Roubos Sabbatical Scholar @BensonCenter & Professor of Political Philosophy @uaustinorg | Specialist in the most weighty matters and the one thing needful
Austin, TX
Joined August 2013
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"What Is A Symposium?"
In which the author reveals a moment of high erotic tension with a French woman at the Louvre, offers modest endorsement of the proclivities of Antisthenes, and discourses at length on the quality of eggs at convention center buffets.
Enjoy, 🔗 below…
The answer to Michael's question is to be found in "The Straussian Moment," where Thiel sketches his preference for political theology over political philosophy (see excerpts below).
Everything comes down to the interpretation of the fundamental crime at the foundation of every political community, and on that question Thiel prefers Girard (avec un peu de Schmitt) over Strauss.
Why? Harder to say, but it has something to do with which thinker makes "the unreflective defense of the city" possible. For Thiel, Strauss does not, Girard does.
The issue, then, is whether Girard merely supplies the equipment to produce the noble lie Strauss suggests is necessary.
So, is Thiel's political theology meant genuinely?
I do think he wants to solve our problem, but it is unclear to me whether his efforts are basically Girardian or a Straussian appropriation of Girard.
(The title is ambiguous…)
Perhaps the main issue or question I had about the Thiel lectures was to what extent the Christian theology is necessary to the argument. It seems to me that you can warn against the threat of global government on the grounds of political philosophy, as Leo Strauss did in his debate with Kojeve published in On Tyranny; and since both Strauss and Kojeve were mentioned by name in the lectures, it doesn't seem arbitrary to compare Thiel's account to the positions debated there. There's a way in which the lectures could be summarized (compressed, unfairly, with loss) as stating that the antichrist is the impossible political solution offered to a crisis that he himself exaggerates in order to scare people into accepting his promise of peace and security-and that the person most likely to do this in our time and in our Rome (America) is a Democratic president. Of course there are plenty of other issues he could not discuss in the relatively short span of four lectures, like whether open source AI is a kind of restrainer against the dual threat of antichrist and armageddon, etc. But again, I would regard the question about whether the Christian angle is indispensable or not as the central puzzle.
Alex Priou retweeted
I would like to thank Leo Strauss and his students, the Straussians, for teaching me the true nature of politics. The Total Boomer Luxury Communism awareness campaign's success is, to a large extent, due to their instruction.
This phenomenon is what @GreenPlusAnE has aptly dubbed Total Boomer Luxury Communism© (TBLC)
Read: americanmind.org/salvo/what-…
This phenomenon is what @GreenPlusAnE has aptly dubbed Total Boomer Luxury Communism© (TBLC)
Read: americanmind.org/salvo/what-…
This really is one of @BillMaher’s best-ever monologues, and I don’t say that just because I got a namecheck. Tldr: Socialism is what old people already get and young people want a piece of it.
In which yours truly opines about Machiavelli, Heidegger, and more.
A pleasure speaking with Timon! 🍻
Had a lot of fun with this one! @alexpriou on Machiavelli, Heidegger, and more!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
Cure yourself of the ailment that afflicts so many on this site, what a colleague has aptly termed Strauss Derangement Syndrome (SDS).
We can inoculate you, we can heal you, for we are doctors of the diseases of reason.
Apply below…
Leo Strauss thought we needed to return to the classics to understand why modernity contains the seeds of its own destruction.
Applications are due soon for UATX's honors symposium on Strauss. Free to undergraduates and recent grads. January 8-10.
uaustin.org/strauss-symposiu…
The Stauffocracy begins.
🤖 Made with AI
NEW: @UTAustin @JimDavis_UT announces a new “University College” to be “the guardian of the new core curriculum,” led by inaugural dean Devin Stauffer, faculty fellow at the Civitas Institute and a government professor.
Stauffer chaired the core curriculum task force.
I will only take questions on the following themes:
LIVE Q&A on Plato’s Republic!🔥
The always wonderful @alexpriou will join us for a live question and answer episode on Book One of Plato’s Republic.
Only on Substack 11.3.26 at noon CT.
It’s “well-written,” says someone who doesn’t know that you don’t hyphenate such a phrase when used as a predicate adjective. America, here’s your “educator” exemplified. Shameful and bad.
I can’t wait for this independent and fair-minded journalist to release his follow up piece on the liberal takeover of the whole of higher education over the last 50 or so years. Non-partisan reporting at its best!
Hey y'all, tomorrow @texasmonthly is publishing a story I've been working on for a while—a deep dive into the conservative takeover at UT. It's the Nov. cover story. If you've been seeing the headlines, but confused abt what's happening @ the 40 Acres, check back here in the AM!
Alex Priou retweeted
Co-host @alexpriou shares the same birthday as Leo Strauss. This is remains a special coincidence for him.
We think it would also be special if they could share the same DEATH-DATE.
Submit your best idea. Winner gets to decease Alex in name of philosophy.
The first and last words of the Republic act as an envelope, signaling the disruption and resumption of Socrates’ ascent.
He remains descended for the whole of the conversation. His ascent resumes only after the dialogue concludes, when at the end of the myth of Er he bids Glaucon adieu with its closing words, eu prattein.
The radical and uncomfortable suggestion is that the entirety of the Republic is cave-like, a suggestion confirmed subtly throughout.
Sun line cave—these are images, and according to the line images are the lowest level of cognition, prior to ascent. Glaucon has compelled Socrates to offer a pious defense of justice, distorting philosophy toward that end.
Seth Benardete put it best: “Wisdom is an idol of the cave.”
The Republic begins with four words: katebēn chthes eis Peiraia. We might say ‘Yesterday I went down to the Piraeus.’ Ancient sources report that a tablet was found among Plato’s effects on which these words had been written out in several different orders.
Plato’s final choice puts katebēn (‘I went down’) first.
Why?
Sharing this anecdote about Hazony and Strauss once again, apropos of nothing, really nothing at all—I swear!
…
Nobody I know would call Hazony a Straussian, least of all Hazony himself:
I was once at a dinner, and the topic turned to Strauss on the Bible and Plato's Republic. Hazony was there, and insisted on changing the subject—twice.
His dislike for Straussians on Plato's Republic was surpassed only by his dislike of Strauss on the Bible—dismissed him as having an essentially Protestant interpretation and no familiarity with the commentary tradition.
When the discussion meandered back to Strauss later, he again expressed his disapproval. I wondered out loud to him, "I get the feeling you'd rather I shouted 'From the river to the sea' than discuss Strauss a minute longer." He laughed heartily.
Another thoughtful article on Rubio's speech, this time by @schmedlaff.
The rhetorical strategy of the speech are laid out very well—you see the rationale for the emphasis on θυμός better now.
Good stuff, give it a read: catholicworldreport.com/2026…
Glenn Ellmers' thoughtful response to @FeserEdward on Rubio.
I'll be recording with @RealSteven44192 about Rubio tomorrow…
Read Glenn's full response here:
chroniclesmagazine.org/web/h…
