My flist is full of smart people. Can someone explain to me in very small words what Straussianism actually is and what constitutes the divide between East Coast Straussians and West Coast Straussians?
I don't know, but my brain suggested an AU where American hip-hop was deeply influenced by 19th century Austrian waltz. It's probably not that, though.
After a little research, it looks like Leo Strauss (Prussian, who worked across the C20th until his death in the 70s) put forth a philosophy centred on ideas that an intense and perceptive reading of the "Great Books" (e.g. writings by Aristotle, Socrates and others) could lead to perception of "truths" and of "natural right" (a moral certainty not based on empiricism). He had a Jewish background and was very anti-atheist, and seems to have believed that there are certain moral and philosophical principles that are simply "right" and "truth" but these are often hidden in the "great books" like a secret code that only the truly perceptive can grasp. He was into a couple of philosophers from mediaeval times who wrote within regimes where it wasn't safe for them to speak out openly. He had to leave Europe in the 1930s due to Nazism and ended up in the USA, and his ideas have been developed to assert that the US is the ultimate democracy because the Constitution is based on "natural right*" ("We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.") Also, that school of thought seems to have felt that the founding fathers (& Lincoln in defending the Constitution via the civil war) were the ultimate crafters of democracy, and that the USA is the ultimate democracy in the current world and across history.
You can see how this stuff would please conservatives and the right-wing MAGA bunch. Also Strauss's ideas about secret messages in texts leads itself to conspiracy theories.
So overall, very US-centric and Old White Men-centric, and fairly anti-science, with some worrying notions that only specially enlightened thinkers can intuit "truths" that others miss. But the original philosophy supported human rights (albeit with masses of unexamined sexism and elitism) so if MAGA are using it, they'll be perverting Strauss's intent.
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You can see how this stuff would please conservatives and the right-wing MAGA bunch. Also Strauss's ideas about secret messages in texts leads itself to conspiracy theories.
All philosophical ideologies have splinter groups and this is the best article I found about the west coast vs east coast thing. https://www.commentary.org/articles/tod-lindberg/a-strauss-divided/
So overall, very US-centric and Old White Men-centric, and fairly anti-science, with some worrying notions that only specially enlightened thinkers can intuit "truths" that others miss. But the original philosophy supported human rights (albeit with masses of unexamined sexism and elitism) so if MAGA are using it, they'll be perverting Strauss's intent.
* see wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_rights_and_legal_rights