As a non-philosopher, I have a question that I think should be pretty obvious (though perhaps it simply displays my naïvete): How useful can a man's philosophy really be if he ends up hoodwinked by Hitler, of all people, with his contradictory and simplistic messages? At its base, a philosophy had better be useful, or else it's simply mental masturbation.

Heidegger was, and still is one of the most brilliant philosophers in modern history and for a short time was a Nazi. What can you take from the fact that a man of undeniable intellectual brilliance could buy into the kind of stuff Hitler was selling? Even brilliant people can be politically naive.

Philosophy need not be practical, it merely must be true. Politics is the art of managing expectation, the dreams of what may be possible. In the end politics has to be practical, you can't avoid reality forever, but that is not its nature.