The Strauss Waltz That Binds the Neo Cons

Harper, Bush Share Roots in Controversial Philosophy
Linked by Leo Strauss


Close advisers schooled in 'the noble lie' and 'regime change.'
By Donald GutsteinPublished: November 29, 2005
TheTyee.ca


What do close advisors to Stephen Harper and George W. Bush have in common? They reflect the disturbing teachings of Leo Strauss, the German-Jewish émigré who spawned the neoconservative movement.
Strauss, who died in 1973, believed in the inherent inequality of humanity. Most people, he famously taught, are too stupid to make informed decisions about their political affairs. Elite philosophers must decide on affairs of state for us.
In Washington, Straussians exert powerful influence from within the inner circle of the White House. In Canada, they roost, for now, in the so-called Calgary School, guiding Harper in framing his election strategies. What preoccupies Straussians in both places is the question of "regime change."




(Judith Miller, New York Times media plant for the Neo Cons - the CIA runs a propaganda operation throughout US media called Operation Mockingbird, it essentially makes a mockery of truth. They hide the complete Nazi past of those who dare to call themselves "elite" after making their money like blood-sucking scum. Auschwitz, was the game just as it is today. How many are incarcerated in Iraq? Under what conditions?
Is there an invasion and occupation of Iraq? We do not even have news reports anymore - embedded or otherwise.

Strauss defined a regime as a set of governing ideas, institutions and traditions. The neoconservatives in the Bush administration, who secretly conspired to make the invasion of Iraq a certainty, had a precise plan for regime change. They weren't out to merely replace Saddam with an American puppet. They planned to make the system more like the U.S., with an electoral process that can be manipulated by the elites, corporate control over the levers of power and socially conservative values.




(Grover Norquist wanted to flush at least half of American government. He got his start with Katrina)




Usually regime change is imposed on a country from outside through violent means, such as invasion. On occasion, it occurs within a country through civil war. After the American Civil War, a new regime was imposed on the Deep South by the North, although the old regime was never entirely replaced.
Is regime change possible through the electoral process? It's happening in the U.S., where the neocons are succeeding in transforming the American state from a liberal democracy into a corporatist, theocratic regime. As Canada readies for a federal election, the question must be asked: Are we next?



The 'noble lie'

Strauss believed that allowing citizens to govern themselves will lead, inevitably, to terror and tyranny, as the Weimar Republic succumbed to the Nazis in the 1930s. A ruling elite of political philosophers must make those decisions because it is the only group smart enough. It must resort to deception -- Strauss's "noble lie" -- to protect citizens from themselves. The elite must hide the truth from the public by writing in code. "Using metaphors and cryptic language," philosophers communicated one message for the elite, and another message for "the unsophisticated general population," philosopher Jeet Heer recently wrote in the Globe and Mail. "For Strauss, the art of concealment and secrecy was among the greatest legacies of antiquity."


The recent outing of star New York Times reporter Judith Miller reveals how today's neocons use the media to conceal the truth from the public. For Straussians, telling Americans that Saddam didn't have WMD's and had nothing to do with Al-Qaeda, but that we needed to take him out for geopolitical and ideological reasons you can't comprehend, was a non-starter. The people wouldn't get it. Time for a whopper...

Miller was responsible for pushing into the Times the key neocon lie that Saddam was busy stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. This deception helped build support among Americans for the invasion of Iraq. Miller was no independent journalist seeking the truth nor a victim of neocon duplicity, as she claimed. She worked closely with Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff and responsible for coordinating Iraq intelligence and communication strategy. Libby is a Straussian who studied under Paul Wolfowitz, now head of the World Bank, and before that, deputy secretary of defense, where he led the 'Invade Iraq" lobby. Wolfowitz studied under Strauss and Allan Bloom, Strauss's most famous student....

Miller cultivated close links to the neocons in the administration and at the American Enterprise Institute, the leading Washington-based neocon think tank. AEI played the key role outside government in fabricating intelligence to make the case for invading Iraq. Straussian Richard Perle, who chaired the Defence Policy Board Advisory Committee until he was kicked off because of a conflict of interest, is a senior fellow at AEI and coordinated its efforts. Miller co-wrote a book on the Middle East with an AEI scholar. Rather than being a victim of government manipulation, Miller was a conduit between the neocons and the American public. As a result of her reporting, many Americans came to believe that Saddam had the weapons. War and regime change followed.



Regime Change Canada



'Regime change' in Canada


As in the U.S., regime change became a Canadian media darling. Before 9-11, the phrase appeared in Canadian newspapers less than ten times a year. It usually referred to changes in leadership of a political party or as part of the phrase "regulatory regime change." Less than a week after 9-11, the phrase began to be used in its Straussian sense, as if a scenario was being choreographed.
From 19 mentions in Canadian newspapers in 2001, regime change soared to 790 mentions in 2002 and 1334 mentions in 2003. With the Iraq invasion accomplished that year, usage tailed off in 2004 (291 mentions) and in 2005 (208 mentions to November 10).


There's (was) one big difference between American and Canadian Straussians. The Americans assumed positions of power and influence in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. The Canadians have not had much opportunity to show (or is that hide?) their stuff. That may change with a Harper victory.



The complete text of this article may be found at: http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2005/11/29/HarperBush/



Things have changed with the Harper victory, more kids are dying in Afghanistan, more people are being bombed, and currently we receive NO NEWS from either Afghanistan or Iraq, which can only mean one thing because if this fiasco was going well we can rest assured we would never hear the end of it.

Under Harper, Canada has ignored an International AIDS conference, pulled out of Kyoto, escalated Canadian troop involvement to full combat status in a region where we were assigned to PEACE KEEP. We are guarding a pipeline and running people off the land for Unocal's pipeline across Afghanistan, and the largest poppy crop in history, with drug sales flourishing under the CIA drug running black ops. Harper has twisted and lied about future environmental promises, and hopped on board with Bush in the North American Union, (an illegal attempt by corporations bo blend Mexico, Canada and the USA into one big ol market to be raped by US corporations of course).

Finally we have the truth emerging and the Neo Cons are starting to drop like flies.
Howard, the Australian fascist hit reality with a tidal wave of votes kicking him out of even his own riding. We can only hope that Harper in his arrogance does force another election and the people begin to see through the francophone smears of Harper on Dion, to the decent,
compassionate, intellect that is there in Mr. Dion, who is under attack from the corporate drones within his own party as well as Harpers.

We have had enough of strutting men and women of any color, who legislate and rule for themselves and their corporations with no regard for human life anywhere in the world.
We have had enough of the Straussians. Be gone.