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Title: Resisting Schmittian Katechon Author: Z Zolty Language: en Topics: Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Authoritarianism, Critical Theory, Homo Sacer, Agamben
‘’The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has
been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught
in his wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close
them.”(Benjamin On the Concept of History).
Pandora's Box was opened, I would argue, during the collapse of the
Weimar Republic, and the Conservative (counter) revolution (Agamben
State of Exception). This counter-revolution serves as a genocidal
threat to the vast majority of humanity, for this very reason, it must
be treated as an existential threat and resisted at all costs.
The collection of Texts known as the Bible is a political book, as can
be seen in how leaders have used the ideologies and the text's position
as authoritative, likewise leaders have also drawn inspiration from
figures in the Old and New Testament, I would argue that the Nazi
Jurist, Carl Schmitt, who was a key architect who gave Hitler the Key to
the castle, saw himself as a figure who had a central part in the
unfolding of the apocalyptic (Agamben State of Exception).
Schmitt who may as well have dubbed himself as the "katechon", a term
used by Paul in his foretelling of the apocalypse, as in the one who
held back the arrival of the anti-Christ( Ullrich, Carl Schmitt:
Katechon 2021).
I would argue that Schmitt better fits the role of the Dragon from the
Book of Revelation;
the one who gives the anti-Christ its power, after all the logic holds
that if one can hold back the anti-Christ one can also release the
anti-Christ which is precisely what happened when The Beast (Hitler) was
given full power as Dictator. "People worshiped the dragon because he
had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and
asked, "Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?" "The one
who gives the Antichrist his power.'' (Bible NIV)
Since the death of Hitler, Fascism has never gone away, it is a
persistent threat, and with it, Anti-Semitism travels in waves, it dies
down and it rises, throughout history, today.
I would argue the fact that the Jewish people are a Light Among Nations,
who gifted the world with Monotheism and the morality of the 10
Commandments which serves as the bedrock of ethics- a great deal of
modern ethics worldwide and norms-mores rely on as a foundation; as such
the Jewish people are living proof of the providence of a Just Creator.
For someone wishing to establish themselves as a Mortal
God-Dictator-False Idol from their point of view, the destruction of
this Light among Nations would be their sole priority (Bible NIV). “The
Lord will surely comfort Zion
and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts
like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness
will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing"; "Listen to
me, my people; hear me, my nation: Instruction will go out from me; my
justice will become a light to the nations ( Bible NIV). Benjamin lived
during a time when it seemed as if the apocalypse was unfolding, it was
before Benjamin's suicide that he wrote history is "nothing one chain of
catastrophe unfolding, wreckage upon wreckage"( Walter Benjamin On the
Concept of History). This is precisely what has happened throughout the
history of the Light of Nations they have been oppressed, and continue
to be oppressed,
This bears eerie similarities to when the Brownshirts would attack
civilians in Germany before Hitler's rise to power. The Devil in the New
Testament is known as the "Prince of this World" which is exactly what
Hitler aspired to become, he almost succeeded in this endeavor (Bible
NIV).
It does not matter if one takes this literally, as leaders already place
themselves in the shoes of and draw inspiration from apocalyptic texts,
the Bible has saturated western culture, and these potential Leaders set
themselves as Theocratic dictators and by virtue of this becoming a
false idol, this is what is occurring with the arrival of Pseudo
Katechonic figures, from Alexander Dugin to Putin and Schmitt and
Hitler. Putin may soon drag Europe into a new world war Afterall Satan
has a hatred of the Light of Nations as do those who act as his proxy;
from which the Messiah will arrive who will serve not only as the
redeemer but as the subduer of the Antichrist (Walter Benjamin On the
Concept of History).
Anti-Christs if I am to use this term for genocidal autocrats who rise
up and destabilize democracies, I would argue travel in waves, once one
perishes another
takes its place, they spread like a virus, Anti-Jewish, hate crimes,
spree shootings acts of terror, all of which aligned as well as carried
out by Neo-Fascists this is the new form of terrorism that has swept the
nation as a recreation of Fascism in today's epoch.
God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants the Jewish people,
a covenant that will last forever (Bible NIV).
“I will establish my covenant as an
everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you
for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your
descendants after you ( Bible NIV).
The everlasting covenant and love of the Jews as God's chosen people is
also brought up again by Paul " this is everlasting and unbreakable"
(Bible NIV).
“But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their
forefathers. For the gifts
and the calling of God are irrevocable." (Bible NIV ). This is in
conflict with Schmitt's perspective in his political theology, which
labels the chosen People as an enemy, which paved the way for Schmitt's
machinations of collapsing the Weimar Republic in the first place.
“a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the
Gentiles has come in.; And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it
is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish
ungodliness from Jacob" and this will be my covenant with them when I
take away their sins." ( Bible NIV).) Paul was not an enemy of the
Jewish people, as proclaimed by Rightwing Political Theologians, Paul
proclaimed and followed the sacred texts that all of Israel will be
saved ( Bible NIV).
A tool kit, I would argue, lay in the twin disciplines of Philosophy and
Theology. These two overlapping concepts
Theology-Philosophy:
Theology overlaps with the Prophets who cried out for justice,
Philosophy to understand and grasp unjust power relations
I would argue one must aspire to be a Critical Theorist as well as fill
in the role of
Social justice as the Judaic Prophets, this combination is crucial in
order to resist reactionary dictatorships, one's Praxis must be guided
by a love of Justice, as well as calculated understanding to guide one's
actions which are brought upon through Marxian Critical Theory.
A synthesis of Judaic Prophets and Critical Theorists would be: the only
proper reaction to living in what I would argue is immediate collapse,
is to resist, fight, and heal the wounded and oppressed, to fight back
against the false idols and Anti-Christs.
To be a Critical-theorist- as well as to stand in the shoes of a Prophet
is to be willing to put oneself in harm's way, to resist whatever regime
props itself into power and whatever aligns itself with.
We must live as if we are paving the road for the arrival of the Messiah
while paradoxically proceeding tactically, demolishing false idols the
term which is synonymous anti-Christs be it Hitler worshipers or
Trumpism who aspire to fill in the "throne" that Hitler's rotting corpse
has left behind, we must live as if God will not save
until we have redeemed ourselves from injustice, by accomplishing this
we must be able to subdue the Anti-Christs that follow-rise up.
“it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an
image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived (
Bible NIV).
Hitler waged genocide upon God's chosen people, decimated most of
Europe, and set himself up as a false idol", and spoke blasphemy and by
attacking God's people, set himself up to wound God by harming his
chosen people of the covenant, sought to erase the God of Abraham Issac
and Jacob.
(The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to
exercise its authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to
blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those
who live in heaven. 7 It was given the power to wage war against God's
holy people and to conquer them" (Bible NIV). To live as a Critical
Theorist and to fill the shoes of a Prophet is to protect and shelter
the oppressed.
Until the Messiah arrives, until Benjamin Angel is able to put right
what has once been smashed ((Walter Benjamin On the Concept of History).
Until then, we must fight for the good, to protect those hunted by the
idolatry of the State, We must fight against the Leviathan whenever and
wherever it rises up next, against Idolatry which is the worship of the
State which be it, Hitlerism or Neo-Reactionaries it is all the same at
the core.
“His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of
events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and
hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the
dead, and make whole what has been smashed” ((Walter Benjamin On the
Concept of History).
The Angel arrives to awake the dead and repair what has once been
shattered not unlike what Benjamin's angel has been trying to do before
the gust of wind, after all, have hope
“For every second of time was the strait gate through which the Messiah
might enter.” (Walter Benjamin On the Concept of History). This is a
reason enough for hope to await the arrival of the Messiah, but until he
arrives, keep fighting, heal the wounded, counsel the orphans and the
widows, as the Judaic Prophets advised, and protect those who are
persecuted by any genocidal regimes, headed by anti-Christs.