Well, with graduation only a few weeks away, what do you think about this piece? Am I about to become a ruthless and unprincipled Macchiavelllian warmonger and totalitarian?! I found this piece when I googled the word "cesspool"...not having heard it before . "My Alma Mater is a Moral Cesspool" Neo-Cons, Fundies, Feddies and the University of Chicago By FRANCIS A. BOYLE Professor of Law, University of Illinois School of Law It is now a matter of public record that immediately after the terrible tragedy of September 11, 2001, U.S. Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld and his pro-Israeli "Neoconservative" Deputy Paul Wolfowitz began to plot, plan, scheme and conspire to wage a war of aggression against Iraq by manipulating the tragic events of September 11th in order to provide a pretext for doing so. Of course Iraq had nothing at all to do with September 11th or supporting Al-Qaeda . But that made no difference to Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the numerous other pro-Israeli Neo-cons in the Bush Jr. administration. These pro-Israeli Neo-cons had been schooled in the Machiavellian/Nietzschean theories of Professor Leo Strauss, who taught political philosophy at the University of Chicago in their Department of Political Science. The best expose of Strauss's pernicious theories on law, politics, government, for elitism, and against democracy can be found in two scholarly books by the Canadian Professor Shadia B. Drury: The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss (1988); Leo Strauss and the American Right (1999). I entered the University of Chicago in September of 1968 shortly after Strauss had retired. But I was trained in Chicago's Political Science Department by Strauss's foremost protege, co-author, and literary executor Joseph Cropsey. Based upon my personal experience as an alumnus of Chicago's Political Science Department (A.B., 1971, in Political Science), I concur completely with Professor Drury's devastating critique of Strauss. I also agree with her penetrating analysis of the degradation of the American political process by Chicago's Straussian cabal. 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. It was the Chicago Straussian cabal of pro-Israeli Neo-cons who set up a separate "intelligence" unit within the Pentagon that was responsible for manufacturing many of the bald-faced lies, deceptions, half-truths, and outright propaganda that the Bush Jr. administration then disseminated to the lap-dog U.S. news media in order to generate public support for a war of aggression against Iraq for the benefit of Israel and in order to steal Iraq's oil. To paraphrase something Machiavelli once advised his Prince in Chapter XVIII of that book: Those who want to deceive will always find those willing to be deceived. As I can attest from my personal experience as an alumnus of the University of Chicago Department of Political Science, the Bible of Chicago's pro-Israeli Neo-con Straussian cabal is Machiavelli's The Prince. As for the University of Chicago overall, its Bible is Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind (1987). Of course Bloom was another protege of Strauss, as well as a mentor to Wolfowitz. In his latest novel Ravelstein (2000) Saul Bellow, formerly on the University of Chicago Faculty, outed his self-styled friend Bloom as a hedonist, pederast, and most promiscuous homosexual who died of AIDS. All this was common knowledge at the University of Chicago, where Bloom is still worshipped and his elitist screed against American higher-education still revered. In Ravelstein Wolfowitz appeared as Bloom's protege Philip Gorman, and Strauss as Bloom's mentor and guru Professor Davarr. Strauss/Davarr is really the eminence grise of the novel. With friends like Bellow, Bloom did not need enemies. Just recently the University of Chicago officially celebrated its Bush Jr. Straussian cabal, highlighting Wolfowitz Ph.D. '72, Ahmad Chalabi, Ph.D. '69, Abram Shulsky, A.M. '68, Ph.D. '72, Zalmay Khalilzad, Ph.D. '79, together with faculty members Bellow, X '39 and Bloom, A.B. '49, A.M. '53, Ph.D. '55. According to the June 2003 University of Chicago Magazine, Bloom's book "helped popularize Straussian ideals of democracy." It is correct to assert that Bloom's rant helped to popularize Straussian "ideas," but they were blatantly anti-democratic, Machiavellian, Nietzschean, and elitist to begin with. Only the University of Chicago would have the unmitigated Orwellian gall to publicly claim that Strauss and Bloom cared one whit about democracy, let alone comprehended the "ideals of democracy." Does anyone seriously believe that the Chicago/Strauss/Bloom product Wolfowitz cares one whit about democracy in Iraq? Or the Bush Jr. administration itself, after having stolen the 2000 presidential election from the American People in Florida and before the Republican-controlled U.S. Supreme Court, some of whom were Feddies? Do not send your children to the University of Chicago where they will grow up to become warmongers like Wolfowitz or totalitarians like Ashcroft! Chicago is an intellectual and moral cesspool. Francis A. Boyle, Professor of Law, University of Illinois, is author of Foundations of World Order, Duke University Press, The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence, and Palestine, Palestinians and International Law, by Clarity Press. He can be reached at: FBOYLE@LAW.UIUC.EDU http://www.counterpunch.org/boyle08022003.html
Yeah, but we don't hang out there, our classes were in the Gleacher Center next to the Magnificent Mile. So what about the article, you think the other students took away his lunch money while he was studying there or they never passed him the ball or is he on target?
No, you guys had that one building on 60th too, I think it was 60th near GSW and the Art School or something
Yeah it was where all the academic B-school types hung out, I remember it well, they had a whole big set up for interviews and everything. NOw that I think of it it was behind the GSSW.
No, our alma mater is NOT a moral cesspool!!! Machiavelli was one of the sweetest, kindest political theorists... Honestly, U of C does not churn out drones who are destined to follow the same philosophies as their professors. Something I've always loved about our school is that graduates are able to think critically. A conversation amound alums is like no other. (Being married to one, we get to have that kind of conversation all the time.) One thing to note is that the school is notorious for having professors that are considerably more liberal than the general student body. And remembering the p*rn scandal that errupted shortly after we graduated, the student body was never thought of altogether pious. I suppose Boyle would argue that combining the extremist positions of the faculty with the moral degeneration of the students yields: the Bush administration. Of course, I don't really think the Bush administration is as bad as he does. But as I said... extremely liberal faculty, what would you expect?
Man...he makes a poly sci degree from the University of Chicago sound pretty sexy. I for one, am a fan of capitalism, Nietzsche and Israel. How these three things can be reconciled into a singular school of thought is beyond me though. I like mole, chicken tikka marsala, and raw yellowtail tuna, but I wouldn't try and eat them together in a sandwich Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" compatible with neo-con moral clarity? "God is Dead" compatible with religious conservatives? A passion for Greek tragedy and a longing for philosopher kings for laissez-faire capitalism? A small country built on socialist ideals and protectionist trade (and nationalized trade unions) with cradle to grave social services and an office of Chief Rabbi is compatible with either Nietzsche or open markets? I hate to break the news to Doctor Boyle, but Nietzsche (like Heidegger and the operas of Wagner) aren't terribly popular in Israeli public school curriculum or academia. I think its easier to argue the common denominator of University of Chicago *haters* is maybe anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism and anti-Semitism, and other associated ethnocentric, luddite, collectivist fringe opinions.
Looks to me like Boyle has it right on the morality of the Chicago grads and profs he profiles. To tar the whole university with those folks is going a bit too far.
True, the U of C is a giant institution with tons of academic superstars in disciplines from physics to philosopy, medicine to music, paleontology to english. The profs I had there ran the gamut from hardcore libertarian to barely reformed socialists. To call the whole place a 'moral cesspool' is just plain silly. OK, so there's a few neocons in the poli-sci department. Big deal.
