The Fall & Felix Culpa
The theological concept that God's permitting the Fall was ultimately fortunate, which Žižek uses to argue that God deliberately staged the Fall because Hegel shows that the fall into evil is the beginning of humanity.
In his words 6
“Not wise distance, like engage yourself fully, step out of yourself, fall into it. I think this is for me the ethics that we need today.”1:38:39 On the Desert of Post-Ideology · ethics of full engagement / the fall against Buddhist detachment
“Hegel's speculative insight is not we can overcome fall but we can just see how fall in itself if you take it seriously is already its own overcoming.”~10:12 Was Antigone a Man? Masculinity and other toxic entities · Hegel on the fall as its own overcoming
“Truth is the fall itself. I want to celebrate the fall, the event is the fall, even in the most radical ontological sense.”1:07:41 Disorder Under Heaven. · the fall as ontological truth
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
Dating agencies: 'find love without the fall'
French and American dating agency advertisements promise busy women that they can 'find yourself in love without the fall', for Žižek the very thing these agencies eliminate is what makes love love.
Ponnelle's Tristan Ending
Director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s version of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, where Isolde never arrives, and Tristan dies imagining her, revealing the pain of the 'Liebestod' and the absence of the object.
Himmler's Posen Speech
Himmler told SS officers at Posen (Poznań) in 1943 that any idiot can sacrifice his life for his country but it takes a truly great patriot to do a bad thing, to kill, torture, suppressing even moral sentiment, for his country. The trick is to present your natural ethical resi…
Apartheid justified in multiculturalist terms
South African apartheid ideologists justified racial segregation by claiming it preserved precious local cultures (Hottentots, Bushmen), Žižek uses this to show that multiculturalism can serve racism.
United Airlines / Hemispheres magazine sex article
An inflight magazine celebrated sex as medically healthy, good for the heart, muscles, and keeping facial muscles from sagging, epitomizing the horror of today's 'reasonable hedonism' that drains pleasure of enjoyment.
Film Noir Femme Fatale
A noir protagonist is ruined by an evil woman but refuses to go back in time, insisting the catastrophe was 'worth every moment,' illustrating the desire to suffer.
Where it comes up 21
23 moments located in the transcripts, click a timestamp to play from there