Systemic vs. Subjective Violence
The distinction between the visible, intentional acts of individuals (subjective violence) and the invisible, systemic violence inherent in the economic and social order (objective/systemic violence).
In his words 6
“Hitler was a coward. All his violence was in the strict Nietzschean sense reactive violence. He changed many things so that the fundamentals were not changed.”39:46 First as Tragedy, then as Farce – The Double Death of Neoliberalism and the Idea of Communism · reactive violence / Hitler's conservatism
“For Lacan language is a torture house of being. 'In the light of the Freudian experience, man is a subject caught in and tortured by language.'”1:10:12 Plato’s Critique of Poetry · language as torture house of being (Lacan)
“everything we say can be appropriated, our silence will remain a threat, cannot be appropriated”22:52 Slavoj Zizek: Our public face is't our mask, our private inner truth is the real mask · silence as symbolic violence
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
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…
Eisenstein vs. Tarkovsky as two torturers
Žižek compares film directors Eisenstein (cutting/montage) and Tarkovsky (slow stretching) to two torturers asking 'what's the better way to squeeze out the truth?' illustrating that all art is a mode of 'torturing' language.
Cars Burning in Paris Suburbs
Žižek cites the burning of cars in Paris suburbs and protests against police shootings as examples of 'divine violence', an explosion of rage with no goal.
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.
Malcolm X and the loss of roots as emancipatory starting point
Malcolm X (the X standing for lost African roots) refused the game of searching for original African identity (à la Roots) and instead proposed using the dispossession of roots as a chance to build a new, freer universality, which is why he became a Muslim (the Umma as communi…
Bill Gates embracing the ill Indian child
A photo of Bill Gates and his wife smiling and embracing a sick Indian child captures how the rich like to see themselves, privileged savoring pity that confirms their own privilege.
Where it comes up 57
74 moments located in the transcripts, click a timestamp to play from there