![]() “Eternity politicians manufacture crisis and manipulate the resultant emotion,” writes Snyder, but ordinary people invite that persuasion, too. The “politics of eternity,” as Snyder terms it, is an authoritarian narrative that convinces people they are powerless to take on a timeless threat. ![]() That’s the next figure we might want to pay attention to. ![]() I start with Russia because it seems to me that Russia has reached a certain mature place where ideology is used to defend radical inequality-what I call the “politics of eternity.” Ilyin’s philosophy recalls an international revival of the political theorist and Nazi-associated German jurist Carl Schmitt’s thinking as well. I believe that we need to think through ideas from the 20th century again, rather than imagine that they have all somehow vanished. In the book, I wanted to come across very clearly with the claim that ideas do matter in shaping a nation. ![]() I focus on Ilyin because, as a specific philosopher, he was important to specific people at a critical time. Timothy Snyder: It’s striking how many times Putin quotes Ilyin in his writing, and in important circumstances. Putin’s ideology draws on Ilyin’s thinking. ![]() Ivan Ilyin, a Mussolini supporter exiled to Germany during World War II, morally justified totalitarianism. An obscure Russian philosopher is essential to understanding Vladimir Putin. ![]()
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