Cunning of Reason
Žižek’s counter-concept to Brandom’s 'Spirit of Trust,' defining Hegel’s greatness as the analysis of how well-meaning projects necessarily turn wrong.
In his words 6
“ideally may 68... helped to give a new push to capitalism. and i'm not saying this is bad. i'm just saying as a diagnosis.”~16:04 Left in Dark Times · May 1968 / cunning of reason / capitalism
“Das Ganze ist das Wahre — the whole which is the true is the whole plus its symptoms, its unintended consequences, which betray its untruth.”12:42 Is It Still Possible to be An Hegelian Today? · Hegelian totality as self-undermining
“A Hegelian example of totality would be: you want to talk about today's capitalism, then don't talk only about Singapore—talk also about Congo.”24:56 The Limits of Hegel: Rabble, War, Sex and Marriage · Hegelian totality includes its own disruptions
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.
Porn actor consults Pornhub mid-scene
A porn actor loses his erection and, rather than re-engaging with the real naked woman below him, grabs his phone and searches Pornhub for phantasmatic support, illustrating that even 'real' sex requires fantasy as its supplement.
Chinese schoolchildren wearing brain-activity rings
Chinese elementary schools equipped students with metal rings that measured brain activity so teachers could see on a screen when a student's attention fell, a primitive but real form of cognitive surveillance already in use.
Martin Luther King and Tolerance
King practically never mentions tolerance; for him racism was a matter of economic injustice and laws, not of attitudes to be tolerated, exposing the automatic translation of racism into tolerance as ideology.
Stalin's dialectical synthesis on money in communism
Left radicals (Trotskyists) say no money in communism, Bukharin says money is natural; Stalin's dialectical 'synthesis', in communism there will be money and there will not be money: some people will have money, others will not.
Zeuxis and Parrhasius
Two painters compete; one paints grapes so real birds peck them; the other paints a curtain. The second wins because he organizes the surface to generate the appearance of something behind it.
Where it comes up 53
54 moments located in the transcripts, click a timestamp to play from there