Empty Gestures, Forced Choices & Polite Alienation

In his words 7

“We are forced to live as if we were free.”
25:20 Populism and Democracy · forced choice and consumer freedom

“it was possible for her to say, you owe me no apology, only after i did apologize. and this is not hypocrisy. that's the mystery of communication.”
1:01:06 Why Only an Atheist Can Believe · the empty gesture and the structure of symbolic exchange

“I offer something, I get it back as unnecessary, but in this very paradoxical way, as superfluous it's necessary. That's a symbolic gesture at its purest.”
53:12 Fear Thy Neighbor as Thyself · the logic of empty gestures / symbolic exchange

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

anecdote · in 11 of its talks

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.

anecdote · in 7 of its talks

Dinner invitation: paying the bill ritual

An older man invites someone to dinner; both know he will pay; the guest must nonetheless briefly resist when the check arrives. Once Žižek resisted too long and had to pay. The ritual illustrates offers that must be made knowing they will (and must) be refused.

example · in 6 of its talks

Father Joseph / Père Joseph, Gray Eminence

Father Joseph, Richelieu's right hand who engineered Thirty Years' War policy and organized murders, simultaneously wrote mystical letters to a convent at the level of Saint Teresa or John of the Cross, authentic spirituality alongside absolute political evil.

example · in 6 of its talks

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'.

anecdote · in 6 of its talks

Gulag birthday telegram to Stalin

Žižek cites Anne Applebaum's Gulag book: once a year on Stalin's birthday, all prisoners collectively signed a birthday telegram to Stalin, a practice unimaginable in the Nazi universe, illustrating the perverted Enlightenment logic of Stalinism.

anecdote · in 5 of its talks

Yugoslav army and homosexual innuendo

The army was explicitly homophobic (discovered homosexuals beaten), yet daily life was saturated with homosexual innuendo, 'I'll smoke yours' as morning greeting. The explicit prohibition was sustained by pervasive implicit reference to what it prohibited.

Apologizing to Judith Butler5 Rumsfeld's known/unknown matrix and the fourth term5 Stalinist prohibition of the prohibition5 Daisetz Suzuki's Knife5 Santa Claus Belief5 Casablanca fade-out (did they do it?)4 Gonzo hardcore pornography as censorship4 Judith Butler: 'be one species among many', Žižek's respectful refusal4 Yugoslav student newspaper treats fake elections as real4 The Yugoslav Army Oath4

Where it comes up 64

76 moments located in the transcripts, click a timestamp to play from there

Unexpurgated: Slavoj Zizek2024-06-27 · 3:13:30

1:15:53 sincere fake

… So I find this so fascinating how this is what I call sincere lie.

2:07:52 empty gesture

… It's so wonderful because it's just an empty gesture.

~2:30:16 gray domain of politeness

relatively easy. Then there are people like Japanese and British who can be vulgar while maintaining their polite facade. Yes, they can insult you extremely but in an extremely gentle polite way. You don't even know you've been insulted. Yeah, yeah. But then I think …

Why Only an Atheist Can Believe2006-11-10 · 1:59:32

42:38 sincere fake

… hypocritical in it or rather it's a kind of a sincere hypocrisy.

59:38 empty gesture

… and elementary these empty gestures you are offered something but you shouldn't.

A Defence of Eurocentrism2016-06-14 · 2:02:30

17:33 sincere fake

… One is uh how it's and without this you cannot understand everyday ideology what I call sincere lying.

22:14 empty gesture

… So-called I've written maybe some of you know it uh abundantly about it the ultimate mystery of communication so-called empty gestures or offers which are meant to be rejected.

Slavoj Zizek The Pressure of Meaningpub. 2014-12-20 · 1:59:32

42:37 sincere fake

… There is nothing hypocritical in it, or rather, it's a kind of a sincere hypocrisy.

59:31 empty gesture

… this—this is always what's fascinated me, because I think this is communication between people at its most mysterious and elementary: these empty gestures.

Slovenian Philosopher Slavoj Zizek on Capitalism, and the "Farcical" Financial Crisis 2 of 2pub. 2009-10-15 · 09:04

0:28 forced choice

… But then the real problem where the Republican critique of healthcare plan really works is by appealing to this basic gut notion of freedom of choice.

2:27 fake choices

… There is an old Marxist card which is played again and again of we are only offered false choices, not the real choices, like Pepsi or Coke, whatever, instead of the real choices.