Jeet Here has been writing about Wilmoore Kendall, which brings this to mind: From 2005. Whatever else he thought, Harry Jaffa was an American at his core...
I noticed that Kendall used the term "natural right" instead of "natural rightS" when describing the DoI. That seems like a very Straussian maneuver: switching from a very Protestant John Locke to a very Catholic doctrine which has very different implications.
A Straussian, but Jaffa was not a great believer in esoteric meanings and secret elites. He was a believer in, well, in Abraham Lincoln—or in his image of Abraham Lincoln...
Yeah, or at least he was in 1959. But anyone who spent his career on Strauss' natural right philosophy must have recognized the difference and, I would think, the import of Kendall's criticism. Like most such allusions, though, it's hard to be sure.
I noticed that Kendall used the term "natural right" instead of "natural rightS" when describing the DoI. That seems like a very Straussian maneuver: switching from a very Protestant John Locke to a very Catholic doctrine which has very different implications.
Perhaps.... I wonder what share of his audience—even his intended esoteric audience—caught that?
I don't know, but Jaffa was a Straussian, so.....
A Straussian, but Jaffa was not a great believer in esoteric meanings and secret elites. He was a believer in, well, in Abraham Lincoln—or in his image of Abraham Lincoln...
Yeah, or at least he was in 1959. But anyone who spent his career on Strauss' natural right philosophy must have recognized the difference and, I would think, the import of Kendall's criticism. Like most such allusions, though, it's hard to be sure.
Touché...
Have you seen this? https://jeetheer.substack.com/p/podcast-the-deep-roots-of-gop-extremism?r=bh54&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=twitter
I haven't listened to it yet.
It's always been about rights: the right to enslave, the right to kill, the right to steal, and lately, the right to infect.