Authoritarian Capitalism & Asian Values
Žižek's ironic term (he notes it has nothing to do with Asia) for authoritarian capitalism, the model, exemplified by China and Singapore, of a highly productive capitalism that functions perfectly without liberal democracy.
In his words 8
“The eternal marriage between capitalism and democracy is approaching divorce.”~32:19 Less Than Nothing · capitalism with Asian values dissolving the capitalism-democracy nexus
“The future will be either socialist or communist, I claim. Capitalism in order to survive will incorporate what I'm tempted to call capitalism with Asian values.”~1:14:20 The Future of Global Capitalism · capitalism with Asian values as the alternative to communism
“China is now a soft fascist country.”3:05 Slavoj Žižek Turns the Tables on Piers Morgan in Fascism Debate · China as soft fascism
The stories that teach it
the jokes and anecdotes he reaches for when he works in this idea, ranked by how many of its talks they turn up in; each card is one story, with every retelling on its page
coffee without cream / coffee without milk
A customer orders coffee without cream; the waiter says they have no cream but can offer coffee without milk. Even though the result is identical, the absent supplement matters, Hegelian negativity in a joke.
Niels Bohr's horseshoe
Niels Bohr had a horseshoe on his country-house door; when a scientist friend asked why a scientist would keep a superstitious charm, Bohr answered 'I was told it works even if you don't believe in it', Žižek's model for ideology today.
Malcolm X and the loss of roots as emancipatory starting point
Malcolm X (the X standing for lost African roots) refused the game of searching for original African identity (à la Roots) and instead proposed using the dispossession of roots as a chance to build a new, freer universality, which is why he became a Muslim (the Umma as communi…
Lee Kuan Yew / Sloterdijk's monument question
Žižek's friend Peter Sloterdijk poses the thought experiment: who will people erect statues to in 200 years? His answer is Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of capitalism with Asian values, as the most consequential political innovator of our era.
Postmodern permissive father and grandmother visit
The old-fashioned authoritarian father says 'you must visit grandmother'; the tolerant post-modern father says 'only go if you really want to', which secretly contains the stronger command 'you must go AND you must want to go'.
Stephen Hawking's brain-wired wheelchair
A man who knew Stephen Hawking told Žižek that in his last years Hawking no longer needed to move his finger, his brain was directly connected and he just thought 'forward' and his chair moved. If the signal goes out, it can also go in: who will control this?
Where it comes up 110
146 moments located in the transcripts, click a timestamp to play from there