Dangerous Minds: Nietzsche, Heidegger, and the Return of the Far Right

Ronald Beiner

Rating:
My review 2018-05-06

A brief book about the antiliberalism of Nietzsche and Heidegger. It is currently common to assume that Nietzsche and Heidegger provide a radical criticism of modernity (liberalism, capitalism, Enlightenment) that can be used for "leftist" purposes. The author drives home the simple fact that their criticism is fundamentally reactionary, which is very naturally being used by current far-right ideologues such as Aleksandr Dugin. The book assumes too much familiarity on part of the reader with Nietzsche. The part about Heidegger is much better, and renders a plausible brief description of his ideas, and, importantly, the problem that is the driving force behind Heidegger's thinking. It is here that Heidegger's nazism becomes understandable. Beiner shows convincingly that there is no way to separate Heidegger's philosophy from his political ideas.