Bernard Madoff as personalization/ideologization of systemic fraud

As told 8

“he was just following more radically than others, I claim, the logic of the system.”
18:15 Jealousy as a political category2009-04-24 · 1:28:39

“a typical postmodern capitalist ... first you gather billions then you give half back for charity and so on”
9:37 Living in the End Times2010-07 · 1:46:47

“Madoff was just doing in a little bit more radical way where the system is — he was following where the system is pushing you.”
38:07 First as Tragedy, then as Farce2010-01-05 · 2:21:08

What it carries

one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)

contents · one story, 3 jobsuses

real abstraction ×2 false identification of the antagonism ×1 fetish ×1

Its cast and sources

populated by

Bernard Madoff4 Donald Tusk2 Lech Kaczyński2 Robert Brasillach2 Adam Kirsch2 Alan Greenspan2 Moishe Postone2 Thomas Frank2

alongside works

Toxic People2 Emotional Vampires2 Materialism and Empirio-criticism2 Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others)2 L'Arrogance du présent1 The Fall of Yugoslavia (BBC series)1 Behemoth1 Auf verlorenem Posten (In Defense of Lost Causes)1

Told together with

14% Bill Gates as rent-extractor from general intellect 3 shared talks 12% Afghanistan: from secular to fundamentalist 2 shared talks 4% Niels Bohr's horseshoe 2 shared talks

Every retelling 8

18:15 Jealousy as a political category2009-04-24 · 1:28:39

The media's moralizing treatment of Madoff as a uniquely corrupt Jewish villain is a classic case of fascist-populist mystification: his actions were not personal pathology but a more radical enactment of the system's own logic., illustrating false identification of the antagonism,fetishism,ideology

9:37 Living in the End Times2010-07 · 1:46:47

Žižek uses the Madoff scandal to illustrate personalized anti-capitalism: Madoff was a 'typical postmodern capitalist' who first amassed billions and then gave half back for charity, and the public's hatred of him as an individual scoundrel distracted from the systemic logic he embodied., illustrating personalized anti-capitalism,postmodern ethical capitalism

38:07 First as Tragedy, then as Farce2010-01-05 · 2:21:08

The Pope and others blamed Madoff for a crisis of values rather than capitalism itself. Žižek argues Madoff was not an anomaly but was simply doing in a slightly more radical way what the system pushes everyone to do., illustrating ideology,capitalism's demonic ethics,symptomal logic

8:04 Slovenian Philosopher Slavoj Zizek on Capitalism, and the "Farcical" Financial Crisis 1 of 22009-10 · 10:00

Madoff is not an outlier but a 'radical version' of where the system pushes actors, illustrating the structural roots of the crisis beyond individual greed., illustrating capitalism

55:45 To Begin from The Beginning2010-06-26 · 1:48:31

Žižek wanted to write an article defending Madoff, arguing that singling him out as villain (with an anti-Semitic tone) obscures that he simply embodied the logic of the financial system at its purest., illustrating systemic logic vs. individual culprit,liberal ideology,anti-Semitism

39:19 The Year of Dreaming Dangerously Panel Discussion with Slavoj Zizek2012-10-23 · 2:02:47

Madoff was the ideal scapegoat: by personalizing the crisis in one greedy banker, the system escaped questioning. Bankers were always greedy; the real question is what changed in the system to let greed realize itself., illustrating real abstraction