Strauss emphasized that the higher truths must be hidden from the common man to preserve political order:
Philosophers must cultivate a mode of esoteric communication, that is, a mode of concealing the hard truth from the masses. "Only philosophers can handle the truth." The elite must, in a word, lie to the masses; the elite must manipulate them—arguably for their own good. The elite employ "noble lies," lies purporting to affirm God, justice, the good. "The Philosophers need to tell noble lies not only to the people at large, but also to powerful politicians." These lies are necessary "in order to keep the ignorant masses in line."
Kristol believed Strauss was correct and he also had contempt for the common man.
Lenin came to the same conclusion decades before Strauss. For Lenin, the elites were not Strauss's philosophers, they were the Party leaders who were the "vanguard" of the revolution:
The consequence of the theory of the vanguard party and its relation to the masses is a system of "two truths," the consilia evangelica, or special ethics endowed for those whose lives are so dedicated to the revolutionary ends, and another truth for the masses. Out of this belief grew Lenin's famous admonition—one can lie, steal, or cheat, for the cause itself has a higher truth.1
1Daniel Bell, Marxian Socialism in the United States, Cornell University Press, 1996, page 16.
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