8/05/2004 08:42:00 PM|||Joe|||It's strange how easy it is to trace connections between people. You know, the 6 degrees thing.

One of my sister's professors (aka 'tutors') at St. John's College at Santa Fe (David Bolotin) studied under Allan Bloom with Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz and Bolotin were also roommates. Kinda gives me the creeps.

Never met the guy myself (as far as I know).

A lot of Straussians are associated with St. Johns.

I'm not sure why this bothers me. I mean, academic conservatives need some places to teach. I guess it just bothers me that these particular conservatives are students of Leo Strauss.

And by the way, Strauss taught at St. Johns College at Annapolis.

The more time passes, the more I seriously question the value of Plato's work. In some ways, The Republic is scarier than The Prince. The Prince is short, to the point, and makes no bones about what it's
about. It's easy to see Machiavelli as an enemy of things like democracy. The Republic, though, is steeped in language about truth, justice, etc. But people use The Republic to justify deception and maybe tyranny. And it's certainly anti-democratic. But it has much more clout than the Prince.

I used to think the whole Philosopher-King thing wasn't such a bad idea. It seems horrible to me now - almost as horrible as Strauss, whispering in the king's ear.

Sneaky bastard.

Peter Singer has argued that the neo-cons have Bush's ear only on foreign policy. He points out that Rove might have more influence over domestic policy.
|||109176376772299555|||Six Degrees of Strausseration