Walter Benjamin: every fascism signals a failed revolution
anecdote · Walter Benjamin ·
retold in 3 talks
Žižek invokes Benjamin's thesis to argue that all contemporary fundamentalisms, including islamofascism, exist because the radical left failed to occupy the space; they are not autonomous phenomena but symptoms of left defeat.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“every fascism is the sign and indication of a failed revolution... they are there because we were not there”
“Jaz sem pesimist, ker je to zame edini način, da ne obupaš.”
“our struggle for emancipation today means that if we win, we will also redeem the past”
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
fascism as failed revolution
×1
retroactivity
×1
fundamentalism as symptom of liberalism
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
David Pearce1Craig Venter1Karl-Heinz Delvon1Mariana Mazzucato1Simon Jenkins1Nick Bostrom1Pranav Mistry1Parmenides1
alongside works
Every retelling 3
Žižek invokes Benjamin's thesis to argue that all contemporary fundamentalisms, including islamofascism, exist because the radical left failed to occupy the space; they are not autonomous phenomena but symptoms of left defeat., illustrating failed revolution thesis,fundamentalism as symptom,the authentic left
Citing Walter Benjamin, Žižek explains he is a pessimist because that is the only way not to give up: optimists get disappointed when things go wrong, pessimists keep hoping something good will happen., illustrating pessimism as anti-despair
Žižek invokes Benjamin's idea that emancipatory victory today retroactively redeems past defeats: Spartacus, medieval serfs' rebellions become precursors rather than mere failures., illustrating retroactive reinterpretation of the past,historical redemption