Damnorum Experientia for The American Colossus or Why an Infernal Three-Way Between Thomas Hobbes, Leo Strauss and Angela Carter May Save Us All

Ah, Mr. Strauss, this does sound like a Gargantuan morning:
"Living in the world of his imagination, he need do nothing, in order to convince himself of his superiority to others, but simply think out his deeds for himself; in this world, in which indeed 'the whole word obeys him', everything is accomplished according to his wishes."

But the cave has cases of Amarone Valplicella or for a far more reasonable price Allegrini Valpolicella Classico 2004 (which, Mr. PrudentStarbuck, you may find in the Dining Section of the New York Times paired with a Lobster Spaghetti with Fresh Tomatoes (get those Heirloom Tomotoes at WholeFoods)--tell me, can the Weekly Standard say the same?). What could possibly make the American Colossus leave?

"He can awaken from his dream-world and come to himself only when he feels in his own person--by bodily hurt--the resistance of the real world."

Oh yes, kick the rock and the gigantic foot swells. Baghdad has that affect. But still, why should the large man on campus leave the pleasant restraints of dim places?

"By damnorum experientia man becomes reasonable." (Strauss, The Political Philosophy of Hobbes)

Oh. Well then, time to assign Angela Carter's "The Company of Wolves" for The American Colossus to read:

"Those slavering jaws; the lolling tongue; the rime of saliva on the grizzled chops--of all the teeming perils of the night and the forest, ghosts, hobgoblins, ogres that grill babies upon gridirons, witches that fatten their captives in cages for cannibal tables, the wolf is worst, for he cannot listen to reason."

I knew cannibalism wasn't that bad. And further,

"We keep the wolves outside by living well."

But eventually,

"She will lay his head on her lap and she will pick out the lice from his pelt and perhaps she will put the lice into her mouth and eat them, as he will bid her, as she would in a savage marriage ceremony."

Yes, let the wolf into the cave. Ah, so the American Colossus can still enjoy the lobster and spaghetti with a valpolicella and the rapturous notes of Swan Lake if he goes to bed with his dark old self. Hmmm, let's end with little bit from Mr. Hobbes.

"And from hence it comes to passe, that men have no other means to acknowledge their owne Darknesse, but onely by resoning from the un-foreseen mischances, that befall them in their ways . . . ." If one remembers that "the wolf cannot listen to reason."