Congo as the absolute human tragedy
example · personal/autobiographical ·
retold in 4 talks
Žižek invokes Congo's exploited as the paradigm case of human suffering that cannot be assimilated to the classical working class, demanding a broadened conception of revolutionary subjectivity.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 4
“if there is an absolute human tragedy today and typically those who speak all the time about human rights never mention it, is today's Congo”
“if all the natural wealth mines and so on diamonds were to disappear from Congo it would have been poor but much happier country”
“If all the natural wealth mines and so on, diamonds were to disappear from Congo, it would have been poor but much happier country.”
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
combined feudalism
×2
social antagonism
×1
cursed by too much natural wealth
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Milan Kučan2Lawrence Eagleburger1John Holloway1Jamil Khader1Robert F. Kennedy Jr.1Alex Callinicos1Shulamit Aloni1Percy Bysshe Shelley1
alongside works
Every retelling 4
Žižek invokes Congo's exploited as the paradigm case of human suffering that cannot be assimilated to the classical working class, demanding a broadened conception of revolutionary subjectivity., illustrating four antagonisms,composition of revolutionary subjects,limits of classical working-class politics
A Marxist friend from Congo told him that if all the diamonds and mines disappeared, Congo would be poorer but a much happier country, the natural wealth itself is the curse., illustrating cursed by too much natural wealth,true feudalism has two sides
A Marxist friend from Congo argued that if all the natural wealth disappeared, Congo would be poor but much happier, contrasted with Singapore which has no natural resources but thrives; illustrates how Western techno-feudalism is sustained by brutal local resource extraction., illustrating combined feudalism,techno-feudalism
Žižek argues that the Congo's abundant coltan and minerals are precisely what makes it a 'heart of darkness', if the minerals vanished, the country would be more peaceful, because global capitalism's extraction is the cause of its decay., illustrating economic neo-colonialism,capitalism,failed states