Reply #89: Yes, and your comment reminds me of this post I bookmarked [View All]

[Emit]

a while back (I read the book, too -- it's from Power Down by Richard Heinberg):

Neoconservatism is the intellectual offspring of Leo Strauss (1899-1973), a jewish scholar who fled Hitler's Germany and taught political science at the University of Chicago. According to Shadia Drury in 'Leo Strauss and the American Right' (Griffin, 1999), Strauss advocated an essentially Machiavellian approach to governance. He believed that:

A leader must perpetually deceive those being ruled.

Those who lead are accountable to no overarching system of morals, only to the right of the superior to rule the inferior.

Religion is the force that binds society together, and is therefore the tool by which the ruler can manipulate the masses (any religion will do).

Secularism in society is to be suppressed, because it leads to critical thinking and dissent.

A political system can be stable only if it is united against an external threat, and that if no real threat exists, one should be manufactured.

end quote

Among Strauss's students was Paul Wolfowitz. Second-generation students (whatever that means) include Newt Gingrich, Clarence Thomas, Irving Kristol, William Bennett, John Ashcroft, and Michael Ledeen.

Ledeen, of the American Enterprise Institute, who has a "deep and abiding" fascination with Machiavelli and has written a book about him is a policy advisor to Karl Rove.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1880285&mesg_id=1880285

Also, here's another good site to peruse on this subject:
http://www.theocracywatch.org/

Especially check out their "What's New?" page:
http://www.theocracywatch.org/new_links.htm


I find the melding of these extreme religiosities with politics quite disturbing. I do not think in our lifetime that the US has ever planted its foot so firmly in the Middle East in the name of its leaders' religiosity. Regardless, this religiosity -- which mirrors the "Good v Evil" meme of our current foreign policy so well -- I think, has been very intentional, and has been in the making for some time, now.