The Concept of the Political, by Carl Schmitt

The Concept of the Political (1932)

The chief legal theorist of the Nazi regime, frequently cited in Silicon Valley. Operationalizes a friend/enemy distinction as the fundamental axis of politics. It is on this list because you cannot understand the current running through parts of the Valley without it, and because it is genuinely clarifying about what politics looks like once the liberal frame is dropped. Try to separate the diagnosis, which is analytically sharp, from the prescription, which is abhorrent.

Read it asking: How do we intellectually engage with analytical critique of liberal democracy that comes from very unsavory sources?