Shouting at the TV during football
example ·
retold in 6 talks
Žižek uses the image of shouting at a television during a match, 'boys!', knowing the players cannot hear you, as an analogy for the meaningless performativity of individual recycling gestures.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 5
“like when you watch TV at home you shout boys you know this is meaningless they don't hear you”
“you shout and cry as if in this way you can help your team there. It's pure everyday magical thinking. I claim recycling Coca-Cola cans is a little bit similar.”
“you shout 'Yes do it!' in this kind of superstitious activity as if, you know, you are doing something to help your guys win”
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)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Julien Offray de La Mettrie2Jorge Semprún2Paul Holdengräber2John Searle1Peter Hawken1Ignazio Silone1Andrew Schally1Ed1
alongside works
Every retelling 5
Žižek uses the image of shouting at a television during a match, 'boys!', knowing the players cannot hear you, as an analogy for the meaningless performativity of individual recycling gestures., illustrating limits of individual ecological action,superstitious practice
Fans shout and cheer for their team while watching at home, knowing the players cannot hear them, pure magical thinking analogous to recycling Coca-Cola cans as a response to ecological catastrophe., illustrating mini ecology / lifestyle ecology,super-ego ecological pressure,materiality of belief
When you watch a football match on TV and shout 'Yes, do it!', knowing it makes no difference, you are performing superstitious pseudo-activity. Žižek uses this to characterize recycling and green consumption., illustrating pseudo-activity,fetishist disavowal,ideology in practice
Ecological rituals (recycling, buying organic) are compared to a soccer fan shouting at a TV, believing his actions can influence a distant game, thus avoiding the reality of impotence., illustrating ecology of fear,commodity logic of social responsibility
Watching your team on TV you shout and gesticulate as if you can influence the game, Žižek uses this as a metaphor for ecological pseudo-activity: performing rituals (recycling) that give the feeling of engagement while changing nothing systemic., illustrating ecology as ideology,pseudo-activity