The CBC has sunk to a new low in its propaganda with its upcoming show, “The Power of Nightmares: Episode One.”
The premise of the show is to draw parallels between the intellectual fount of Islamic fundamentalism, Sayyid Qutb, and political philosopher, Leo Strauss, who’s deemed the fount of the contemporary neoconservatives. Here’s a snippet from the show’s website:
At the same time Leo Strauss, an American professor of political philosophy, also came to see western liberalism as corrosive to morality and to society. Like Qutb, Strauss believed that individual freedoms threatened to tear apart the values which held society together. He taught his students that politicians should assert powerful and inspiring myths - like religion or the myth of the nation - that everyone could believe in.
A group of young students, including Paul Wolfowitz, Francis Fukuyama and William Kristol studied Strauss’ ideas and formed a loose group in Washington which became known as the neo-conservatives. They set out to create a myth of America as a unique nation whose destiny was to battle against evil in the world.
Both Qutb and Strauss were idealists whose ideas were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world. The two movements they inspired set out, in their different ways, to rescue their societies from this decay.
Strauss has received quite a bit of “commentary” lately by people who claim to know what he was talking about. Most of it very bad, in the sense of it being thoughtless. See Joseph Knippenberg’s review of Anne Norton’s weak book, Leo Strauss and the American Empire.
Now, I’ve read a bit of Strauss as well as Qutb, though I’m not expert in either one’s thought.
Even so, I’ve read enough to know they differ in radical ways, and not just politically. Strauss was a thinker. Qutb was an ideologue.
The former was a friendly critic of liberalism, and considered the US Constitution the best modern embodiment of classical natural right (which is to say that he affirmed its basic tenets as both reasonable and good, though not unthinkingly so). The latter got his impressions of the US and the West in general from a brief study trip to the US and from French fascist, Alexis Carrell, whose L’Homme, cet inconnu [Man, the Unknown](1957) trots out the usual tropes of the West’s materialism destroying its spirit, which has been the standard critique of the Western modernity since Romanticism.
In other words, Strauss’s thinking is original and requires patient study to appreciate its merits. Qutb, as one insightful critic as called him, is a spiritual “ignoramus.” This is not to say that Strauss is intelligent because he’s a philosopher and Qutb is an ignoramus because he was supposedly religious. Rather, Qutb’s thought is unoriginal, sloganeering, and exhibits all the signs of ideological closure.
The CBC can’t figure out a basic distinction that even 1st year university students can figure out.
The intellectual sources of Bush’s foreign policy are more complex than I can hint here. I’ve tried to provide some background on Bush’s “evangelical conservatism” as well as that of the one well-placed person who took courses from Strauss, Paul Wolfowitz.
A much better treatment of Bush’s foreign policy than either I or the CBC (no kidding) could provide is Alexander Moens’s The Foreign Policy of George W. Bush. Incidently, he points out that no one in Bush’s inner circle can even be considered a neoconservative, and that includes Cheney.
The best treatment of Strauss and American foreign policy is Thomas West’s article in the summer 2004 Claremont Review of Books. I haven’t been able to get the article’s link to work, so here’s a snippet from another website.
The best account of Qutb is in Barry Cooper’s New Political Religions, Or An Analysis of Modern Terrorism.
UPDATE: I stayed up to watch the stupid program. Here are some of my impressions.
UPDATE 2: Here’s my take on Monday night’s episode.
UPDATE 3: Here’s my take on Part 3, aired on Tuesday night.
UPDATE 4 (June 29, 2005): The American blogs are finally getting around to looking at “Nightmares”: Sullivan, Clive Davis, and The Nation.
kaqchikel wrote:
The idea that Strauss’s students created the myth of America as a “light among nations” is just fantastic. Clearly, the luminaries at the CBC have been far too busy hating Americans to have ever picked up a history book. And all of this with our tax dollars. Quelle famille!
Posted on 24-Apr-05 at 7:41 pm | Permalink
ThePolitic - » Update on CBC on Qutb & Strauss wrote:
[…] f=”http://technorati.com/tag/thepolitic” rel=”tag”>
Further to my previous post on “The Power of Nightmares” on CBC. Out of t […]
Posted on 24-Apr-05 at 9:08 pm | Permalink
Peter wrote:
This is hilarious; I’m watching the program right now. I must not be too far into it yet since I haven’t seen any of Mansfield yet.
I agree with you that the premise of the documentary, the comparison between a great man like Strauss and political/religious loudmouth, is laughable. I find it continually amazing that people think that they can boil the philosophy of Strauss into sound-bites. The small number of his texts I have read have been almost horrifying processes, with most pages requiring several re-reads. Such is the depth of his thought.
I blame Shadia Drury for starting all this. She became the puppet of the liberal establishment by writing at least two books giving exaggerated, simplistic critiques of Strauss.
I’ll probably write more once it’s done, and I want to go read that review of the new book on Strauss.
Posted on 24-Apr-05 at 11:48 pm | Permalink
Rempelia Prime » Nightmares! wrote:
[…] er entirely to the very capable Tom Cerber at The Politic, who gives two reviews of part 1 here and here. They’re worth the time it will tak […]
Posted on 25-Apr-05 at 12:05 am | Permalink
John wrote:
As someone who had never heard of Strauss or Qutb until he saw TPON, I was interested to read your views on the series. I am pleased to note that you aim “to nurture public discourse and the free flow of information which all of our contributors cherish as the foundation-stones of a free society,” and that you seek “writers from any and all ideologies and viewpoints”.
However your post strikes me as more of an exercise in intellectual snobbery than genuine critique, and the political drift of the blog rather restricted. As an academic (in communications rather than political philosophy), I would be most grateful if you would enlighten me with specific criticisms of the series.
Similarly, I’m not sure I accept your distinction between Strauss as thinker and Qutb as ideologue. Are you denying the impact either of them has had?
Posted on 25-Apr-05 at 1:53 pm | Permalink
Tom Cerber wrote:
John: You might find my update to include the some of the specific criticism you’re looking for.
Posted on 25-Apr-05 at 3:35 pm | Permalink
CIVITATENSIS » Nightmarish Ignorance wrote:
[…] yid Qutb, the radical jihadist, the CBC has sunk to a whole new low, points out Tom Cerber here and here.
[…]
Posted on 25-Apr-05 at 11:54 pm | Permalink
ThePolitic - » More “Nightmares”: Qutb & Strauss wrote:
[…] href=”http://technorati.com/tag/thepolitic” rel=”tag”>
I’ve made 2 postings (first & second) on the CBC’s airing of ̶ […]
Posted on 26-Apr-05 at 7:59 am | Permalink
ThePolitic - » The Trauma of Ideology wrote:
[…] he documentary, “Nightmares,” on the CBC over the past couple of nights (posts here, here, and here). A comment on one of my previous […]
Posted on 26-Apr-05 at 8:48 am | Permalink
Harper wrote:
“The CBC can’t figure out a basic distinction that even 1st year university students can figure out.”
You can’t figure out that this wasn’t a CBC production. They presented the show as a documentary. Which it is. I guess you think they need to hold our hands in order to achieve your point of view.
Posted on 26-Apr-05 at 7:00 pm | Permalink
ThePolitic - » “Nightmares”: Final Installment wrote:
[…] ich the CBC broadcast on Tuesday night. I also posted comments on the Sunday broadcast of Part I (and here) and Monday’s Part II. I also p […]
Posted on 26-Apr-05 at 8:22 pm | Permalink
Ian Black wrote:
Largly anti-American propoganda. Very amaturish sub-standard production.
Posted on 26-Apr-05 at 9:02 pm | Permalink
Nigel Hollland wrote:
This documentary was made by or for the BBC, they have now repeated it twice. Allot of British blogs have already criticised it. Check out Samizdata’s take on it’s historical revisionism.
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/006829.html
Posted on 30-Apr-05 at 6:56 am | Permalink
Tom wrote:
Nigel: Great stuff! Thanks.
Posted on 02-May-05 at 7:48 am | Permalink
ThePolitic - Canadian Political Weblog » Will on Wolfowitz wrote:
[…] ed in the past on Paul Wolfowitz’s intellectual pedigree, as well as on the supposed Straussian influence on the Bush administration. Georg […]
Posted on 13-May-05 at 9:43 am | Permalink
Peaktalk wrote:
STRAUSS AND QUTB
The CBC has started broadcasting The Power of Nightmares, the documentary that attempts to equate Islamic fundamentalism with neo-conservatism. Tom Cerber at the Politic looked at it and concludes that despite the filmmaker’s intentions, Leo Strauss i…
Posted on 18-May-05 at 12:42 pm | Permalink
Jerome wrote:
The aim of The Power of Nightmares is not to draw parallels between Leo Strauss and Sayyid Qutb; it is not a programme about them. Rather, it is a programme exploring the shift in the nature of politics since WW2 (a shift in which politics moves away from promising a ‘brighter future’, to politics that promises that a terrorist is imminent unless action is taken). The programme is concerned with how this shift came about. Therefore, because Strauss and Qutb have been influenctial thinkers/writers their ideas are looked into by the programme.
Posted on 21-May-05 at 6:52 am | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
Jerome: The aim of the programme is to draw parallels between Strauss and Qutb insofar as their ideas have apparently filtered into the ideas of the activists in question. Put another way, the programme argues that those thinkers inspired the activists. Moreover, the programme argues that the activists are similar because the thinkers who inspired them are similar.
Posted on 23-May-05 at 8:19 pm | Permalink
ThePolitic - Canadian Political Weblog » Death of the Enlightenment? wrote:
[…] that European politicians can manipulate illiterate masses using anti-Americanism (example here). Increasingly, anti-Americanism has become the l […]
Posted on 17-Jun-05 at 9:34 am | Permalink
ThePolitic - Canadian Political Weblog » Blog Archive » Jihadists, Internet, and Secondary Reality wrote:
[…] Kepel’s observation that “everything that is digital is transcendental” for them is consistent with the way they live in an imaginary world, as I’ve argued here, here, here, here, and here. […]
Posted on 04-Aug-05 at 9:10 pm | Permalink
CIVITATENSIS » Jihadists, Internet, and Secondary Reality wrote:
[…] Kepel’s observation that “everything that is digital is transcendental” for them is consistent with the way they live in an imaginary world, as I’ve argued here, here, here, here, and here. […]
Posted on 04-Aug-05 at 9:11 pm | Permalink
i hope you get cancerâ„¢ wrote:
PM —– BODY: The recent BAFTA for TPON, and its weekend showing on Canadian TV, has left the conservative right with its collective dress over its head. Apart from Melanie Phillips, a particularly vivid example is Canadian log The Politic, whose “critique
Posted on 27-Mar-06 at 10:11 am | Permalink
Dissecting Leftism -- Large font site wrote:
[…] myself. People willing to go doorknocking or able to pay others to do so would be what I would need.Canadian ignoramuses: The CBC has recently broadcast a programme comparing neo-conservative philosopher Leo Strauss with […]
Posted on 18-Apr-07 at 6:41 am | Permalink
MNDv3 | Serving Man Daily Since 2001 » 2005 » April wrote:
[…] Canadian ignoramuses: The CBC has recently broadcast a programme comparing neo-conservative philosopher Leo Strauss with the Islamic fundamentalist Sayyid Qutb — a very stretched comparison indeed. They could make a much better case for saying that Islam and Judaism have a lot in common but that would have no propaganda value, of course. […]
Posted on 03-May-07 at 8:13 pm | Permalink
Dissecting Leftism: 04/24/2005 - 05/01/2005 wrote:
[…] myself. People willing to go doorknocking or able to pay others to do so would be what I would need.Canadian ignoramuses: The CBC has recently broadcast a programme comparing neo-conservative philosopher Leo Strauss with […]
Posted on 29-Oct-07 at 11:13 am | Permalink