131214840-Carl-Schmitt

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ported by arguments from Bergson's philosophy, Sorel's ideas are based. Its center is a theory
of myth that poses the starkest contradiction of absolute rationalism and its dictatorship, but
at the same time because it is a theory of direct, active decision, it is an even more powerful
contradiction to the relative rationalism of the whole complex that is grouped around
conceptions such as ''balancing," "public discussion," and "parliamentarism."
The ability to act and the capacity for heroism, all world-historical activities reside,
according to Sorel, in the power of myth. Examples of such myths are the Greeks' conception
of fame and of a great name, the expectation of the Last Judgment in ancient Christianity, the
belief in 'vertu' and in revolutionary freedom during the French Revolution, and the national
enthusiasm of the German war of liberation in 1813. Only in myth can the criterion be found
for deciding whether one nation or a social group has a historical mission and has reached its
historical moment. Out of the depths of a genuine life instinct, not out of reason or
pragmatism, springs the great enthusiasm, the great moral decision and the great myth. In
direct intuition the enthusiastic mass creates a mythical image that pushes its energy forward
and gives it the strength for martyrdom as well as the courage to use force. Only in this way
can a people or a class become the engine of world history. Wherever this is lacking, no
social and political power can remain standing, and no mechanical apparatus can build a dam
if a new storm of historical life has broken loose. Accordingly, it is all a matter of seeing
correctly where this capacity for myth and this vital strength are really alive today. In the
modern bourgeoisie, which has collapsed into anxiety about money and property, in this
social class morally ruined by skepticism, relativism, and parliamentarism, it is not to be
found. The governmental form characteristic of this class, liberal democracy, is only a
"demagogic plutocracy." 10 Who, then, is the vehicle of great myth today? Sorel attempted to
prove that only the socialist masses of the industrial proletariat had a myth in which they
believe, and this was the general strike. What the general
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