Who is my true enemy?
What underlies politics is the friend-enemy distinction.
By proposing this new theoretical foundation of the political phenomenon, Carl Schmitt (1888 - 1985) has made a name for himself in the field of political theory, especially among those who see politics as essentially a conflict.
This idea resonates particularly strongly today with the intensification of partisan politics and a certain radicalisation of political attitudes.
What often escapes those who quote him, however, is the consequence of his confessions he made in his diary (Ex Captivitate Salus - 1950), while he was imprisoned in a cell for questioning by an American prosecutor about his links with the Nazi regime:
Who is my true enemy?, he asks himself.
The answer he gives seems essentially theological, but it is nonetheless significant:
The real enemy is the one who can question me. And who can do that? Only my brother. This is it: the other is my brother; the other presents himself as my brother, and the brother presents himself as my enemy. This is how the history of humanity begins: Cain, the eldest son of Adam and Eve, kills his younger brother Abel.
The dialectical tension of the world is set in motion.
Politics may well be determined essentially by the conflict between friend and enemy. But the enemy must be seen as a brother, and in this, his destruction could only mean the worst crime - fratricide, which is also a crime against oneself.
With this recognition, he wants to place political conflict within an existential framework that limits the violence between the parties.
For the other is ultimately only a reflection of oneself.