War Communism & Emergency Governance

In his words 4

“I define myself as a war communist... we have to prepare, with hope that it will not happen, to more global cooperation.”
~1:24:18 Peter Sloterdijk in conversation with Slavoj Žižek, Indigo festival 2023 · war communism as emergency preparedness for catastrophe

“we are definitely approaching a type of emergency state.”
6:17 Optimism or Pessimism? | Slavoj Žižek Meets Yanis Varoufakis on the Future (Part 4) · the emergency state

“Don't worry, it will come — the emergency state. You know, don't worry, it will come.”
1:01:17 Slavoj Žižek on Marx, Hegel, Politics, Films, Burgers and Hot Dogs… and a lot more! · cynical reversal on emergency state

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 7 of its talks

Glasgow Climate Conference

The Glasgow conference said all the right things about acting now, yet things continued unchanged, illustrating the paradox of modern cynicism where speech replaces action.

anecdote · in 7 of its talks

Himmler and the Bhagavad Gita

Himmler kept the Bhagavad Gita on him as the answer to how to murder Jews without becoming beasts, 'acting through a distance', doing one's duty detached from the deed.

example · in 6 of its talks

Heydrich 1936 letter on Jewish emigration to Palestine

Reinhard Heydrich wrote approvingly of helping Jews emigrate to Palestine, seeing it as consistent with antisemitic goals of removing Jews from Germany, showing that the current far-right celebration of Netanyahu's call for diaspora Jews to move to Israel reproduces this same …

example · in 5 of its talks

Lee Kuan Yew / Sloterdijk's monument question

Žižek's friend Peter Sloterdijk poses the thought experiment: who will people erect statues to in 200 years? His answer is Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of capitalism with Asian values, as the most consequential political innovator of our era.

example · in 5 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.

example · in 5 of its talks

Kurosawa's Hamlet

Kurosawa's 1961 Japanese corporate-setting adaptation of Hamlet (The Bad Sleep Well) is the best cinema version of Hamlet precisely because it transposes it to a totally different cultural context, proving the work's universal greatness.

Bill Gates as rent-extractor from general intellect5 Fukushima and Tokyo evacuation5 Zhou Enlai on the French Revolution4 Haiti: La Marseillaise and Polish soldiers4 Taliban-China Deal4 Native Americans prefer 'Indians'4 V for Vendetta morning after4 Mao's 'Disorder Under the Heaven'3 gilets jaunes and Podemos3 Robespierre and Saint-Just: revolution as wild sea without compass3

Where it comes up 69

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

Slavoj Zizek: Will today’s chaos lead to change for the better? | The Streampub. 2022-01-05 · 25:20

17:13 war communism

… Would be what I call new communism.

10:08 emergency state

… Yes, we are already living in a permanent state of exception.

24:30 disorder under the heaven

… If you would like to hear more from Slavoj Žižek, I highly recommend his book, Heaven in Disorder, published in December, available now.

Slavoj Zizek: COVID, Tech Billionaires, Racism, and So On — 2021 Interview2021-01-16 · 1:22:13

1:15 war communism

… I still think that now with the second wave and with what will follow, it is becoming more and more clear that what I provocatively call communism—some kind of socialization of healthcare, of our care for environment, of our economy and so on—will prove necessary.

4:49 emergency state

… Yeah, you know, I think that the United States often seizes on these moments that they call a state of exception and we see that as a way that they deal with

1:00 Kill Bill-like hit to capitalism

as I wrote and I still stick to that metaphor—some people thought I am crazy—that the pandemic is a Kill Bill-like hit to capitalism, you know.

Communism or Barbarism, it’s that simple2020-03-31 · 58:20

20:19 war communism

… it's some kind of a wartime communism.

34:51 emergency state

… this type of permanent emergency state means such a tremendous change in our economic system.

57:11 ultra-political moment

… this is becoming not just a struggle for survival, but an ultra-political moment.

Coronavirus, Black Lives Matter, and Revolution2020-06-11 · 57:35

0:12 war communism

… So, to avoid all misunderstanding, already from the way I describe this communism as war communism, it's clear that I don't have in mind what Marx thought about communism, society of freedom and affluence and so on.

0:55 emergency state

… It means that, and everybody agrees with it, that's why Trump sent checks to tens of millions and so on, that in such an emergency state, the priority is not profit, market mechanisms and so on, at least for some time.

Slavoj Žižek: Trump is a liberal fetish2025-04-09 · 1:17:37

1:03:35 war communism

… So what I'm saying is that I think that what we have to learn is, when I say communism I mean war communism, emergency state communism.

~59:35 my stalinism / benevolent stalinism

down and starts to shit there, you know. Like no illusions. My idea was just this one and I was mistaken. I thought that first Hillary was a big problem. I really think Hillary would have been a catastrophe, maybe even allowing Trump for the …

16:43 soft dictator

… corruption and so on one of the options that I am seriously tempted by is not to say we need more authentic democracy, but maybe we need a soft dictator.