For Carl Schmitt, the “political” is not a subset of ethics, aesthetics, or economics; it is an autonomous realm ruled entirely by the distinction between Friend and Enemy.
While morality judges “Good and Evil” and economics weighs “Profit and Loss,” for Schmitt, politics identifies the collective “Other” that represents an existential threat to one’s way of life.
In this view, an enemy is not a personal rival to be hated, but a public adversary to be countered. Schmitt argues that the “emotivist” dream of universal humanity is a dangerous myth that masks actual power struggles. By defining an enemy, a group (tribe) attains its highest intensity and purpose.
This dark realism transforms governance from an erudite, polite conversation into a hard, defensive necessity: the “we” is defined by the boundary of who we are willing to fight against.