Žižek near power in Slovenia, intellectuals as hardliners
anecdote · personal/autobiographical ·
retold in 4 talks
Žižek recalls being close to power in Slovenia for half a year, during which period almost ten people tried to kill themselves, illustrating that intellectuals in power tend to be far harsher than corrupted pragmatic politicians.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 4
“when we intellectuals come close to power we are usually the hardliners. That's my experience. And we are much worse than corrupted pragmatic politicians.”
“He lost his job you know why because he sincerely believed in Yugoslav self-management socialism and the top nomenklatura bureaucrats got it correctly this is dangerous.”
“For six, seven years I was unemployed, but it wasn't too bad. I was doing translations and so on, supported by my parents.”
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, 2 jobsuses
interregnum
×1
ideology functions even if you don't believe in it
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Gérard Pommier1Stefan Zweig1Chris Clark1Peter Weibel1Sacha Baron Cohen1Roberto Gualtieri1Anton Alikhanov1Alexander Kharichev1
alongside works
Every retelling 4
Žižek recalls being close to power in Slovenia for half a year, during which period almost ten people tried to kill themselves, illustrating that intellectuals in power tend to be far harsher than corrupted pragmatic politicians., illustrating intellectuals and power,dare to win
A friend who genuinely believed in Yugoslav self-management socialism was fired from his party position precisely because his sincerity was seen as dangerous by the bureaucrats who practiced cynical distance., illustrating ideology functions only by not believing in it
Žižek shares how hardline communists in Slovenia prevented him from getting a job, leading to years of unemployment, which ironically gave him freedom and a marginal institute job with 'permanent sabbatical' status., illustrating everyday-life,subjectivity
When unemployed he held a low-level post writing notes in the Communist Party central committee, and discovered that taking the official ideology seriously made one suspect of being a dissident, to belong to the system one had to keep a private distance toward it., illustrating ideology,interregnum / morbid phenomena