[lbo-talk] The Ideology of American Empire

[Jeet Heer]

This is part of the intermural battle on the right between paleo-cons and
neo-cons -- Ryn is in the paleo camp and therefor wants to discredit Strauss
for being disrespectful of religion and/or tradition. Which is not an
entirely mistaken accusation, although Ryn's own politics are suspect. As a
good philosopher, Strauss knew that appeals to tradition were built on shift
ground, which could easily change. Hence the well known tendency of
conservatives to adopt the position of liberals from 30 years ago, whether
it is now (with the neo-cons looking back to the Cold War liberalism as an
ideal) or in the past (in the 1950s, the conservative ideal was America
before the New Deal. Before that, the ideal was America before
industrialization and the end of slavery). With his appeal to ancient
rationalism, Strauss sought to give conservatism a firmer basis than the
shifting sands of tradition. Whether he succeeded is, of course, open to
conention.


> The Ideology of American Empire by Claes G. Ryn
> >From Orbis Vol 47.  No 3, Summer 2003 (123K PDF, 15 pages)
> http://www.fpri.org/pubs/orbis.4703.ryn.ideologyamericanempire.pdf
> Calls Leo Strauss a neo-Jacobin.
> --
> Michael Pugliese
>