin In America in the American section, posted on this blog on June 30^th, 2011. (There is perfect justice in having entries about Leo Strauss in both American and Jewish sections.)

As the reader has been reading this section, he or she must undoubtedly have noticed that alongside some very positive things that I am saying about the Jews, other things are by no means flattering to them, but on the balance I can hardly be suspected of picking up either the plus or the minus side at the expense of the other. (Those who may suspect me of bias, will suspect me anyway, just for speaking my mind, instead of talking in bland propaganda generalities, which is the only acceptable way of talking about these things.)

There are at least three important reasons for my placement of the German-born Jewish-American political philosopher Leo Strauss (1899-1973) in Tikkun Olam, in addition to, say, in the American section, where I try keeping all notable Americans together. On the one hand, he was certainly a bona fide Jew who changed his country of residence several times during his life, moving from Germany to France, then on to England, and only then to the United States, where he would live from 1937 until his death, thirty-six years later. In this respect, like Albert Einstein, he can be called a Jew with far greater justification than he can be called an American, like someone, Jew or Gentile, who had lived in America all his life. On the other hand, his portrayal in America, as the founding father of the modern neoconservative movement, has been so much affected by this terrible association that, in order not to be too biased against him, I would rather leave that misshapen image where it belongs, but detach the wretched man from it, by considering him here as a Jewish political philosopher, as opposed to there, as an American political ideologue.

There is a third reason here, too, which is the fact that I would like to maintain a proper balance of fairness in speaking my mind on Res Judaica, and, in case anyone still thinks that I am too harsh on the Jews in this section, here is a very peculiar case in point. Leo Strauss, who represents a striking contrast of perceptions: was he a nice Jewish thinker, with some extremely interesting ideas, or was he indeed a sinister mastermind of a daring political conspiracy to take over the power in the United States by means of a bloodless coup, based on the superior brainpower of the select, using esoteric codes, psychological games, dissimulation, as well as the latest brainwashing techniques?

(This is the end of Part I. Part II will be published tomorrow, and part III the day after.)