During the 1930s, the impenetrable Teutonic obscurant esteemed German philosopher Martin Heidegger was notoriously complicit with the Nazi regime. Debates have long been waged over just how deeply involved he was, and this topic is subject matter of the following BBC documentary. Focusing very little on Heidegger’s actual philosophy—other than to offer a few general observations—the documentary instead concentrates on detailing what is now known about his relationship with and true attitude toward Nazism. Covering his 1930s academic career under Hitlerism, campaigns against other academics (including his one-time mentor Husserl), the post-war rehabilitation provided by his former lover, Hannah Arendt, and featuring interviews with a number of prominent figures, it is a very interesting work that appears to remove any doubts about just how unequivocally Heidegger supported the Nazis …
In a passage in his essay ‘Of National Character’, David Hume offers this defence of political treachery:
Treachery is the usual concomitant of ignorance and barbarism; and if civilized nations ever embrace subtle and crooked politics, it is from an excess of refinement, which makes them disdain the plain direct path to power and glory…