Revolution, Pragmatism & The Morning After

In his words 40

“Utopia is not kind of a free imagination. Utopia is a matter of innermost urgency. You are forced to imagine it as the only way out.”
5:12 Žižek, 2005 — an archival compilation · utopia as compelled invention

“The true utopia today is not a different order, it's the idea that the existing order can function indefinitely.”
1:11:32 The Reality of the Virtual · liberal capitalism as the real utopia

“The future will be utopian or there will be none.”
1:13:09 The Reality of the Virtual · utopia as survival imperative

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 14 of its talks

V for Vendetta morning after

In the final scene of V for Vendetta thousands of unarmed Londoners march on parliament and the people take over; Žižek says he would sell his mother into slavery to see Part 2, what happens the day after the victory.

anecdote · in 10 of its talks

Fukushima and Tokyo evacuation

Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Žižek's friend and theorist of catastrophes, reported that after Fukushima the Japanese government secretly panicked at the prospect of evacuating all 30 million inhabitants of the Tokyo area, illustrating the scale of trans-state action that contemporary cr…

joke · in 10 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.

anecdote · in 8 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 7 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 6 of its talks

Bolivia and Álvaro García Linera

García Linera told Žižek that organizing 'the multitude' via tribal connections in Bolivia resulted in corruption and tribal bosses seeking enrichment, proving that 'zero level of politicization' without state alienation is an illusion.

Lenin's Wife and Mistress6 Bill Gates as rent-extractor from general intellect6 Santa Claus Belief6 Stalin joins the applause6 Haiti: La Marseillaise and Polish soldiers5 Stalinist prohibition of the prohibition5 Gulag birthday telegram to Stalin5 Malcolm X and the loss of roots as emancipatory starting point5 Native Americans prefer 'Indians'5 Tarkovsky as most materialist and most spiritualist filmmaker4

Where it comes up 128

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

Slavoj Zizek - Por qué soy comunista (subtitulado EN ESPAÑOL)2019-12-07 · 43:05

40:00 utopia

… to think that somehow we will manage, don't worry too much, go on, somehow it will go, this is the true utopia today.

10:00 the morning after

… what interests me is the morning after, when the ecstatic passion is over.

Žižek, 2005 — an archival compilation2005 · 1:09:30

4:24 utopia

… which means that we should Reinvent There are two false meanings of utopia.

51:52 revolution without revolution

… Like precisely as already Robespierre said, we want revolution without a revolution.

Karl Marx and Hegel2013-03-08 · 1:37:40

26:58 the morning after

… But I'm sorry to tell you I'm obsessed by what in English they call the morning after, meaning the morning after the night of drinking, you know.

~21:25 in-itself / for-itself (an sich / für sich)

south. So why is it then, about this I would like to talk more today, it's what in Hegel's old terms, in traditional Marxism was called the passage from in-itself, an sich, to for-itself, from chaotic protest to an organized program and political force to …

1:23:58 comedies of remarriage

… ke him especially but here he wrote a good book, the American philosopher and cinema theorist Stanley Cavell, who wrote a wonderful book on comedies of remarriage.

Is Hegel Dead?2015-10 · 2:14:01

1:52:13 utopia

… e is always by definition caught into illusions because your first in your first reaction you formulate what I call in some of my books the immanent utopia that’s why I even go so far as to mention how Marx’s idea of communism is basically capitalism without capitalism.

1:53:36 fail better

… to remain faithful to it? How to do it again better? In this sense Hegel was I think the ultimate Beckettian you know try again fail again fail better you know and I know how to use this term my good friend Frank Ruda the best maybe young German philosopher recently got a new girlfriend wh …

Slavoj Žižek I Whose Servant is a Master?2022-09 · 1:45:21

1:43:13 catch-up revolution (nachholende Revolution)

… they still are within what jürgen habermas called nachholende, the catch-up revolution.

1:10:38 revolution without revolution

… revolution against the revolution and the true problem is there how this revolution against the first revolution.