Keine Macht der Moral!

Is politics moral? Certainly not, argues Norbert Bolz. It may be ideological, a battleground of conflicting interests – but good and evil are not facts here, rather they are at best matters for negotiation. In his new essay, the combative philosopher and media scholar calls for the emancipation of politics from morality, thus aligning himself with the tradition of state reason from Machiavelli to Max Weber. Bolz criticizes the rhetoric of protest movements and NGOs, whose weapon is the emotionalization and moralization of political issues and who hold disdain for realpolitik. The politicization of all areas of life and the accompanying moralization of all politics lead to the de-differentiation of our social relations. Looking at the (theoretical) history of our Western democracies from Aristotle through Machiavelli and Hobbes to Rousseau and Schmitt, Bolz traces the development of the relationship between politics and morality. The author connects this work to his essay "The Avant-Garde of Fear" and provides a theoretical framework for his previous considerations.