Given that certain progressive post-structuralitst theorists have turned to the revolutionary conservative and ‘Crown Jurist’ of the Nazi regime, for the ‘hard and valuable’ lessons he offers on the nature of politics, lessons, we are to understand, will lead the left to theorise politics better, this essay argues that ‘the political’ that underlay Schmitt’s conservative and fascist politics was not just the true root of his anti-democratic actions, it was a rather unrealistic and bizzare conception, fetishing power and sovereighty. Far from offering lessons on anything, it introduces confusion and leads to error.
