Slavoj Zizek. Politics, Culture and Propaganda. 2009 10/12
Talk · European Graduate School Video Lectures ·
2009-03-07 · 0:09:51 · 1,388 words
capitalismideologydemocracygeopolitics-wareveryday-life
Žižek argues for the rehabilitation of politics through bottom-up civil organization while maintaining mistrust of traditional politicians, and analyzes the shift in modern capitalism toward 'cultural capitalism,' where marketing appeals to subjective experience and moral self-satisfaction rather than use or symbolic value. He concludes by interpreting Europe's current confusion as an open crisis that offers a chance for political agency.
every located moment in this recording, click one to read it
The ideas in it 5
in the order they first come up; click a row for what he does with the idea here
The need to restore politics as the realm of open choices and decision-making, distinct from expert knowledge or technocratic management.
A mode of capitalism where economic consumption is formulated in cultural terms, appealing to subjective experience and moral self-satisfaction rather than use value or social status.
as “no nature, mother nature”
The assertion that 'nature' is not a pre-given harmonious entity but a construct, paralleling the idea that there is no big Other to guarantee meaning.
as “Was will Europa?”
A coinage playing on Freud's 'Was will das Weib?' (What does woman want?), suggesting Europe, like the enigmatic woman, does not know what it wants.
as “big other”
The symbolic order or authority figure that is presumed to know and care for us; its absence in Europe's current state creates an open field for action.
Stories he reaches for 3
Questions the rationality of buying half-rotten organic apples, arguing that consumers buy them not for health or status, but to feel morally good and 'meaningful' as consumers.
“Why do you buy it? It's not I claim that you really think it will help your health. It's also not you don't make a great symbolic statement. It's something much more tricky I think. It makes you feel good.”
Cites Starbucks and Ethos water as examples of 'cultural capitalism,' where buying a product is framed as a moral act (helping Guatemalan children or providing water to third world countries) to alleviate consumer guilt.
“They tell you, you know, with each cup of coffee that you buy, you help a Guatemala child to become literate”
Traces the history of Land Rover ads from functional efficiency (fuel economy) to Veblenian status signaling, to the current mode of selling subjective freedom and meaning ('feel constrained... drive... feel free').
“Today's publicity for Land Rover would have been something like do you feel constrained by your alienated office life, drive to the countryside with Land Rover, you will feel free”
Works invoked 3
Was will Europa? book
A book published by Žižek in French, using the title to frame the analysis of Europe's lack of direction.
Starbucks other
Used as a prime example of 'cultural capitalism' and the marketing of moral self-satisfaction.
Ethos water other
Cited alongside Starbucks as an example of marketing that sells moral meaning (helping third world countries) rather than just utility.
People invoked 3
Thorstein Veblen positive
Cited as the originator of the concept of 'keeping up with the Joneses' and status signaling in consumption.
Mentioned as a political figure, but Žižek suggests Bolivia is currently more interesting/complex in terms of political interaction with different bodies.
Sigmund Freud positive
Referenced for the question 'Was will das Weib?' (What does woman want?), which Žižek uses as a structural analogy for Europe's current political confusion.
Transcript 7 turns
unknown
Okay, so we move to the democracy part as it was mentioned.
Okay, so we move to the democracy part as it was mentioned.
Slavoj Žižek
Limited,
Limited,
unknown
at
at
unknown
least you said
least you said
Slavoj Žižek
democracy yes, anarchy no, yes.
democracy yes, anarchy no, yes.
unknown
Okay, so we would have two questions, one from audience, one we have been thinking in advance. You are allowed comments, you prepared the question, that's what I like, organized debate, yeah. Okay, so here we discuss and trying to give a long-term perspective on future development of Europe with the use of foresight, it means a bottom-up approach, an identification of issues that goes towards the existing centers of power. So with that, the theme selected for this year was culture and science as the area of potential area of development of future development of Europe. So how you would see this as a motivational factor for policy-making in the future because you mentioned before a fear is a constant motivational factor for policy-making like climate change, economic crisis, immigrant, whatever. So how you would see those issues to come up and to be a motivational factors for I would use this good governance and better policy-making.
Okay, so we would have two questions, one from audience, one we have been thinking in advance. You are allowed comments, you prepared the question, that's what I like, organized debate, yeah. Okay, so here we discuss and trying to give a long-term perspective on future development of Europe with the use of foresight, it means a bottom-up approach, an identification of issues that goes towards the existing centers of power. So with that, the theme selected for this year was culture and science as the area of potential area of development of future development of Europe. So how you would see this as a motivational factor for policy-making in the future because you mentioned before a fear is a constant motivational factor for policy-making like climate change, economic crisis, immigrant, whatever. So how you would see those issues to come up and to be a motivational factors for I would use this good governance and better policy-making.
Slavoj Žižek
Well, that's a big question. The first thing I think is a slightly pessimistic one, I like your idea of this bottom up from outside. First, I think two apparently, I'm very much giving you now like free associations, two apparently contradictory things should be maintained. First, we should fully rehabilitate politics. I think it's part of today's cynical world that we say politics is a whore, don't trust them and so on and so on. I think that we need more politics in this simple sense of choices are not made in advance, it's not only expert knowledge. You know, politics is not only a question of means to ends, what are our ends and so on, so we need fully to rehabilitate politics. To stop with this, you know, we are entering some new mystical society of knowledge where is no politics and so on. Second thing, nonetheless we should rehabilitate politics, but mistrust politicians. I think that precisely organization like this one or, no, I don't idealize NGOs, they can be very even corrupted and so on. But what I'm saying is that more and more we will need the organized, I don't like the term civil society, it's again very manipulated, but a form of political organization which is not party state politics. That's for me the only hope. Initiatives must come from there. Politics, politics can do only the efficient, relatively efficient job of making things run and so on and so on. It's interesting how in all parts of the world where something interesting is happening, like today, I think that much more than Chavez, then Venezuela, Bolivia is being interesting. It's all about [unintelligible] more or less interacting with these different bodies and so on and so on. So that would be my general prescription. The second thing is that, is that, how should I put it, culture. We all know how, that's why I like also the topic culture. You know, culture is if anything, it is clear today that culture is no longer just one sphere somewhere up there, to put it in old Marxist terms, ideological superstructure. Some people even propose, and I'm sympathetic to it, the term cultural capitalism. In the sense that today more and more not only is culture in the wide sense, not just opera, concerts, but let us say way of life, cultural experiences, but also I don't know, transcendental meditation, fitness, whatever. All this which is not directly [unintelligible] this is more and more not only or even culture in the sense of babysitting, personal services, not only is this more and more important, at least in our developed countries, but even a step further. Even the more brutal, direct, primitive, let's call it economic consumption is formulated in cultural terms. What do I mean by this? Did you notice a strange change in, I always like to read this as a symptom, in publicity? Reclame, publicity. How this changed. In old capitalism we had two main modes of publicity, how they address you. First, you at least pretend to refer to real properties of the thing. Like, you want people to buy Land Rover, in the publicity you will try to prove that it spends less energy, that less gasoline, less fuel than the competitors. It's efficient, it goes up steep terrain, blah blah. You refer to. Then the next level of publicity is this keeping up with the Joneses, Thorstein Veblen. It's competitive, that you try to sell a product by referring to its, to its social value in the sense of status symbol, you know, you have this, you signal something to others. But I claim that today we are entering a different domain where more and more gradually publicity refers neither to the use value of the object nor to its symbolic value, competitive like this, this way you signal to others that what you are, but subjective experience, how it will render your life meaningful. Today's publicity for Land Rover would have been something like do you feel constrained by your alienated office life, drive to the countryside with Land Rover, you will feel free, you will feel, you know, and I claim, so that I will give an apparently good example. This is where I mistrust even all this buy organic food, listen, let's be serious. Do you really think that those half-rotten apples which are supposedly organic are really any less harmful than the chemical or whatever apples? Why do you buy it? It's not I claim that you really think it will help your health. It's also not you don't make a great symbolic statement. It's something much more tricky I think. It makes you feel good. You see, I contribute to environment, it makes me, I'm not just a stupid consumerist, you know, I do something meaningful and so on. And that's the big art of today, I hate them, precisely this Starbucks coffee, hopefully we don't yet have them here. How they, the whole of Starbucks coffee is based on this. They tell you, you know, with each cup of coffee that you buy, you help a Guatemala child to become literate, or now they even have water, they say each bottle of water, it's called Ethos, like ethic. Each bottle of water, five cents go to for third world countries to have more drinking, of course they profit even more, the company. But what I'm saying is that this is today's cultural, cultural capitalism. And I claim the point is not to reject this, but to beat the opponent at its own terrain here. We can give a different twist to it, not just making it into this another, another more efficient tool of capitalist reproduction and so on and so on. So again, this would be my thing. And what is also important, my advice to us smaller countries now is that again the same as I said about how there is no nature, mother nature. My practical advice is beware that, how should I put it, I even published a book in French with this title, Was will Europa? What does the Europe want? I was referring to that Freudian legendary question, Was will das Weib? Nobody knows, what does the woman want? And I claim it's the same today, nobody knows Europe's especially itself doesn't know what it wants. It's total... so the situation is open today. Europe is in confusion. This can be good, this can be bad. It's bad in the sense that don't expect there is no big other in the sense of some authority which knows what's going on and will take care of us, but it's also a chance for all of us, you know, like when in this kind of open situations you must act. You must act, you can carve your space. So I think again that we should be here the I claim that as always times today like times of crisis are times, are times where there are great new chances open. But you must grab, you must grab the chance. Everything depends on us. I know I didn't answer your question, but we philosophers never, never answer questions.
Well, that's a big question. The first thing I think is a slightly pessimistic one, I like your idea of this bottom up from outside. First, I think two apparently, I'm very much giving you now like free associations, two apparently contradictory things should be maintained. First, we should fully rehabilitate politics. I think it's part of today's cynical world that we say politics is a whore, don't trust them and so on and so on. I think that we need more politics in this simple sense of choices are not made in advance, it's not only expert knowledge. You know, politics is not only a question of means to ends, what are our ends and so on, so we need fully to rehabilitate politics. To stop with this, you know, we are entering some new mystical society of knowledge where is no politics and so on. Second thing, nonetheless we should rehabilitate politics, but mistrust politicians. I think that precisely organization like this one or, no, I don't idealize NGOs, they can be very even corrupted and so on. But what I'm saying is that more and more we will need the organized, I don't like the term civil society, it's again very manipulated, but a form of political organization which is not party state politics. That's for me the only hope. Initiatives must come from there. Politics, politics can do only the efficient, relatively efficient job of making things run and so on and so on. It's interesting how in all parts of the world where something interesting is happening, like today, I think that much more than Chavez, then Venezuela, Bolivia is being interesting. It's all about [unintelligible] more or less interacting with these different bodies and so on and so on. So that would be my general prescription. The second thing is that, is that, how should I put it, culture. We all know how, that's why I like also the topic culture. You know, culture is if anything, it is clear today that culture is no longer just one sphere somewhere up there, to put it in old Marxist terms, ideological superstructure. Some people even propose, and I'm sympathetic to it, the term cultural capitalism. In the sense that today more and more not only is culture in the wide sense, not just opera, concerts, but let us say way of life, cultural experiences, but also I don't know, transcendental meditation, fitness, whatever. All this which is not directly [unintelligible] this is more and more not only or even culture in the sense of babysitting, personal services, not only is this more and more important, at least in our developed countries, but even a step further. Even the more brutal, direct, primitive, let's call it economic consumption is formulated in cultural terms. What do I mean by this? Did you notice a strange change in, I always like to read this as a symptom, in publicity? Reclame, publicity. How this changed. In old capitalism we had two main modes of publicity, how they address you. First, you at least pretend to refer to real properties of the thing. Like, you want people to buy Land Rover, in the publicity you will try to prove that it spends less energy, that less gasoline, less fuel than the competitors. It's efficient, it goes up steep terrain, blah blah. You refer to. Then the next level of publicity is this keeping up with the Joneses, Thorstein Veblen. It's competitive, that you try to sell a product by referring to its, to its social value in the sense of status symbol, you know, you have this, you signal something to others. But I claim that today we are entering a different domain where more and more gradually publicity refers neither to the use value of the object nor to its symbolic value, competitive like this, this way you signal to others that what you are, but subjective experience, how it will render your life meaningful. Today's publicity for Land Rover would have been something like do you feel constrained by your alienated office life, drive to the countryside with Land Rover, you will feel free, you will feel, you know, and I claim, so that I will give an apparently good example. This is where I mistrust even all this buy organic food, listen, let's be serious. Do you really think that those half-rotten apples which are supposedly organic are really any less harmful than the chemical or whatever apples? Why do you buy it? It's not I claim that you really think it will help your health. It's also not you don't make a great symbolic statement. It's something much more tricky I think. It makes you feel good. You see, I contribute to environment, it makes me, I'm not just a stupid consumerist, you know, I do something meaningful and so on. And that's the big art of today, I hate them, precisely this Starbucks coffee, hopefully we don't yet have them here. How they, the whole of Starbucks coffee is based on this. They tell you, you know, with each cup of coffee that you buy, you help a Guatemala child to become literate, or now they even have water, they say each bottle of water, it's called Ethos, like ethic. Each bottle of water, five cents go to for third world countries to have more drinking, of course they profit even more, the company. But what I'm saying is that this is today's cultural, cultural capitalism. And I claim the point is not to reject this, but to beat the opponent at its own terrain here. We can give a different twist to it, not just making it into this another, another more efficient tool of capitalist reproduction and so on and so on. So again, this would be my thing. And what is also important, my advice to us smaller countries now is that again the same as I said about how there is no nature, mother nature. My practical advice is beware that, how should I put it, I even published a book in French with this title, Was will Europa? What does the Europe want? I was referring to that Freudian legendary question, Was will das Weib? Nobody knows, what does the woman want? And I claim it's the same today, nobody knows Europe's especially itself doesn't know what it wants. It's total... so the situation is open today. Europe is in confusion. This can be good, this can be bad. It's bad in the sense that don't expect there is no big other in the sense of some authority which knows what's going on and will take care of us, but it's also a chance for all of us, you know, like when in this kind of open situations you must act. You must act, you can carve your space. So I think again that we should be here the I claim that as always times today like times of crisis are times, are times where there are great new chances open. But you must grab, you must grab the chance. Everything depends on us. I know I didn't answer your question, but we philosophers never, never answer questions.