Holy cow! No wonder the world is falling apart. The above quote and many similar bons mots are found in this steaming pile of verbal dung (thanks to Jay Manifold for alerting us).
Chicago routinely trained me and numerous other students to become ruthless and unprincipled Machiavellians. That is precisely why so many neophyte Neo-con students gravitated towards the University of Chicago or towards Chicago Alumni at other universities. The University of Chicago became the “brains” behind the Bush Jr. Empire and his Ashcroft Police State. Attorney General John Ashcroft received his law degree from the University of Chicago in 1967. Many of his “lawyers” at the Department of Injustice are members of the right-wing, racist, bigoted, reactionary, and totalitarian Federalist Society (aka “Feddies”), which originated in part at the University of Chicago.
Although miseducated at Yale and Harvard Business School, the “Ivies” proved to be too liberal for Bush Jr. and his fundamentalist Christian supporters, whose pointman and spearcarrier in the Bush Jr. administration was Ashcroft, a Fundie himself. The Neo-cons and the Fundies contracted an “unholy alliance” in support of Bush Jr. across the board. For their own different reasons, both groups also worked hand-in-hand to support Israel’s genocidal Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, an internationally acknowledged war criminal. Strange bedfellows indeed.
According to his own public estimate and boast before the American Enterprise Institute, President Bush Jr. hired about 20 Straussians to occupy key positions in his administration, many holding offices where they could push American foreign policy in favor of Israel and against its chosen enemies such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, and the Palestinians. . .
The Left once again demonstrates that the art of self-parody is alive and well.
The University of Chicago is a hotbed of fundamentalist Christians? What happened to all the neurotic Jews?
Exactly. Those “Christian fundamentalists” are really neurotic Jews in disguise. Take one look at Ashcroft and you’ll see what I mean. He’s not fooling anyone.
The extent of the conspiracy is mind boggling.
CounterPunch is a pretty reliable source for this kind of stuff.
“the Bush Jr. Empire and his Ashcroft Police State.”
“Israel’s genocidal Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, an internationally acknowledged war criminal.”
They really say this stuff with a straight face.
I was inadequately trained in ruthless Machiavellianism. Whom do I sue?
If only U of C was really the nerve-center of the vast right wing conspiracy. I wish, I wish, I wish that it were so. Still, it is nice to be hated by a bag of dirt like this guy.
I like this “members of the right-wing, racist, bigoted, reactionary, and totalitarian Federalist Society (aka “Feddies”), which originated in part at the University of Chicago.” That quote takes me back to happier times. I was the president of my chapter at IU, one of the most fun things I ever did. Our mere existence whipped these lefties into a fit. After we got going, one guy put up a poster about a meeting to resist the rise of racism at the law school. I went up to him, stuck my hand out, introduced myself, and said, “so, tell me, is that all about us?” He nodded a cold, ponderous “yes”. Heavy, man. But I was not so easily silenced. Our best thing was the huge posters we did for the FEDERALIST SOCIETY SHOOTOUT – EXERCISE YOUR SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS. Dude. People absolutely freaked out.
This guy has a hard lesson to learn. We have only just begun to recapture America. First blogspace, then one TV network, and some magazines. But the Universities, the entertainment business, the newspapers, the whole damn country is ripe to be seized by the mad hordes of conservatism. Yes. Yes. Even now, if I fling open my window and listen, borne on the nightbreezes I can faintly hear the clatter of their treads approaching in the distance. We want it all. We want it soon. The vast rightwing conspiracy shall rule. We’re here, we’re the VRWC, get used to it.
Since I am thinking of returning to gradschool or law school after taking a few years off to work, I hink I must now apply to the Univ of Chicago!!!! At last I wont have Prof Boyle wasting my hard earned tuition dollars, and i will actually be learning Law at the Univ of Chicago!!!!
Now, isnt this Boyle character the same person, who in October 2001, was fulminating on all the NPR shows, claiming that by attacking t eh Taliban in Afghanistan, Pres Bush was violating the Geneva Conventions, and hence ought to be charged with war crimes?
Also once Baghdad fell, I think he and his fellow travellers had a full page ad in the NYTimes asking folks to sign one of his petetions to impeach Pres Bush for alleged high crimes?
I wonder how supposedly intellegent people can become so divorced from reality. Never ceases to surprise me.
Ronin
“The University of Chicago is a hotbed of fundamentalist Christians? What happened to all the neurotic Jews?”
I’m a wary, gun-ownin’ realist. Talk about an unholy alliance!
That’s a very special rant you’ve linked to there. Special as in the Special Olympics.
Someone give that guy his pudding cup so’s he’ll put his helmet on and get on the school bus along with the rest of them.
James
I have this sudden urge to go back to school all of a sudden.
U of C should mail this around if they need students. In fact, this could be the real conspiracy here. I am suspecting shrewd advertising.
I’ve known several UC grads. One is a pretty conservative (culturally) Catholic. Another is from backwoods Arkansas, was raised hardrock Baptist and now has no discernible religion. A third is an observant Jew. A fourth is a Chinese emigre who has embraced the open American culture.
Boy, that VRWC is tricky. Who’da thunk they would have enlisted all these non-obvious members??
I assume that Boyle is also the loon who wrote (?) or proposed a constitution for Palestine? The guy has been pushing UN uberlaw for decades. Good thing it takes up so much of his time or he might be really dangerous.
P.S. I also know Leo Strauss’s last grad assistant and the wonderful woman who was known in her grad years as “Strauss’s nun.”
I should have read the whole thing first. First, let me admit that I have met Prof. Boyle and find him repugnant, personally. If anyone should be able to recognize a “moral cesspool” I’d lay my money on him.
Second, given that he was trained as a Machiavellian, the training apparently took. His only guiding principle appears to be power. His puling about democracy barely cloaks his Stalinist impulses. As near as I can tell from the work of his that I’ve read, power should be grasped and used by his group against their enemies. His definition of democracy is apparently “one man, one vote, one time” and the one man is him. For confirmation, read some of his work.
Third, Boyle has a lot of nerve condeming anyone else as an elitist. From memory, and if they are still being published, I’d say to take a look at professor evaluations from UofI Law.
Finally, I truly hope that Boyle has a “friend” who can “out” him when he’s defenseless. It would only be fair. (My remembrance is that he is as capitalist personally as Noam Chomsky. Perhaps a lot of his “stuff” is in someone else’s name.)
I should also point out that I studied under several “Straussians” who emphasized doing “a close reading” of texts. They were much less elitist, racist, bigoted, reactionary and totalitarian than the (barely) closeted Marxists I studied with. The discussions in seminar with the Straussians were heated, diverse, closely argued, and not particularly directed by the prof. We went where debate, logic, fact, belief, thought took us, based on the readings for the day.
The “discussions” in seminar with the Marxists were fundamentally memorization of Marxist thought, differing opinions were discouraged and, if committed to paper, penalized in grading. We spent a lot of time being taught why even when Marxism failed to deliver what it promised, it was still correct. We also heard a lot of denigration of anyone and anything to the right of Ralph Nader.
I never heard a Straussian professor personally denigrate any opposing figure. They went after the thoughts expressed through speech, writing, etc. I rarely heard a Marxist (Progressive?) prof make any but ad hominem attacks. Wonder why the difference?
I would certainly not consider myself a Straussian, but I can appreciate a good chunk of the approach. More than I can say for Marxist analysis.
Alexander Cockburn has been writing that stuff for 40 years or more. He has gone from Stalinist hack to parody of Stalinist hack.
He specializes in denouncing fellow leftists as sell-outs and traitors, usually for not taking a hard enough line against Israel. His hatred of garden variety namby-pamby liberalism combined with his anti-Semitism has lead him to profess admiration for elements of the populist militia far right.
Feddies? When does he start shouting “Sieg Zeon?”
Hey, this should make Boyle etc’s statements that much the more amusing – guess which one of the Democratic Presidential Nominees is a Chicago grad (Law School)?
Thanks. Want to pick up my masters in poli sci. Flirted about heading straight into the heart of darkness (UC Berkley) to be taught by P’fessa Conrad. Now I’ll have to look UofC up.