Heidegger, art, and politics Book

Of the many questions provoked by Heidegger's thought and writing, that of his political destiny is perhaps the most fraught. Was his work, as Adorno suggested, fascistic to its very roots, or is this grossly to misrepresent one of the very greatest radical thinkers? Clearly this is not a question which can simply be glossed over. Heidegger's muted but consistent approval of National Socialism, the unsatisfactoriness of his later explanations and, most important, the silence he obstinately maintained about the Holocaust are all questions which philosophers are forced to address. Lacoue-Labarthe raises these questions while also recognizing that Heidegger's desire to reveal the truth at the heart of the Nazi movement and his frequent disappointment with it, has contributed profoundly to a diagnosis of the state of modern politics. Far from achieving Modernity, our political thought remains enslaved to an Ancient ideal (the Greek model), ceaselessly striving to create either a Renaissance or a Revolution along classical lines. Lacoue-Labarthe calls this symptom of misconceived modernism 'national aestheticism'. He suggests that our politics is haunted by a belief in technē, propelled by the belief that our place in history can only be assured by the self-conscious generation of myths we try to call our own.