Greek political identity formed in opposition to an imagined Persian tyranny.

Evidence from the Achaemenid Empire suggests pragmatic governance and regional autonomy were common features of rule.

Fear can define a people as effectively as law.

#AncientHistory #PersianEmpire #PoliticalThought #Brewminate

https://brewminate.com/imagined-law-imagined-tyranny-persia-and-the-greek-fear-of-foreign-rule/

Umberto Eco: Ur-Fascism

https://bobmschwartz.com/2017/12/28/umberto-eco-ur-fascism/

#HackerNews #UmbertoEco #UrFascism #Fascism #Philosophy #PoliticalThought #CriticalTheory

Today is #Tolstoy's birthday. His #politicalthought is radical, #anarcho-#pacifist & #iconoclastic. Here's my book on it: https://sites.google.com/site/christoyannopoulos/publications/tolstoys-political-thought-christian-anarcho-pacifist-iconoclasm

Core chapters explore T’s
#pacifism, #anarchism,
#anticlericalism, #asceticism &
#nonviolent #activism. Each time first systematising T (with plenty of poignant quotes), then discussing criticisms of his views, then reflecting on relevance since.

The Mediocrity of Curtis Yarvin

https://lawliberty.org/the-mediocrity-of-curtis-yarvin/

#HackerNews #Mediocrity #CurtisYarvin #PoliticalThought #Commentary #Analysis #LawLiberty

A book I want to reread is C.B. Macpherson's "The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism".

#PoliticalThought #PoliticalTheory #PoliticalPhilosophy #CBMacpherson ##DemocraticTheory #PossessiveIndividualism #Canada #Liberalism #Socialism #CanadianIntellectuals #CanadianThought

As the Austin Chronicle article notes, there are grounds to believe the School of Civic Leadership will suck resources out of existing institutions for research and teaching in the liberal arts at UT.

Don't be fooled by the pretense that this is merely about reviving study of "Great Books".

UT already has a center where undergraduates can undertake the study of core texts and ideas of the western tradition under the direction of a leading Straussian scholar, Tom Pangle:

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/coretexts/

I suspect that Rufo et al. are unhappy with this center because Pangle is an East Coast Straussian, not a West Coast Straussian; see this Jeet Heer article for the distinction between these two currents of Straussian thought:

https://newrepublic.com/article/140933/failure-pro-trump-intellectualism

#Texas #UniversityOfTexasAtAustin #UTAustin #SchoolOfCivicLeadership
#ThomasJeffersonCenter #ThomasPangle #LeoStrauss #AmericanConservatism #PoliticalThought