Doctor Faustus

  The Concept of the Political by Carl Schmitt I would like to divide my thoughts here to two categories. The first category - looking at Schmitt's critiques of Liberalism and even an aside to Marxism . The second category - an examination of Schmitt's own argument and conception of the political. One main observation that Schmitt lays down, in regards to the foundations upon which Liberalism stands upon, is that it ultimately has a mythical view of The State. Although seen as dispelling antiquated myths, in reality Liberalism has embraced a vision of The State that seems to find its origin in the old conception of divine mandate, as if the apparatus stands tall above, and dominates, the rest of the social forces. He demonstrates how that may be self-delusion by stating that as long as the state itself isn't a political entity, that is, one with a clear sense of goal predicated upon the friend/enemy distinction, it is more than anything a tool to be used by truly political

  The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans In the popular imagination, the rise of Nazism was a spectacular, incomprehensible, sudden event. Yet in reality it was hardly an anomaly, considering the circumstances. The Weimar Republic , situated upon, from the beginning, uncomfortable grounds, slowly (rather than suddenly) descended onto a tyranny well before the Nazis, through the process of Gleichschaltung , established a totalitarian one-party society. Now, it must be noted that Evans clearly does not condone the idea that it was foretold in the stars. He makes it clear that chance has lead Germany to become a Nazi dictatorship, but chance wasn't alone in this regard - the foundation was already laid, in many regards. It could have gone differently - it would not be entirely unwise, in my opinion, to compare the conditions that Germany dealt with after WWI with the conditions France dealt with after the Franco-German war of 1870-1871 - both were established after a hum