Did Leo Strauss Get (prominent Canadian columnist) Rick Salutin Fired?

Rick Salutin, recently of the Globe and Mail, was easily one of that papers most sophisticated and erudite columnists. He wrote with authority and conviction on a wide range of subjects. He “stuck out” at the Globe and Mail as he was clearly identified as left leaning, but then good newspapers have a mandate to publish a cross section of opinion. With the departure of Salutin the Globe and Mail has big shoes to fill on its opinion page.

In one of his last columns(Stephen Harper- the last Straussian?, Sept.18th 2010) Salutin suggested the prime minister was a Straussian. If you are a prime minister who has spent his political capital and lusts after one last run at a majority government the last thing you want is to be outed as a Straussian.

SNIP


Straussians believe that we can only survive in a society of “us” versus “them”, in a constant state of war, where if the enemy does not exist it is manufactured, where fear and threat are the glue that holds society together.

Salutin may have felt the need to the open window on a critical philosophical and political debate that rages for the most part outside the public domain. Where Strauss is known on the internet he does not get coverage in the circumscribed content of our major dailies. His absence from the larger public domain is in itself Straussian as secrecy and stealth are essential strategies and he believed the common man should not be concerned with the shape or form of society as this should only be dictated by the elites.

All else aside a Straussian belief system has one conspicuous and utterly sophomoric flaw- the lack of accountability, and it is indeed, an ideology whose inherent design is to elude accountability. When we look about our political landscape what is conspicuously wrong in too many instances is a failure of accountability, a failure to lead, to regulate, to practice common sense and a retreat from governance. We are seeing the glorious implosion; the triumphalism of denigrating government, democratic values, civil liberties, and contempt for anything that resembles progressivism.

http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article/235930875-did-leo-strauss-get-rick-salutin-fired

Harper definitely seems to be a Straussian. He would have fit right into the Bush crowd if he were an American.

'The lack of accountability'. His followers here have yet to be held accountable for the destruction of our economy, for the useless and tragic wars they lied us into.

It's for the outsiders and losers,not the annointed elites.