A Tale of Two Monsters and Four Elements: Variations of Carl Schmitt and the Current Global Crisis

Abstract

Introduction This essay is divided into two distinct parts. In the first I shall explore the complex way in which Carl Schmitt’s thought was split three ways: between a Catholic universalism that extends the “law of humanity” to the whole of the globe; a modern defense of the normativity of the absolutely sovereign nation-state; and finally a stress upon the primacy of a more limited civilizational landmass, smaller than that of the whole planet but larger than that of the state. In this third case, it is actually “empire“ that is covertly to the fore and supremely the Western land-based empire that had once been Christendom.