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History of the Neoconservatives

12/07/05

  10:14:24 pm, by Nimble   , 351 words  
Categories: Thoughts, Politics

History of the Neoconservatives

In following my typical spider-web of links when I get going on a reading spree, I came across a link to a pretty interesting article in Reason Magazine. Give it a read-see. You can skip a lot, but do not miss the Irving Kristol quotes.

I've read a lot of rants directed at the neocons, but this was one of the more interesting. It lays the foundation of neoconservative thinking as (perhaps ironically, in some cases) an intellectual aristocracy. In the words of Irving Kristol, the "godfather of neoconservatism",

Kristol adds that "Strauss was an intellectual aristocrat who thought that the truth could make some [emphasis Kristol's] minds free, but he was convinced that there was an inherent conflict between philosophic truth and political order, and that the popularization and vulgarization of these truths might import unease, turmoil and the release of popular passions hitherto held in check by tradition and religion with utterly unpredictable, but mostly negative, consequences."

Kristol agrees with this view.

The implication of all this is that the neoconservatives "know the truth", but wish a 'lesser truth' that keeps social order to keep the rest of the populace in line.

This might explain such odd little episodes as members of the current US neoconservative cabal going off to "bible camp", yet being unable to answer questions on what they supposedly studied when they came back from their little retreat. Not to mention the barely-concealed disdain for others and the seemingly limitless capacity for bending the truth, since there's already a "truth for us and a truth for you" built into the philosophy.

There are some interesting pieces in the article that point to why evolution is such a big target for these folks and their friends.

I may occasionally be cynical about peoples' smarts, but I've got nothing in that sphere compared to these guys.

A lot of what they say makes a creepy kind of sense, if you think of the population the way they do.

It's utterly antithetical to my own thoughts, though. I hope the rocks their secrets are hiding under keep getting overturned.

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