Existential America

Cotkin, George

doi:10.56021/9780801870378

Cited by 61 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…134 In white power dramatisations like The Turner Diaries, telling the time thusly and committing and preparing to act upon it induces an existential 'dizziness' or 'headiness that comes with the freedom to create' a new future through biting action. 135 As the narrator recalls, after bombing a government building, 'we gaped with a mixture of horror and elation' at the sublime devastation they had wrought. ' 136 The substantive content here concerns white supremacy's renewal, but the form follows the familiar existential pattern of realising authentic Being through provocative, individual action unmoored from societal consequences.…”

Section: Mass Casualties and 'Lone Wolves'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Heidegger’s heritage: The temporal politics of authenticity, then and now

Hom

2023

Rev. Int. Stud.

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For a discipline as philosophically and temporally sensitive as International Relations, it is curious that Martin Heidegger, widely considered the most important philosopher of the twentieth century, has only recently begun to receive disciplinary attention. It is also noteworthy that as IR begins to grapple with right-wing extremism, it has not addressed Heidegger’s fascist politics. Conducting a close reading of his account of existence in time, this article argues that from his magnum opus to his final diaries, Heidegger prefigured many existentialist discussions, but his particular conceptualisations of time, temporality, and authentic Being lent political life a dangerous edge. Scrutinising both the conceptual and practical consequences of Heidegger’s thought, this article traces key tensions in his claims that, to realise true Selfhood, we must overcome social time on the road to death. This antagonism encourages overly individuated and aggressive habits of thought and action that reject the possibilities of co-existence. We can see this in how Heidegger’s obsession with authenticity over time pushed him deeper into Nazism, and in the ways that his existential vernacular resounds through today’s right-wing renaissance. Juxtaposing authenticity, then and now, helps draw out the distinctively temporal dynamics of Heidegger’s existentialism as well as the existential politics of our time.

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Section: Mass Casualties and 'Lone Wolves'mentioning

confidence: 99%