Leo Strauss (
wiki) and Sayyid Qutb (
wiki)
This clip is from the Power of Nightmares (
Full Doc) and this part of the
Wiki description.
"In the 1950s Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian civil servant turned revolutionary, and Leo Strauss, a Jewish-American professor of political philosophy who fled Nazi persecution, were both in America at the same time. Qutb came to see Western liberalism as corrosive to morality and to society. Qutb had been sent to the U.S. to learn about its public education system but was disgusted by what he saw of its society. They each argued that radical measures (in Strauss's case, deception along the lines of the Plato's Noble Lie, and in Qutb's case, the creation of an Islamic state) could be justified in an effort to restore shared moral values to society, and their arguments heavily influenced American neo-conservatism and radical Islamism, respectively."
14 Comments
aidosgreat documentary. someone pointed me at a follow up to it. I'm yet to watch it but apparently it's pretty good too.
quantumushroomWhich civilization is preferable? Which has lifted more people out of poverty and ignorance than any other?
Is it Western Civ, fueled by mostly rational self-interest, kept in check by laws, myth and freedoms of thought, expression and religion?
Or is it Eastern Civ, fueled by corrupt dictatorial theocracies, ravaged by internecine ethnic and religious warfare and where individual rights are virtually non-existent?
Personally, I'd rather risk the occasional bout of existentialist dyspepsia in the Wal-Mart parking lot than live in fear of State-sponsored "submission".
cryptographrixsays...I'd just not bother with civilization, if it were up to me - it's a poor method of human organization, and better methods have existed for millenia. Why argue about "which civilization is better?" when we can just walk away from civilization altogether and find a better way of life?
ShakaUVMInteresting documentary, and a good contrast.
Farhad2000QM clearly shows his stupidity once again by claiming that there is a separation between Eastern and Western civilization. There is none, there is one civilization and it's called human. some one seemed to have failed history and by passed chapters called DARK AGES and rediscovery of Greek knowledge by empires of the east.
Please. GO OPEN YOUR MIND.
marinaraI'm also watching The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom.
I find the history interesting, but I have to object to the philosophy.
Dont really wan't to summarize the series(yet), and I've only seen 1 of 3 parts.
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