Neocon Noble Lies – 2 Years Worth Now Documented For All to See

From a 2005 article in Looking Glass News by John Walsh, here are some excerpts on Noble Lies as a primary tool of the neocons:

All governments lie as I. F. Stone famously observed, but some governments lie more than others. And the neocon Bush regime serves up whoppers as standard fare every day. Why this propensity to lie? There are many reasons, but it is not widely appreciated that the neocons believe in lying on principle. It is the “noble” thing for the elite to do, for the “vulgar” masses, the “herd” will become ungovernable without such lies. This is the idea of the “noble lie” practiced with such success and boldness by Scooter Libby and his co-conspirators and concocted by the political “philosopher” Leo Strauss whose teachings lie at the core of the neoconservative outlook and agenda, so much so that they are sometimes called “Leocons.”

All of this comes down to one word: lying. But for Strauss, these lies are necessary for the smooth function of society and triumph of one’s own nation in war. Hence for Strauss, the lie becomes “noble.” This phrase Strauss borrows and distorts from Plato who meant by a “noble lie” a myth or parable that conveyed an underlying truth about morality or nature. But in Strauss’s hands the “noble lie” becomes a way of deceiving the herd. Strauss’s “noble lies” are far from “noble.” They are intended to “dupe the multitude and secure power for a special elite” (AR, p. 79).

But before that happens the Straussians can do a lot of damage. As Drury says, they “cannot be trusted with political power.” But we can learn from them the importance of boldness, not in the pursuit of the “noble lie” but of the truth. And we must be certain that we are vigorous as we hunt them down and get them out of power. In that effort Shadia Drury has done us a great service.

Now, thanks to The Center for Public Integrity, we can see and access details about just a small portion of the noble lie from the GWB Administration:

Here are the Administration officials and their contribution to the 935 false statements made between October 2001 and September 2003 on at least 532 occasions.

Search the on-line database of over 380,000 words on Iraq-related administration pronouncements.