Pluralism and Faith
William E. ConnollyRelativism and Faith
Straussianism is the only professorial movement in the United States
that has attained the standing of a public philosophy. Since at least the
late 1970s, its proponents have not only played a significant role in the
academy but have served as advisers to the president when a Republican
holds office and as talking heads on news channels such as Fox News,
CNN, and MSNBC when Republicans are in or out of office. The ten-
dency is to counsel respect, in the name of civic virtue, for the presi-
dency when a Republican holds office and to subject the incumbent to
sharp critique when a Democrat holds office. Reagan and the two
Bushes have been recipients of the first honor; Carter and Clinton recip-
ients of the second line of attack. Let’s explore the contribution that Leo
Strauss himself has made to contemporary Straussian public philoso-
phy, as well as limits he may set to such a movement.
In Liberalism: Ancient and Modern, published in the 1960s, Strauss
argues in favor of a classical liberal education and against the shape
modern liberalism has taken. Liberal education, in the classic sense,
prepares an elite of gentlemen to lift mass democracy to a higher level
of achievement:
Liberal education is the counterpoison to mass culture, to the cor-
roding effects of mass culture, to its inherent tendency to produce
nothing but ‘‘specialists without spirit and voluptuaries without
heart.’’ Liberal education is the ladder by which we try to ascend
from mass democracy to democracy as originally meant. Liberal
education is the necessary endeavor to found an aristocracy within
democratic mass society. Liberal education reminds those members
of a mass democracy who have ears to hear, of human greatness.^1PAGE 278278.................16224$ CH14 10-13-06 12:35:26 PS