The Briskers and the Rambam

It has always amazed me how the Briskers (especially the Brisker Rav and his progeny, excluding the Rav) have adopted the Rambam as the centerpiece of their דרך הלימוד and follow many interesting chumras of the Rambam when hashkafically the Rambam is diametrically opposed to their hashkafa. Here are some examples:

1. the Ramabam is vehemently opposed to the practice of people learning in kollel and not working, he writes this both in the Perush Hamishnayos on Avos (4:5), where he has a very lengthy screed against this practice, and in the Mishna Torah (hilcohos talmud torah 3:10)
"אמרו חכמים, כל הנהנה מדברי תורה, נטל חייו מן העולם. ועוד ציוו ואמרו, לא תעשם עטרה להתגדל בהם, ולא קורדום לחפור בהם. ועוד ציוו ואמרו, אהוב את המלאכה, ושנוא את הרבנות. וכל תורה שאין עימה מלאכה, סופה בטילה; וסוף אדם זה, שיהא מלסטס את הברייות.
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2. The Rambam learned philosophy and included it in his sefarim. Believe it or not, the Rambam writes in the שמונה פרקים (his introduction to Avos) that his sources are chazal, the geonim, and the philosophers (meaning Aristotle)
3. The Rambam was a doctor
4. The Rambam not only knew the vernacular (Arabic) but he wrote Sefarim (פירוש המשניות) in it
5. The Rambam understands that many things that are written in Chumash and Chazal never happened but are allegories (for example the story with the 3 angels at the beginning of וירא) or dreams. In addition the Rambam holds that chazal can make a mistake in science.

You may ask, why pick on the briskers, after all the above are against the general Charedi hashkafa of today. In short, the Rambam today would be in cherem and his books banned, wait, they did that and we see how well that worked.

The answer is that the Briskers have placed special emphasis on the Rambam and are machmir like the Rambam on many issues even when everyone else disagrees with the Rambam. Therefore, the fact that the Rambam's hashkafa is so diametrically opposed is striking.