For Heidegger, dissatisfaction with the prevailing order is the most valuable clue to an alternative, authentic communal existence. The political shape that such an authentic existence might take was left ultimately unclear by Heidegger, since he was disappointed by the insufficient radicalness of the Nazis. But it has since been filled in by his successors in various and alarming ways. Since the 1960s, opponents of the liberal West on both the Right and the Left, at home and around the globe, have drawn explicitly on Heidegger’s work to articulate their opposition. Today, two beneficiaries of his influence are especially important to understand: post-revolutionary Iran and post-communist Russia.

¶ 5:15 PM