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Comment by xhevahir | Hacker News Reader

I really hope this Straussian stuff, which is basically obscurantism as public philosophy, doesn't come back into vogue. It was Strauss's disciples, like Paul Wolfowitz, who led us into Iraq with their noble lies. No, thank you.

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I think this is an extremely uncharitable interpretation of the reality lived by Strauss and his contemporaries. I guess there's an argument to be made that the West's hawkishness isn't de facto moral (though there's a lot of work to be done here, considering the alternative, i.e., China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and so on, are hardly bastions of moral virtue).

I mention the "reality lived" as Strauss was a German Jew that had to flee Germany after Hitler took power. In fact, the most scathing critique of Strauss[1] (Altman's 600-page tome) is fairly universally regarded as being quite weak in its arguments (though, to be fair, incredible in its scholarship and research).

[1] https://www.amazon.com/German-Stranger-Strauss-National-Soci...

Agreed – I enjoyed this article, but the conclusion (that philosophers or intellectuals may need to come to terms with self-censorship or obscurantism to avoid drawing the ire of the masses) strikes me as very pessimistic.

We've gained a lot of freedoms since Spinoza's era and we shouldn't be so quick to surrender them.

Is there any actual evidence that Strauss considered deceiving the public a legitimate political tactic?

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