Judith Butler: 'be one species among many', Žižek's respectful refusal

As told 6

“here i respectfully disagree with judith butler... we have to learn to discover that we are only one of the species on our earth.”
2:15:10 Slavoj Žižek — Democracy: Is This The End?2022-11-04 · 2:17:03

“she was able to say 'you don't owe me an apology' only after I did offer an apology. And only in this way it worked.”
46:19 Year of Distraction1:16:41

“I offer something, I get it back as unnecessary, but in this very paradoxical way, as superfluous it's necessary. That's a symbolic gesture at its purest.”
53:12 Fear Thy Neighbor as Thyself2007-11-26 · 1:55:58

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

empty gesture ×2 habits ×2 general managers of the world ×1

Its cast and sources

populated by

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak3 Julius Rosenberg2 Paul Robeson2 Ágota Kristóf2 Josip Broz Tito3 Mary Shelley2 Père Joseph (François Leclerc du Tremblay)2 Lavrentiy Beria2

alongside works

The Conflict of Faculties2 The Shining (novel)2 In Search of Lost Time2 Romance2 Frankenstein2 The Notebook / The Proof / The Third Lie1 Mladina1 A Tale of Two Cities1

Told together with

29% Tito dies happy / Yugoslav debt accumulation 2 shared talks 29% Stephen King's The Shining as neighbor 2 shared talks 29% South African Truth and Reconciliation Committee vs. Nazi Germany 2 shared talks 29% Japanese workers and unused holiday rights 2 shared talks 27% Hitchcock's Vertigo, the missing underwear 3 shared talks 22% Proust's grandmother on the telephone 2 shared talks 20% Auschwitz and Srebrenica Jokes 2 shared talks 15% Yugoslav army and homosexual innuendo 2 shared talks 14% Father Joseph / Père Joseph, Gray Eminence 2 shared talks 12% Martin Luther King and Tolerance 2 shared talks 11% Rumsfeld's known/unknown matrix and the fourth term 2 shared talks 11% Stalinist prohibition of the prohibition 2 shared talks

Every retelling 6

2:15:10 Slavoj Žižek — Democracy: Is This The End?2022-11-04 · 2:17:03

Butler argues we must recognise ourselves as just one species among many and act with more modesty toward nature; Žižek respectfully but firmly disagrees, precisely to save ourselves and nature we must act as planetary managers, not humble participants., illustrating general managers of the world,mathematical chaos (climate)

46:19 Year of Distraction1:16:41

After insulting Judith Butler, Žižek calls to apologize; she accepts by saying 'you don't owe me an apology', which only works because the apology was first offered. Taking it back would have been equally rude., illustrating empty gesture,symbolic exchange,habits

53:12 Fear Thy Neighbor as Thyself2007-11-26 · 1:55:58

After calling Butler an 'unnatural bitch' and apologizing, she said 'you don't owe me an apology', which only worked because he had already offered one. Taking back the apology after being told it wasn't needed would have been impolite: the superfluous gesture is precisely what is necessary., illustrating empty gestures,symbolic exchange,habits

16:18 Žižek, 2005 — an archival compilation2005 · 1:09:30

Žižek mimics the Butlerian/deconstructionist style, 'if we accept the metaphysical notion of language…may we not risk the hypothesis that this can be said to be a bottle of tea', as an example of belief expressed through compulsive distanciation., illustrating deconstructionist belief,ideology,belief

"THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is a Conservative Liberal Film" - Slavoj Žižek (2012) | TIFF REWIND2012 · 1:09:18

Žižek mocks Judith Butler's writing style as 'strictly postmodern' and torturously complex, contrasting it with his own preference for clear, dogmatic statements., illustrating false modesty masking extreme arrogance,hysterical position

Slavoj Zizek - What are network states?2025-04 · 2:12:08

Žižek recounts making a vulgar remark to Judith Butler about her 'unnatural bitch' lesbian friends, then sincerely apologizing; Butler accepted it by saying no apology was needed, illustrating the paradox of true vs. false apology., illustrating anti-apology