The strange marshaling of authoritarian ideology in San Francisco
Observations on Carl Schmitt from last night's Hamilton Society debate
I attended a debate last night. The topic of which was whether or not Anthropic should submit to the demands of the Department of War1.
Several of those arguing that Anthropic should submit made reference to the thinker Carl Schmitt.
I had never heard of Carl Schmitt until yesterday. He was a Germany political theorist who joined the Nazi party. Per Wikipedia, “Schmitt's doctrine helped clear the way for Hitler's rise to power by providing the theoretical legal foundation of the Nazi regime.”2
It seems like Schmitt was an important thinker. Some of his ideas—like politics as fundamentally friend vs. enemy—seem useful for explaining contemporary political dynamics. And in general it can be valuable to grapple with strong systemic thinkers, even if you disagree with them.
But if you are engaging in a debate…
…trying to persuade others to your point of view…
…and the strongest thinker you can muster to your side is a Nazi…
…then you might want to reconsider the merits of your position.
An emergency session of Hamilton Society, who always put on great events.
Now apparently there is a bit of a fad in the Bay Area right now around Carl Schmitt. There was a Stanford course featuring readings from Schmitt that was co-taught by Peter Thiel. I’m late to the party in learning about this.