Strauss was the founder and guru of a cult of right-wing lumpen-intellectuals, headquartered at the very right-wing University of Chicago, where I served a term in graduate school. The Straussians were a very silly bunch, given to Anglophilistine high-table mannerisms and prating about Plato. But they had quite a sense of mission and esprit de corps -- sort of a secular Opus Dei for right-wing unreligious Jews.
The esoteric/exoteric distinction was very important to the Straussians, along with the sense of being a secret elite. This being the United States, where fantasy and reality are carbureted into an explosive mist, the Straussians did go on to form a not-insignificant element of the ideological cadre of what became known as "neoconservatism."
On Monday 18 September 2006 00:19, Angelus Novus wrote:
> I think you are being humourous, but I have not read
> Leo Strauss so I don't understand the reference.
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--Michael J. Smith
--mjs at smithbowen.net
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org
"You have heretofore read public sentiment in your newspapers, that live by falsehood and excitement; and the quicker you seek for truth in other quarters, the better." --W.T. Sherman