I recently read that one of the most influential philosophers to the neoconservative movement was a guy named Leo Strauss, and that one of the key features of his philosophy was that he believed that those in charge, who really know what is going on, need to lie to the masses for their own good because only they know what is really best for everyone. Well, hey, look at all the lies of the Bush Administration...
...Saddam has WMDs, Saddam has ties to al Quaeda, Social Security is in a crisis, NCLB is working, etc., all repeated ad nauseam on Fox News and via payola until the masses believe it "for their own good." This is more than just putting one's best foot forward or exaggerating one's better qualities and successes--this is part of a strategy based of lying to the masses.
Those of us on the left aren't really the ones being lied to because we already know Bush is full of it and he doesn't really care what we think. But there are a great many on the right ("paleoconservatives") and in the middle out there who have no idea that the neoconservatives consider them to be the ignorant masses who deserve to be lied to for their own good. Personally, I'd get really pissed off if I learned that someone who I respected and believed in was just misleading me because they thought I was just a stupid peon who didn't know what what was good for himself. And I think there just might be a way to help these people learn what is really going on.
Hitting them over the head with it won't work because it is just too polarizing. But maybe some of them could figure it out for themselves if we just popularize the name of Leo Strauss a bit. Maybe we could do this by reframing general references to Bush's lies, whenever and wherever they occur in the media, as something such as "Straussian tactics." Let people start speculating about the influence of Leo Strauss behind every Bush lie, let them start paying even more attention to Bush's lies, and perhaps encourage people do some simple research on Strauss for themselves. We don't have to polarize people by accusing Bush of lying everytime that he does so, perhaps we only need to publicly speculate about the influence of founding neoconservative strategist, Leo Strauss, and his many pupils.
Instead of calling a misleading statement by the Bush Administration a "lie," speculate about the "Straussian tactics" behind the deception.
This is my first diary entry and this idea still needs some work, but maybe someone reading this will have something interesting to add. Does anyone have any idea how to put this idea more in the format of a Lakoff-style frame? I'd also be particularly interested in reading comments from students of political philosophy and others who may already be aware of Strauss' influence. For everyone else, here are some weblinks to the neoconservative philosophy of Leo Strauss to get you started:
http://www.alternet.org/story/15935
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/49/articles/leo_strauss/noflash.html
http://tinyurl.com/68nt3 (Googlecache of antiwar.com)
http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Leo_Strauss
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031212.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss