The seductive bullying of philosophers, from Socrates to Stanley Rosen, via Plato, Aristotle, Heidegger, and Strauss:

Now, I had a friend with a Classics background, with whom I was frequently in touch, who was then leading a long-running seminar on Plato's Republic among some of the volunteers for Lyndon LaRouche, who was himself in prison at the time, having been framed up in a rerun of Socrates' trial at Athens. I learned somehow that my friend, the seminar leader, had studied under the Straussian Stanley Rosen.

I had always thought that this Plato seminar was a bit of a mixed bag. Some parts, which I think stemmed from my friend's own study of the history of Athens, were quite useful. Others were unexplained and eerie: such as, for example, his insistence that Socrates "seduced" his hearers. But more to the point was an indefinable, ominous sort of quirkiness which overhung every discussion.

Eventually it became clear to me, that Strauss, through Stanley Rosen, had made the same sort of imprint on my friend, that Strauss's teacher Martin Heidegger had made upon Strauss himself. In the insightful account of Shadia Drury, "Nothing made a greater impact on Strauss than Heidegger's manner of studying a text. He was totally struck by Heidegger's analysis of Aristotle's Metaphysics; he thought that Heidegger's approach laid bare the intellectual sinews of a text; and it was unlike anything else he had ever seen or heard. Strauss's reaction is not unusual. Heidegger's style of teaching was reputed to have a totally mesmerizing effect. He has been accused of a certain 'mystical bullying.' The goal was not so much understanding as initiation in a mystical cult. This is precisely why Karl Jaspers's letter to the Denazification Commission advised against Heidegger's return to teaching after the war. The gist of Jaspers's letter was that Heidegger's style was profoundly unfree, and that the students were not strong enough to withstand his sourcery."

I expect only a sourpuss could identify the sorcery in others. In the kindergarten of the mind, recess can be hell with those mesmerizing bullies about. Good thing Sister Shadia's there to protect the innocents.  ¶ 9:19 AM