Ideology & Its Critique · žižek archive

In his words 40

“ideology at its most radical is part of your daily practice. you live, we, Althusser pointed this nicely, we live ideology in our daily life.”
3:37 Notes Towards a Definition of Communist Culture · ideology as lived practice

“this brutal, cynical realism, cut the crap, take things the way they are, is the ultimate ideological naivety.”
41:22 Notes Towards a Definition of Communist Culture · cynical realism as the deepest ideology

“It's much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism.”
4:15 Žižek, 2005 — an archival compilation · ideology's blockade of capitalist alternatives

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 29 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.

example · in 19 of its talks

Starbucks ethical consumerism

Buying a Starbucks cappuccino is sold as supporting Guatemalan organic farmers and saving the planet; the owner appeared like Anthony Giddens calling Starbucks an ersatz place of collective experience. The sin of consumerism and its redemption are packaged together in the same…

example · in 14 of its talks

They Live / critique of ideology glasses

In John Carpenter's They Live, aliens live among us and special glasses reveal the alien/robot behind the human face. Žižek calls this the 'critique of ideology glasses' and uses it to read Biden-era capitalism.

example · in 14 of its talks

Santa Claus Belief

Parents deny believing in Santa while buying presents; children deny believing while pretending so as not to disappoint parents. No one believes in the first person yet the ritual functions perfectly.

joke · in 15 of its talks

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.

example · in 11 of its talks

Book of Job as first critique of ideology

Job's theological friends tell him his suffering has a deeper meaning; Jehovah appears and says Job was right, the suffering has no meaning. Chesterton reads God's 'where were you when I created monsters' speech not as arrogance but as: look, the whole world is a mess, you're …

Native Americans prefer 'Indians'10 Daisetz Suzuki's Knife9 Stalin joins the applause8 V for Vendetta morning after8 Father Joseph / Père Joseph, Gray Eminence7 European Toilet Designs7 Kung Fu Panda7 Dating agencies: 'find love without the fall'7 Napoleon takes the crown from the Pope7 Brassed Off coffee invitation7

Where it comes up 156

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

The Uses and Misuses of Violence2009-11-17 · 1:32:03

11:14 ideology

… ery religious way, but sincerely, by a quote from Paul in Ephesians He provided I think one of the first perfect definitions of critique of ideology.

11:11 critique of ideology

… begin in a very religious way, but sincerely, by a quote from Paul in Ephesians He provided I think one of the first perfect definitions of critique of ideology.

~42:21 ideology as non-ideology

cappuccinos and not only I can not only I get rid of the problem, but I can also claim you see, I try to do something and so on and so on. The message is for cheap money we can as it were get rid, …

Slavoj Zizek - Talk At Princeton With Cornel West2024-03-21 · 2:18:10

10:03 ideology

… No wonder such Buddhism can function as the perfect ideology of today's virtual capitalism.

~40:12 ideology as articulation

blah blah." But then through some hints you get my racism. Literally, you see, I don't know, I am not aware of beliefs which I practice in my acts. That's the site of ideological illusion for Mark, of Marx. And now you got my point …

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

2:18 ideology

… So you see, we, this is the danger of this ideology of choice because you know, this is in what sense a central category today.

0:00 ideology as articulation

No, here you see ideology in its material force.

XLII Sigmund Freud Lecture by Slavoj Žižek: Theology, Negativity, and the Death-Drive2015 · 1:49:50

1:05:31 ideology as articulation

… When Marx proposes this formula for ideology in his Capital: Sie wissen das nicht, aber sie tun es.

38:38 critique of ideology

… If you whenever student ask me "my God you talk about so much about critique of ideology, could you tell us some of great work by other writers?" I tell them Book of Job in the Bible, the first work of critique of ideology.

39:07 zero-level ideology

… And then what happens then when Job gets desperate? Three theological friends come and each of them, that's ideology at its zero level, each of them tries to convince Job that his suffering is justified.

Slavoj Žižek. The great challenge of The Left. 20162016-07-11 · 49:30

3:11 ideology

… ological I don't believe I always think that all this bullshit about to provoke you a little bit more this is superstitious logic it's pure ideology you know this ecological bullshit like did you recycle that paper did you throw all the newspapers aside this is to make us feel good and t …

3:35 ideology at its purest

… ction they translate a social problem how we will restructure how to restructure our economy and so on into personal responsibility this is ideology at its purest when you criticize a big company and then an idiot comes and tells you yeah it's easy to criticize but what did you do did you put all Coke …