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In "Power Down: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World," Richard Heinberg, (which I read before the November 2004 election), writes about neo-cons, stealing the election in 2000, 9/11, etc. Here is what he writes about the neo-cons (there's no link--this is from his book):
Quote:
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 government. He believed that:
1. A leader must perpetually deceive those being ruled.
2. Those who lead are accountable to no overarching system of morals, only to the right of the superior to rule the inferior.
3. 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).
4. Secularism in society is to be supressed, because it leads to critical thinking and dissent.
5. 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.
Drury writes that "In Strauss' view, the trouble with liberal society is that it dispenses with noble lies and pious frauds. It tries to found society on secular rational foundations."
Among Strauss' students was Paul Wolfowitz, one of the leading hawks in the US Defense Department, who urged the invasion of Iraq; second-generation students include Newt Gingrich, Clarence Thomas, Irving Kristol, William Bennett, John Ashcroft, and Micahel Ledeen.
Ledeen, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of "Machiavelli on Modern Leadership: Why Machiavelli's Iron Rules are as Timely and Important Today as Five Centuries Ago" (1999), is a policy advisor (via Karl Rove) to the Bush administration. His fascination with Machiavelli seems to be deep and abiding, and appears to be shared by his fellow neocons. "In order to achieve the most noble accomplishments, " writes Ledeen, "the leader may have to 'enter into evil.' This is the chilling insight that has made Machiavelli so feared, admired, and challenging. It is why we are drawn to him still..."
Machiavelli's books, "The Prince" and "The Discourses," constituted manuals on amassing political power; they have inspired kings and tyrants, including Mussolini, Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin. The leader, according to Machiavelli, must prretend to do good even as he is actually doing the opposite. "Everybody sees what you appear to be, few feel what you are, and those few will not dare oppose themselves to the many, who have the majest of the state to defend them ... Let a prince therefore aim at conquering and maintaining the state, and the means will always be judged honourable and praised by everyone, for the vulgar is always taken by appearances..." It is to Machiavelli that we owe the dictum that "the end justifies the means."
In her essay, "The Despoiling of America," investigative reporter Katherine Yurica explains how a dominant faction of the Christian Right, which she calls "dominionism," has found common cause with the neoconservative movement. Dominionism arose in the 1970's as a politicized religious reaction to communism and secular humanism. One of its foremost spokespersons, Pat Robertson (religious braodcaster, former presidential candidate, and founder of the Christian Coalition), has for decades patiently and relentlessly put forward the view to his millions of daily television viewers that God intends His followers to rule the world on His behalf. Yurica describes dominionism as a Machiavellian perversion of Christianity. For the Christian right, neoconservatives like George W. Bush and John Ashcroft can do no wrong, becasue they are among God's elect. All is fair in the holy war against atheists, secular humanists, Muslims and liberals.
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