The "Leo"-cons and the "Noble" Lie

The current chatter and accusations regarding Iran by the war cabal in Washington are prime examples of the Straussian interpretation of what Plato called the noble lie. The difference between Strauss and Plato's versions of this tactic is that Plato's noble lie was ficticious in details but at the core had a profound truth, whereas Strauss takes this to the nth degree and believes that society of deception is the odd justice of the wise. Justice, Strauss also thought, was only a product of the stronger labeling what was in their best interests as such.

Plato and Strauss were both proponents of the rule of the wise, however Plato came to the conclusion that this ultimately was not attainable. He then arrived at rule of law as the best alternative. The rule of law is imperative to the idea of American Democracy. Strauss did not follow Plato's logic to the rule of law conclusion, and instead postulated that a covert rule of the wise was not only the ideal but also attainable. This is the arrogant philosophy of the Bush Administration. The term Bush adminstration may be misleading since I somehow doubt Bush himself has read much Strauss, Neitzche, et. al. But people like Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Murdoch, in all liklihood, have. Their belief that they are the "wise" is borne of nothing more than their belief that they hold what Neitzche called the will to power, certainly not that they are truly wise.

Another tenent they hold is that there are three types of men, the wise, the gentlemen, and the vulgar many. The wise, who are concerned with the ugly and untainted truth, use the Noble Lie to decieve the gentlemen who will faithfully execute the neccessary actions to achieve the goal of the lie. These persons genuinely believe the lie whereas the "wise" are not only aware of the lie, but are the ones who create it. The lie also serves the second purpose of placating the vulgar many, many of which do not share the desire to know the unadulterated truth. Personally I agree with Patrick Henry when he said: "It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth … For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it." Unfortunately it seems Americans are not of that mind.

Irving Kristol, another member of the Strauss camp and the father of neo-conservatism said:"patriotism springs from love of the nation's past; nationalism arises out of hope for the nation's future, distinctive greatness…. Neoconservatives believe… that the goals of American foreign policy must go well beyond a narrow, too literal definition of 'national security'. It is the national interest of a world power, as this is defined by a sense of national destiny … not a myopic national security." Sounds a bit like manifest destiny, which in the rearview mirror of history, was a deplorable policy. The "American foreign policy" referred to by Kristol above is likewise deplorabe. Getting the masses to go along with this foreign policy is where this "noble" lie come into play. This is neccessary because what the so-called wise percieve to be the best interest may or may not actually be so. In addition the means to this supposedly best end may not be justifiable in the minds of the many.

One of the many fallacious assumptions of the Noble Lie is that the target audience would ideally be full of people who are at the best not very independently minded. This is flagrantly false, many individuals are capable of critical thought. When these types of individuals discover they have been decieved they may then distrust any other information from the same source in addition to likley having a negative emotional response to having been treated as if the source considered them idiots. There are a few mechanisms through which the Leo-cons attempt to circumvent these logical pitfalls.

The first of which is known as "poisoning the well," ( a form of argumentum ad hominem, a logical fallacy that will be explained later) which is basically leaking false information to the press or public that the independent thinkers are likely to initially support, only to be proven false. Example: Donald Rumsfeld's statement that a missile hit the Pentagon on September 11th.

The second method used, like the first, is not new. The Third Reich was well versed in the "Grand Lie." A concept that purports that if a lie is big enough many people will believe it simply because they themselves do not have the audacity to tell a lie that effects events on that grand of a scale and can't concieve of anyone else doing so.

What the Leo-cons believe, as evidenced by Brzenski in American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives, is that regime change in several key regions of the mid-east is neccessary to secure the flow of energy resources to the west and away from China and Russia, to clip their political and economic wings before they become legitimate threats to American Supremacy. Brzenski, however, has recently heavily criticised the current administration and warns that war with Iran would be a huge mistake. The accusations against high ranking Iranian officials, particularly Ahamedinijad are suspicously similar to those laid out against Iraq and Saddam, and the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan before that. In any legitimate court of law here these arguments would be quickly dismissed as arguments ad hominem and post hoc (ergo prompter hoc), in addition to being purely circumstancial. This explains why Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, etc, have never been indicted in U.S. courts.

So today we are faced with yet another flimsy accusation against the Iranians with a newly discovered cache of weapons in Iraq, supposedly of Iranian origin. Also Vice President Cheney was attacked while at a meeting with with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the former UNOCAL (oil consortium with a contract to build a pipeline across Afghanistan, which conveinently also borders Iran) consultant. Iran is a largely shi'ia nation, many of the "insurgents" in Iraq are of the same Islamic doctrine. It would be strange if these followers of the same religious traditions were not in league with each other. This by no means would require the involvement of high level officials in the Iranian government, as the proponents of regime change in Iran would have you believe.

Covert weapons sales often occur without the knowledge of the highest ranking officials to retain plausible deniability and avoid larger wars. Take the Iran-Contra incident that took place under the Reagan Administration. Military and CIA operatives and assets sold U.S. Military equipment to Iran to raise money to fund a terrorist organization in Nicaragua known as the Contras because they were fighting the elected Communist officials. It was exposed when a U.S. military plane carrying supplies to the Contras was shot down by the Nicaraugan military and one of the occupants on board parachuted to safety. Notably he was disobeying orders by carrying a parachute on that flight. Reagan knew nothing of this, and stated it was untrue in a public address. The evidence then came to light and Reagan denounced it when he found out. Oliver North was mostly to blame and suffered most of the fallout, and even convicted. He now has a show on Fox (Faux) News.

The problem now is that the Defense Contractors, Oil Service Companies, and the Israeli lobby, wield enormous power in the highest echelons of our government, and they want a larger war. Let us not forget the words of Nazi Gestapo founder Hermann Wilhelm Göring at War Crimes Trials at Nuremberg:

"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

So how can we spot these "Noble" Lies? Well, for starters words and phrases like "policy," "position," "we do not currently have information on," "the federal government requires that we state," and "some people say," the Faux News people are particularly fond of the latter. Now that Wolfowitz and company have already admitted that the real motivation for the Iraq war lies more in furthering American hegemony in the Mid-East and the securing of the oil and natural gas reserves in the Caucasus and Caspian Sea, the largest untapped reserves of those fuels in the world, why would their motivations for the coming war with Iran be any different?

Iran is currently capable of greatly reducing oil flow to the west, even completely stopping it for short periods. We are unwanted in the region and have done nothing there but promote regional instability. Iran is well aware that they cannot take the U.S. in an all out war, but they can hurt us where it really hurts the Leo-cons, in the pocket book by shutting off the petroleum we are so horribly addicted to in this country. The propoganda ministry for the current administration is gearing up to put the hard sell on the American public that Iran now poses an immenent threat to this nation.

Do not believe this "noble" lie. We are being treated as fools and the more we realize the more we become very, very pissed off. While the Platonic Noble Lie can serve an important purpose in a utilitarian sense, the Straussian notion of the Noble Lie has the intent of creating a culture of deception, which would be a regretable state of affairs.

The neo-conservatives in Washington are excellent at fear mongering. Fear is the Greatest Ally of Tyranny. Be careful what you believe