The Rabble, Homo Sacer & Excluded

In his words 7

“Unemployment is structurally inseparable from the dynamic of accumulation and expansion.”
1:09:05 The Empowerment of the Right and the Dissolution of the Left · structural unemployment as immanent to capitalism (Jameson)

“the true tragedy is when, and i'm not saying this as an old-fashioned marxist... you have to be almost lucky to be able to be permanently exploited, you know, that is to say, to have a permanent job.”
22:53 Communist Absconditus · structural unemployment reverses the luck of exploitation

“I've got nothing left to lose. Nothing can hurt me anymore. My life is nothing but a comedy.”
1:16:14 Taking Donald Trump Seriously · Joker's zero-point proletarian position

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

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 10 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 8 of its talks

Brassed Off coffee invitation

A woman invites a man up for coffee; he says he doesn't like coffee; she says she has none, the double withdrawal of coffee produces erotic meaning far more charged than a direct proposition.

example · in 6 of its talks

China banning time-travel and alternate-history narratives

Chinese authorities reportedly ban time-travel and alternate-history topics in narrative media. Žižek finds this a good sign: at least those in power are still afraid of the popular imagination, unlike the West, where no prohibition is needed because we cannot imagine an alter…

example · in 6 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 6 of its talks

Bill Gates as rent-extractor from general intellect

Gates became the world's richest person not through standard Marxist exploitation of workers (who are actually better paid than average) but by charging rent for access to the digital space, the internet commons, that we all share.

Chesterton's philosophical policeman5 Bakhtin and the Stalinist Purges5 Remote-controlled rat5 V for Vendetta morning after5 Asiatic Mode of Production4 Jaws shark as ideological condensation4 Radio Yerevan / Rabinovich and the car4 Lenin in Warsaw4 Lenin's Wife and Mistress4 Antigone rewritten, three alternate scenarios4

Where it comes up 108

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

Slavoj Zizek – Transcendental Subjectivity, Sexual Difference, Brain Sciences2017-10-06 · 2:02:10

1:37:46 Pöbel (rabble)

… He should have added that precisely as such, rabble stands for universality as such.

33:04 nomadic proletarians

… So again, that's my problem with this celebration of—Badiou is a little bit into it—as refugees as nomadic proletarians and so on and so on.

35:49 structural unemployment

… Those left behind should be our—should be our obsession even.

+1 more in this talk

Communism – A New Beginning?2012 · 1:54:19

25:31 part of no part

… rivate use of reason since the position from which it is exercised is that to use Jacques Rancière's often referred to terms is that of the part of no part of the social body its excess which directly stands for universality.

50:11 Pöbel (rabble)

… And here I refer to Frank Ruda's book Ruda's book on Rabble I claim that this extension of the circle of the unemployed brings us a little bit back from Marx to Hegel.

48:37 reserve army of labor

… he ongoing process of capitalist globalization the category of unemployed acquires a new quality beyond the classical Marxist notion of the reserve army of labor.

Lacan’s Hypothesis: Psychoanalysis as the Ex-Timate Core of Philosophy2016-10-31 · 2:08:46

57:09 part of no part

… Hegel, as that part of the social edifice which is precisely as Rancière put it, and Badiou follows him here, *la part des sans-part*, "the part of no-part." Something that is in the social edifice but with no proper place in it.

57:00 Pöbel (rabble)

… For example, as Frank Ruda wrote a wonderful book on this, my God, on on the notion of rebel, *Pöbel* in Hegel, as that part of the social edifice which is precisely as Rancière put it, and Badiou follows him here, *la part des sans-part*, "the part of no-part." Something that is in the social edifice but with no proper place in it.

55:55 wandering excess

… The usual figure of this excess is what in politics it's usually referred to as the the how do you usually call it, the wandering excess, you know, the idea is.

Slavoj Žižek — On G.W.F. Hegel, Lecture 4 [Remaster]2009-08 · 1:17:36

56:11 part of no part

… This part of no part of the social body.

55:55 Pöbel (rabble)

… n I think what Hegel didn’t see is to connect this excess on the top, excess of irrationality, with the excess on the bottom, the so-called rebel, Pöbel.

55:53 excess of irrationality

… But then I think what Hegel didn’t see is to connect this excess on the top, excess of irrationality, with the excess on the bottom, the so-called rebel, Pöbel.

The Dash: A discussion with Rebecca Comay and Frank Ruda2018-10-23 · 1:26:41

5:52 part of no part

… nd where Hegel is and that’s the beauty that’s the only way to overcome Hegel not Hegelian enough Hegel describes as you know rabble as the part of no part to use more contemporary those who are necessarily produced by society but for whom a strata there is no proper place within the social edi …

6:13 Pöbel (rabble)

… there is no proper place within the social edifice the conclusion I simplify that Hegel was afraid to draw but should have is that as such rabble stands for universality that precisely as this outside element which does not have a particular place within social body it is the it stands for universality of a …