Tim Robbins' ghostwriter (Play Uses False Strauss Quote Culled From Lyndon LaRouche Magazine)

ArtsJournal.com ^ | March 16, 2004 | Terry Teachout

[nickcarraway]

I usually write about theater in Friday's Wall Street Journal, but I made a special guest appearance on this morning's editorial page. The occasion was the opening of Embedded, Tim Robbins' new play about Gulf War II, which he blames on the political philosopher Leo Strauss, quoting chapter and verse to prove his contention that the war was started for nefarious reasons by a cabal of Strauss' neoconservative disciples in the Bush administration (including Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz).

There's just one little problem—the quote in question is totally bogus. And that's not even the worst part:

Strauss’ complex political views are not easily reduced to speeches in a play, but Mr. Robbins has done his best by making one of his characters, a fellow named Pearly White and thus presumably modeled on Richard Perle (that being Mr. Robbins’ idea of cutting wit), spout the following lines: "Moral virtue has no application to the really intelligent man, the philosopher. In the words of Leo Strauss: ‘Moral virtue only exists in popular opinion where it serves the purpose of controlling the unintelligent majority.’" Hence the Strauss-inspired Gulf War, which was fought not to topple a bloodthirsty monster but to anesthetize the ignorant masses and thereby ensure the re-election of George W. Bush and all those other nasty Republicans. Got it?

Now I’m a drama critic, not a political philosopher, but I do know a thing or two about Strauss, and I was sure he’d never said anything like that, since he wasn’t given to self-caricature. So when I came home from "Embedded," I decided to see whether I could track down the source of that suspicious-looking quotation from Chairman Leo. It sounded like something a half-educated movie star might have found on a Web site, so I looked for it on Google, and immediately hit the jackpot.

The source of Mr. Robbins’ alleged Strauss "quote," I discovered, was an article called "The Secret Kingdom of Leo Strauss." The author, Tony Papert, turned out to be paraphrasing in his own words the opinions of Thomas Pangle, a student of Strauss, which Mr. Papert had gleaned at second hand from a book by a third party, a Strauss-hating Canadian academic named Shadia Drury. "Pangle had implied," Mr. Papert wrote, "that for Socrates (i.e., for Strauss), moral virtue had no application to the really intelligent man, the philosopher. Moral virtue only existed in popular opinion, where it served the purpose of controlling the unintelligent majority."

Oh, yes, one more thing: Tony Papert’s article appeared in the April 18, 2003 issue of Executive Intelligence Review, a magazine published by none other than Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., that well-known millionaire crackpot and purveyor of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Let’s review: (1) Leo Strauss never said what Tim Robbins quoted him as having said; (2) Thomas Pangle didn’t say it, either; (3) Tony Papert, a LaRouchie, said it; and (4) Mr. Robbins lifted Mr. Papert’s quote from a LaRouchie magazine and dropped it into his play, deliberately passing it off as an authentic Straussian utterance.

None of this, of course, has any necessary bearing on the theatrical quality of "Embedded." But it does suggest that Tim Robbins, whatever his other virtues, is not a man to be trusted with facts....

No link, alas, though sometimes the Journal's free Web site, opinionjournal.com, puts up additional links to editorial-page pieces over the weekend. If they do, I'll let you know. Otherwise, you can read the whole thing by going out and buying a copy of the paper (which you should be doing anyway!).

If you want to see Tony Papert's article for yourself, go here. Bring your boots, though: it's in LaRoucheland, where the fever swamps are deep....

[nickcarraway]

The Secret Kingdom of Leo Strauss by Tony Papert (In LYndon LaRouche's Executive Intelligence Review

[lilylangtree]

Tim Robbins, H'weirdo liberal leftist elitist--No thanks, Bah!

[dead]

Now, playing the role of “the intellectual thespian” – the star of “Howard the Duck” and “Fraternity Vacation” - Tim Robbins.

Costumes by Susan Sarandon.

Funded by a grant from the NEA.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

I wish I was 10 theatre goers so I could stay away 10 times.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Robbins' Off-Broadway play has been savaged in the few reviews I've seen of it.

[marron]

Anti-Strauss paranoids typically have not read Strauss, so the Strauss of their imaginings is a fictional Strauss. A fictional Strauss can be made to carry the water for anything you want, since he's your own creation, not restricted by the facts of any real flesh-and-blood Strauss.

Would it be too much to ask, if you were going to write a play about someone, that you would take some time and actually try to digest his written work?

Of course, in the case of Strauss, wading through several hundred pages of his stuff should cure you of any desire to write anything about him.

[Mr. Jazzy]

To quote one of Mr. Robbins role models:

"Man, what a butt wipe!" Bart Simpson

[nickcarraway]

Even the New York Times trashed it.

[A.J.Armitage]

To the extent I can understand what Strauss actually held, his view was the opposite, the the philosopher is the most, or even only, virtuous man. Which still might be offensive to nonphilosophers, but remember that Strauss never claimed to be a philosopher, only a student of philosophers.

BTW, even if Strauss had used the words in the quotation, it wouldn't necessarily be his own view, since much of his writing consists of explanations of what various long-dead thinkers taught. That is, in context you know that it's the other guy's view, but out of context that might not be clear.

[VaBthang4]

"It sounded like something a half-educated movie star might have found on a Web site..."

ROTFLOL!

[Qwinn]

I have to laugh at how Robbins must be handling all these awful reviews. Naturally, it will never occur to him that it could be because he has absolutely no talent as a writer, and no one appreciates his stark raving mad political worldview. That will only leave one possible reason for the negative reviews, in his warped mind - that it's the "chill wind" he has manufactured in his own mind, and that not just the NY Times but -everyone- (outside of the Star Ledger out of Newark, NJ) is under orders from the evil Bushite conspiracy.

Qwinn

[IncPen]

... ping ...

[BartMan1]

Pseudointellectual putz....