Though the origins of the Straussian mythos are shrouded in the mists of Lake Michigan, and perhaps best left there, The New Yorker affords some insight into the education of John Podhoretz , the Editor newly tasked with making Commentary as unintentionally funny as The Weekly Standard --
its glum review of political scientist Anne Norton's field guide to hiding truth for power, Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire relates:
"Many neoconservative intellectuals and Bush Administration officials claim Leo Strauss, the philosopher who fled Nazi Germany for the United States in the nineteen-thirties, as their political forebear. Norton studied at Chicago, the center of the Straussian academic universe, ...When she moves to Brown and discovers Lacan, Foucault, and Derrida, one horrified Straussian says, "You have gone over to the dark side of the Force."
Equally revealing is the meisterstuck he
produced while a Chicago undergraduate, a musicale whose libretto seems
to have influenced Al Gore. Here is Podhoretz's synopsis:
" The sole professor at the University of Chicago not to win a Nobel Prize...Harry Murray," is "forced to teach every common-core course...Desperate, he figures he can win the Nobel Peace Prize if he 'solves' the problem of apartheid in South Africa.
Eventually, he not only wins the Peace Prize but the College of Cardinals elects him Pope, which makes him not only the first University of Chicago professor to be Pontiff, but also the only one to be Jewish (at least since Peter). Not to mention married. The last line was an invitation to the Papal Installation: "Pope and Mrs. Harry the First invite you to...dream the impossible dream."
Gird your ears, Fox fans. This Strauss opera won't be over till the talking heads sing.
Comments