[I]t is Heidegger's "hubris" and "lack of understanding" that led him to imagine he could attain the mantle of philosophical leadership for the Nazi movement. In other words, Heidegger's later break with National Socialism was less the result of a courageous resoluteness than the human, all too human sense of disappointment at not being appreciated for his philosophical genius. It is within this context that, in his first semester after the failure of the rectorate, we need to understand his citation of Hölderlin's letter to Böhlendorff in 1804 that "they [the Germans] have no use for me." But it is also his "petty jealousy" at the success of other Nazi ideologues that leaves us with an even more chilling prospect: what if Heidegger had succeeded in his quest to guide the Nazi revolution?

¶ 6:24 AM