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Fundamentalism as Symptom of Liberalism

Zizekian Diagnostics, Culture & Media · 4 concepts · 4 talks · 2.7 hours · 2007–2016

The claim that fundamentalism is not a remainder of the dark past but is actively generated by the global process of capitalism itself.

2007: 1 talk 2008: 1 talk 2009: 1 talk 2016: 1 talk
≤2000talks carrying this idea, per year2026

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

example · in 1 of its talks

Milošević and nomenklatura nationalism

The communist nomenklatura, sensing the end of socialist legitimacy, intuitively grasped that playing the nationalist card was their only way to retain power, Milošević as the paradigm case, and the moment Yugoslavia effectively died.

example · in 1 of its talks

Clinton's 'We Blew It on Global Food' speech

Clinton admitted at a UN World Food Day gathering that Western pressure to open and commodify third-world agriculture caused the global food crisis; Žižek uses this to argue that once you accept food, water, energy, environment, culture, and health as non-commodities, you must…

example · in 1 of its talks

Anti-Iraq war demonstration's missed opportunity

The anti-Iraq war demonstrations failed to make their case maximally because they defended Iraq as it was under Saddam (the Galloway position) instead of platforming Iraqi leftists who were both anti-Saddam and anti-American, a missed dialectical opportunity.

Where it comes up 4

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

Slavoj Zizek Hardtalk 2/3pub. 2009-11-25 · 08:16
~5:17 fundamentalism as symptom of liberalism
do you really? no what i believe is the following thing, and it's a much more precise thing. what i believe is that what we dismiss as fundamentalism is not some remainder of the dark past and so on, but it's something generated by a …
10:09 fundamentalization
… So again, this fundamentalization of Bosnia is strictly the result of Bosnia being drawn into global politics.
~33:34 active nihilism vs. passive nihilism
Nietzscheov aktivni i pasivni nihilizam. E u kojem mi većina svijeta pretpostavka je da živimo u ovom pasivnom. Dakle Žižek ima godina, relativno se koliko imate? Dobro, tu negdje. Dobro, Žižek ima godina, relativno je situiran, živi s manekenkom, to je neki relativno uljuljkana pozicija …
1:01 active agents
… They are also active agents.

The company it keeps

thought with
alongside works

Nearest in meaning

Concepts in this idea 4