The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (2012)
Lecture ·
2012 · 2:10:30 · 13,582 words
with Film Clip, Archival Speech, Archival Clip
ideologycinema-art-culturepsychoanalysiscapitalismreligion-theologyfascism-populismcommunism-socialismrace-antisemitismrevolution-violencehegel-dialectics
This is the voiceover script of Sophie Fiennes's 2012 documentary film 'The Pervert's Guide to Ideology,' in which Žižek delivers a sustained analysis of ideological mechanisms through close readings of Hollywood and Soviet cinema. Moving from John Carpenter's 'They Live' and 'The Sound of Music' through Beethoven's Ninth, Jaws, Taxi Driver, Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, The Dark Knight, Terry Gilliam's Brazil, and Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ, he argues that ideology is not a distorting lens we can simply remove but the very medium of our spontaneous social reality, operating through enjoyment rather than mere belief. The talk concludes with a call for authentic emancipatory politics that involves changing not just reality but the very dreams through which we apprehend it, drawing on Walter Benjamin's idea of redeeming past failed revolutions.
every located moment in this recording, click one to read it
The ideas in it 27
in the order they first come up; click a row for what he does with the idea here
Being addressed by social authority, in postmodern ideology we are interpellated as subjects of pleasure ('realize your true potential') rather than subjects of duty.
Enjoyment in the psychoanalytic sense, distinct from simple pleasure, deployed to explain how ideology seduces through libidinal investment rather than mere belief.
The excessive factor that disturbs the simple relation between duty and pleasure and constitutes the libidinal glue of ideological formations.
as “fetishism”
Marx's concept that a commodity is never just an object but is 'full of theological, metaphysical niceties,' its presence reflecting an invisible transcendence.
Referenced through the Kinder Egg and Coke examples as the mysterious surplus object that is the 'cause of desire,' the elusive X beyond describable properties.
Plato's term for the inner treasure that makes a person worthy, Žižek inverts the usual reading: we aim at the higher goal in order to enjoy the surface, not vice versa.
as “cynical ideology”
Ideology that functions in the mode of 'I know very well what I am doing, but I am nonetheless doing it', illustrated by the Officer Krupke number in West Side Story.
A clear picture of the social totality, its absence produces ideological violence as a brutal intervention to cover up symbolic deadlock.
as “conservative revolution”
Fascism at its most elementary: a revolution (modernization, industry) that simultaneously reasserts traditional hierarchical society, used to explain the Nazi ideological structure.
as “ideological frame”
Ideology as a filter or frame that does not add content but opens an abyss of suspicion through which the same reality becomes totally transformed.
The Nazi concept of organic people-community, in which 'solidarity' becomes exclusionary because the foreign intruder is automatically the enemy.
Free-floating enjoyment-laden gestures (like Rammstein's military iconography) that can be articulated to different ideological horizons; liberating them from Nazi articulation undermines Nazism from within.
as “capitalist religious structure”
Capitalism as driven by an absolute, quasi-religious injunction, capital must circulate, reproduce, expand, making the true capitalist a miser who sacrifices everything to this perverted duty.
The mute, meaningless presence of waste and ruin beyond functional networks, encountered in abandoned planes or the Titanic wreck, necessary for authentic passivity and new emergence.
The frozen grimace of excessive pleasure-in-pain that effective political-ideological symbols must rely on, exemplified by the Titanic ruin.
A figure (like Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack in Titanic) who enables the constitution of the couple but must die/disappear for the ideological myth to crystallize.
Not a distorting lens imposed from outside but our spontaneous relationship to the social world and the way we enjoy it; stepping out of it is painful and requires force.
The unwritten, never publicly acknowledged rules and rituals (obscene military chants, public-school hazing, Abu Ghraib) that are the innermost constituent of social discipline, not its transgression.
The mute, meaningless inertia beyond symbolic order, exemplified by the wrecked Titanic at the ocean floor or abandoned planes in the Mojave Desert.
Plato's term for the lie that politicians must tell ordinary people because the truth is too destabilizing, Žižek deploys it to critique The Dark Knight.
The idealized, imagined 'People' in totalitarianism, never the actual existing individuals, that legitimizes the leader even when actual masses rebel against the regime.
The virtual symbolic authority, God, History, the People, bureaucracy, for whom we maintain appearances; Lacan's claim is that there is ultimately no big Other.
A questioning of one's symbolic social identity, more subversive than perversion because it introduces productive doubt; Christianity transposes it onto God himself.
Contrasted with hysteria: the pervert has no uncertainties, directly enacts the law's obscene underside without questioning it.
Lacan's Italian phrase meaning 'What do you want?', the terrifying question of the divine Other's desire, constitutive of Jewish theology's anxious relationship to God.
Stepping out totally of symbolic identification, cancelling all symbolic authority, exemplified by Christ's 'Father, why hast thou forsaken me' at the moment of crucifixion.
Dreams that are merely an idealized consumerist mirror image of existing society, distinguished from 'right dreams' that point toward a genuinely different future, key lesson from Frankenheimer's Seconds.
Stories he reaches for 14
Starbucks incorporates the price of the countermeasure (charity, fair trade) into the coffee's price so that the buyer can be a consumerist and do their ethical duty simultaneously, the ultimate form of consumerism that abolishes guilt.
“The price for the countermeasure for fighting consumerism is already included into the price of a commodity.”
In John Carpenter's They Live a homeless worker finds sunglasses that reveal hidden ideological messages beneath advertising. Žižek reads the glasses as critique-of-ideology apparatus and the prolonged fight to get a friend to wear them as dramatizing the pain of ideological exit.
“Ideology is not simply imposed on ourselves. Ideology is our spontaneous relationship to our social world.”
God vindicates Job against his theologically correct friends, affirming that there is no deeper meaning in catastrophe, as the first step toward delegitimizing suffering.
“Everything that the theological friends were telling you, Job, is false. Everything Job was saying is true. No meaning in catastrophes.”
The Kinder Egg materializes the paradox of commodity desire: the plastic toy (surplus) fills the inner void of the chocolate egg. We need the cheap surplus to enjoy the commodity itself; we aim at the higher goal in order to enjoy the surface.
“The surprise of the Kinder surprise egg is that this excessive object, the cause of your desire, is here materialized in the guise of an object.”
The Jaws shark unites an ordinary American's diffuse fears (immigrants, natural disaster, corrupt politicians, big business) into one figure, exactly the operation of Nazi anti-Semitism, which replaces confused social multiplicity with the figure of the Jew.
“You have a multitude of fears, you replace this confused multitude with one clear figure. The Jew, and everything becomes clear.”
The German hard rock band Rammstein is accused of flirting with Nazi militaristic iconography, but Žižek argues they liberate pre-ideological libidinal elements from their Nazi articulation, allowing enjoyment of these gestures while suspending the Nazi horizon of meaning.
“What Rammstein does is liberate this element from their Nazi articulations. It allows us to enjoy them in their pre-ideological state.”
The 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, usually seen as destroying the Prague Spring dream, actually saved it by preventing it from either becoming ordinary liberal capitalism or being forced by communist reformers to set limits. The temporal catastrophe redeemed the idea by preserving it as pure possibility.
“The paradox is that precisely the Soviet intervention saved the dream of the possibility of another communism.”
The sight of abandoned aircraft, capitalism's waste, provides an authentic encounter with the inertia of the real, recalling Walter Benjamin's claim that we experience history only when confronting the rest and waste of culture being reclaimed by nature.
“We experience history not when things move, but only when we see this rest, waste of culture being half retaken by nature.”
The Abu Ghraib photos are not simply arrogant Americans humiliating others; they staged the obscene underside of American military culture, the unwritten rituals every community depends on.
“What Iraqi soldiers experienced there was the staging of the obscene underside of the American military culture.”
Women who survived wartime rape in Bosnia kept themselves alive to tell the truth, and then discovered there was no one truly to listen. This illustrates Lacan's claim that the big Other does not exist.
“There is no one really to listen to them.”
The Soviet propaganda film 'The Fall of Berlin' follows the logic of producing a couple: the entire war is fought so a model worker can reunite with his girl, with Stalin himself as the supreme divine matchmaker who scripted and cried over the final scene, while the scene itself never happened (Stalin was too paranoid to fly).
“This is how ideology works. Not the explicit ideology, but precisely ideology at its more fundamental level—this apparently subordinated motive of the couple.”
In David Lean's film the annoying acquaintance who interrupts the lovers' final meeting embodies the big Other as agency of appearances: for her sake the couple must maintain the fiction that nothing is happening between them.
“We need for our stability a figure of big other for whom we maintain appearances.”
Kubrick's drill sergeant performs obscene excess as a show to bribe soldiers with enchantment. Private Pyle over-identifies with the obscene rituals, loses the protective ironic distance, and the result is self-destruction, he kills the sergeant then himself.
“If you over-identify with it, if you really immediately become the voice of this super ego, it's self destructive.”
Scorsese's film presents Christ as not simply accepting his divine destiny but experiencing it as traumatic news, a hysterical questioning of his own symbolic identity. The crucifixion is read as the death of the big Other.
“What dies on the cross is precisely this guarantee of the big other.”
Works invoked 26
They Live film
Called 'one of the forgotten masterpieces of the Hollywood Left'; used throughout as the central framework for the critique of ideology.
The Book of Job other
Analyzed as the first step toward delegitimizing suffering: God vindicates Job's refusal of theological meaning over his friends' theologically correct explanations.
The Sound of Music film
Called 'my favorite example'; used to analyze the obscene hidden permission of religious institutions and the libidinal structure of Catholic ideology.
Brazil film
Used to illustrate bureaucratic enjoyment and its link to the divine; the clandestine plumber (Robert De Niro) represents the ultimate offense to bureaucracy.
Titanic film
Called 'the supreme case of ideology in recent Hollywood'; its progressive surface masks a reactionary imperialist myth; Jack is a vanishing mediator; the iceberg is the condition of the love myth's survival.
The famous 'if there is no God, everything is permitted' is often attributed to this novel but Žižek notes Dostoevsky never said it and the statement is wrong.
The Dark Knight film
Criticized for elevating the lie into a general social principle, the film's conservative wisdom is that society needs a noble lie to hold together, embodied in Batman's final sacrifice of his reputation.
Jaws film
The shark is analyzed as the key example of ideological condensation: it replaces a multitude of diffuse fears with one clear figure, exactly as fascist anti-Semitism replaces social antagonism with the Jew.
Cited for its idea that Christ experienced his divine destiny as traumatic rather than simply accepting it, hysterical questioning; the crucifixion is read as the death of the big Other.
The Searchers film
Called 'perhaps the greatest of John Ford's Westerns'; identified as the unacknowledged source of Taxi Driver; both films driven by the hero's fantasy that the victim enjoys her victimhood.
Brief Encounter film
Called a 'masterpiece'; the busybody who interrupts the lovers is analyzed as the supreme example of the big Other as agency of appearances.
Cabaret film
The 'Tomorrow Belongs to Me' scene is discussed to argue against identifying the song's emotional content with fascism; the song was composed by a Jewish couple and could easily be a leftist anthem.
The Fall of Berlin film
Soviet propaganda epic analyzed as following the logic of producing a couple: WWII is the obstacle to reunion, with Stalin as divine matchmaker who scripted and wept over the final scene.
Full Metal Jacket film
Kubrick's film is used to analyze the drill sergeant's obscene excess as a performed bribe, and Private Pyle's over-identification as the self-destructive danger of taking the supplement seriously.
Taxi Driver film
Analyzed as bringing violence to its radical suicidal dimension; Travis Bickle's killing spree is a cover for symbolic deadlock; compared to Breivik's terrorism.
Used to analyze ideological emptiness (adaptable to all movements) and then, via Alex in A Clockwork Orange, the structural exclusion of a remainder that Beethoven himself stages musically.
West Side Story film
The Officer Krupke number is cited as a beautiful illustration of cynical ideology operating in the mode of 'I know very well, but I do it anyway.'
Capital, Volume 1 book
Marx's formula for classical ideology and the commodity fetishism analysis are cited positively.
A Clockwork Orange film
Alex's fascination with the Ode to Joy is read as identification with the place of exclusion within the universal, the delinquent who is the truth of official ideology's failure.
If... film
Lindsay Anderson's classic is cited as exposing the obscene underside of British public school life, the torture and sexual abuse beneath the democratic surface.
M*A*S*H film
Its soldiers' ironic distance and practical jokes are analyzed as enabling rather than subverting military discipline, the obscene supplement that makes the machine work.
Seconds film
Called 'a neglected Hollywood masterpiece'; used to argue that we must distinguish between right dreams (pointing beyond existing society) and wrong dreams (idealized consumerist reflections of it).
Zabriskie Point film
The orgy scene is read as ambiguously poised between genuine transgression and aestheticized reincorporation into hegemonic ideology, representing what went wrong with the 1960s.
Black Peter film
One of Miloš Forman's early Czech films cited as undermining Stalinism by mocking ordinary people's conformism and stupidity rather than the leaders.
Fireman's Ball film
One of Miloš Forman's early Czech films praised as part of the strategy of demolishing the Stalinist legitimizing fiction of the People.
One of Miloš Forman's early Czech films praised for targeting the mythic 'ordinary people' who legitimate Stalinist rule.
People invoked 33
Cited as having been, in a limited way, right about the 2011 English riots: the truly horrible thing was not the violence but taking objects without paying, an acting out within consumerist ideology.
Cited as claiming Jaws is a Marxist film in which the shark represents brute capital exploiting ordinary Americans.
Franz Kafka positive
Cited approvingly for the claim that bureaucracy is for the modern secular person the only remaining contact with the divine, illustrated through Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
Martin Scorsese positive
The Last Temptation of Christ is cited as showing Christ's hysterical questioning of his divine identity and the death of the big Other on the cross.
Stephen Sondheim positive
Co-author of West Side Story lyrics; cited alongside Bernstein for the Officer Krupke analysis.
John Carpenter positive
They Live is called 'one of the forgotten masterpieces of the Hollywood Left' and its political pessimism about ideology is praised as well-justified.
Leonard Bernstein positive
Co-creator of West Side Story; the Officer Krupke number is used to illustrate cynical ideology.
Edmund Burke negative
Cited as part of the tradition of conservative wisdom that the truth is too strong and politicians should tell ordinary people a noble lie.
Jacques Lacan positive
Cited for the concepts of the big Other, the formula 'there is no big Other,' the Italian phrase 'Che vuoi?' (what do you want?), the distinction between enjoyment and pleasure, and the concept of subjective destitution.
Stanley Kubrick positive
Full Metal Jacket is used to analyze the obscene supplement of military discipline and the danger of over-identification with it.
Nikos Kazantzakis positive
His novel 'The Last Temptation of Christ' (adapted by Scorsese) is cited for the idea that Christ did not simply accept his divine identity but found it traumatic.
Terry Gilliam positive
Brazil is used to illustrate bureaucratic enjoyment and its link to the divine.
Ludwig van Beethoven positive
Praised as having already practiced critique of ideology in a purely musical work: the Ninth Symphony's sublime first part is ideology, while its carnivalesque second theme stages the excluded remainder.
John Frankenheimer positive
Seconds is called 'a neglected Hollywood masterpiece' and used to draw the distinction between right dreams and wrong dreams.
Lindsay Anderson positive
The film 'if....' is cited as a classic that exposes the obscene underside of British public school life.
Director of Cabaret; the 'Tomorrow Belongs to Me' scene is discussed to argue against identifying the song's emotional content with fascism as such.
Leader of Sendero Luminoso cited as claiming Beethoven's Ninth is his favorite piece of music, illustrating the ideological emptiness of the Ode to Joy.
Robert De Niro positive
His role as the clandestine plumber in Brazil is cited as the 'ultimate subversive figure' who offends bureaucracy by actually solving problems.
James Cameron negative
Titanic is called 'the supreme case of ideology in recent Hollywood', a film whose progressive surface masks a reactionary imperialist myth about class vitality.
His manifesto is described as worth reading as evidence that his violence was a reaction to the impenetrability of global capital, like Travis Bickle's, but misdirected outward rather than toward what in oneself ties one to ruling ideology.
John Ford positive
The Searchers is called 'perhaps the greatest of John Ford's Westerns' and identified as the unacknowledged source of Taxi Driver.
Miloš Forman positive
His early Czech films (Black Peter, The Loves of a Blonde, Fireman's Ball) are praised as 'by far the best work' for undermining Stalinism by mocking the mythic 'ordinary people' who legitimate the leader.
Robert Altman positive
MASH is cited as a case where ironic distance from military discipline does not subvert but enables it.
Michelangelo Antonioni positive
Zabriskie Point's orgy scene is used to illustrate the ambiguity between genuine subversion and aestheticized reincorporation of transgression into hegemonic ideology.
Walter Benjamin positive
Cited for the idea that we experience history only when confronting ruins and waste of culture reclaimed by nature, and for the claim that every authentic revolution redeems also past failed revolutions.
Plato negative
Cited for the concept of the 'noble fable', a lie that politicians must tell the people, which Žižek identifies as an old conservative wisdom running from Plato through Kant and Burke to The Dark Knight.
Steven Spielberg positive
Jaws is used as a key example of ideological condensation: the shark functions like the Nazi's Jew, gathering a multitude of fears into one figure.
Karl Marx positive
Cited for the commodity fetishism analysis in Capital Vol. 1 ('they do not know what they are doing but they are nonetheless doing it') and the observation that a commodity is never just an object but full of theological and metaphysical niceties.
Mentioned alongside Plato and Burke as a philosopher who asserted that the truth is too strong for ordinary people and politicians must therefore be cynical noble-liars.
Jean-Paul Sartre negative
Identified as the actual author of the 'if there is no God, everything is permitted' formula (allegedly 1933), which Žižek rejects as simply wrong.
John Major negative
His 'back to basics' campaign is cited as an example of ideological scapegoating: the unemployed single mother becomes the condensed figure on which multiple social anxieties are projected.
David R.S. Lean positive
Brief Encounter is called a 'masterpiece' and its busybody character is analyzed as the supreme example of the big Other as the agency of appearances.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky negative
The famous statement 'If there is no God, everything is permitted' is attributed to him but Žižek points out Dostoevsky never said it, it was Sartre in 1933, and the statement is in any case wrong.
What it argues
ideology as spontaneous enjoyment rather than external distortioncritique of ideology through close film readingsurplus enjoyment and commodity fetishismthe big Other as agency of appearancesthe obscene underside of official social ordercynical reason and its limitsauthentic emancipatory politics and redeeming failed revolutions
Dialectical moves 15
“We already are eating from the trash can—the name of this trash can is ideology.”
Inverts the idea that ideology is external garbage we consume by choice; we are already inside it, consuming it as reality itself.
“When we think that we escape ideology into our dreams, at that point we are within ideology.”
The apparent escape from ideology into private fantasy is itself the deepest ideological operation.
“Critique of ideology is not taking the glasses off so you can see things clearly; taking the glasses off is the ultimate illusion.”
Inverts the Enlightenment model of ideology-critique: the problem is not distortion but our spontaneous enjoyment of ideology.
“You must be forced to be free.”
Liberation from ideology is not spontaneous but requires external compulsion, inverting liberal voluntarism.
“The true hidden message of ideology is not 'renounce, suffer' but 'pretend to renounce and you can get it all.'”
The official moral message of institutions conceals an obscene permission that is ideology's real operative logic.
“Duty is on the side of capitalism, not of ecology or morality.”
Inverts commonsense: the supposedly irresponsible capitalist expansion is actually driven by an absolute unconditional duty, while ecological awareness is a mere optional supplement.
“Crisis is not capitalism's obstacle—it is what pushes capitalism forwards.”
What appears as capitalism's weakness (permanent crisis) is its innermost engine of self-reproduction.
“What dies on the cross is precisely the big Other—the message of Christianity is radically atheist.”
Inverts the standard religious reading: Christ's death is not divine redemption but the self-cancellation of the guarantee of meaning.
“If there is God, everything is permitted—to those who perceive themselves as direct instruments of divine will.”
Reverses Dostoevsky's (actually Sartre's) formula: God does not constrain but licenses any act when one acts as God's instrument.
“The only way to be a true atheist is to go through Christianity.”
Ordinary atheism retains faith in some big Other (nature, evolution); only Christianity's radical kenosis truly abandons any guarantee of meaning.
“Hysteria is much more subversive than perversion.”
Perverts have no uncertainties; the hysterical questioning of one's symbolic identity is the motor of all new inventions and is more politically productive.
“The Soviet invasion saved the dream of Prague Spring—the temporal catastrophe redeemed the idea.”
What appears as the destruction of a utopian project is actually its preservation as pure possibility uncontaminated by pragmatic realization.
“'I will never let go!'—and at the same moment she pushes him off: Leonardo DiCaprio is a vanishing mediator.”
The ideological function of the love-object is completed through his disappearance; what appears as tragedy is the condition of the myth's survival.
“Rammstein liberates the elements of Nazi iconography from their Nazi articulation—the way to fight Nazism is to enjoy these elements by suspending the Nazi horizon of meaning.”
Rather than directly opposing fascist libidinal elements, one undermines fascism by inhabiting those elements while cancelling their ideological articulation.
“Far from the MASH soldiers' ironic distance undermining military discipline, it is its innermost constituent—you take away this supplement and the military machine stops working.”
The obscene supplement does not subvert official order but is the very thing that makes it function.
Claims 38
asserts
Ideology is not a distorting lens we can remove to see reality clearly; it is our spontaneous relationship to the social world, and exiting it is painful and requires force.the nature of ideology
asserts
When we think we escape ideology into our dreams, at that point we are most deeply within ideology.ideology and the unconscious
asserts
You must be forced to be free: liberation from ideology cannot be spontaneous but requires external compulsion.the violence of liberation
asserts
The true hidden message of institutions (e.g. the Catholic Church) is not 'renounce and suffer' but 'pretend to renounce and you can get it all'—an obscene contract that is the logic of institution at its purest.the obscene supplement of religious ideology
asserts
Postmodern subjects are obliged to enjoy; enjoyment becomes a perverted duty rather than a spontaneous pleasure.consumerist ideology and enjoyment
asserts
Coke's advertising openly invokes an undescribable surplus—the 'real thing'—that functions as the object-cause of desire (objet petit a); the more you drink it, the thirstier you get, because desire desires itself.commodity fetishism and desire
asserts
Beethoven's Ninth functions as an empty ideological container precisely because it can serve mutually opposed political movements, from Nazis to Maoists to the EU.ideological emptiness of cultural symbols
asserts
Beethoven was already practicing critique of ideology in a purely musical work: the sublime first part is ideology, the carnivalesque second theme stages the failure of ideology to contain its excluded remainder.Beethoven's Ninth and ideology
asserts
Classical ideology says 'they do not know what they are doing but they are doing it'; cynical ideology says 'I know very well what I am doing but I am nonetheless doing it.'classical versus cynical ideology
asserts
The 2011 English riots were not an ideological protest but an acting out within consumerist ideology by people who had fully internalized it but had no means to realize its demands.the 2011 English riots and ideology
asserts
Every violent acting out is a sign of something one cannot put into words; even the most brutal violence enacts a symbolic deadlock.violence and the symbolic
asserts
Fantasy is a lie not in that it is unreal but in that it covers up a gap or inconsistency; it is the central stuff our ideologies are made of.fantasy and ideology
asserts
Taxi Driver is an unacknowledged remake of The Searchers, and both films are driven by the hero's fantasy that the victim secretly enjoys her victimhood.film analysis and fantasy structure
asserts
Breivik's murderous spree, like Travis Bickle's killing spree, is a reaction to the impenetrability of global capital and should ultimately have been directed at what in oneself ties one to ruling ideology.right-wing terrorism and ideology
asserts
The Jaws shark functions like the Nazi figure of the Jew: it condenses a multitude of inchoate fears into one clear figure so that ideological experience becomes simpler.anti-Semitism and ideological condensation
asserts
Fascism is a conservative revolution: it desires modern industry while reasserting traditional hierarchy, and it requires the figure of the foreign intruder to explain internal social antagonisms inherent in capitalism.fascism and its structure
asserts
Many elements today associated with fascism—collective discipline, solidarity, street marches—were appropriated directly from the workers' movement and social democracy.origins of fascist elements
asserts
In racism, the other is not simply an enemy but is invested with some specific perverse enjoyment; the racist imagines the other enjoying secret orgies or stealing 'our' enjoyment.racism and the other's enjoyment
asserts
Starbucks represents the ultimate form of consumerism: it incorporates the countermeasure to consumerism (charity, ethical production) into the price of the commodity, abolishing bad conscience.cultural capitalism and ethical consumerism
asserts
Capitalism has a strange religious structure: it is propelled by an absolute unconditional injunction (capital must expand) for which anything—including nature and human life—can be sacrificed.capitalism as religion
asserts
Capitalism is not in crisis as an obstacle to its functioning; crisis is precisely what pushes it forward through permanent self-revolutionizing—this is why it appears almost indestructible.capitalism and crisis
asserts
James Cameron's Titanic, despite its surface liberal-progressive sympathy for the lower classes, encodes a reactionary imperialist myth: upper-class people revitalize themselves by vampire-like appropriation of lower-class vitality.ideological analysis of Titanic
asserts
The iceberg saves the Titanic love story by elevating it into an eternal myth; the true catastrophe would have been arriving in New York and the love fading—the catastrophe is a desperate maneuver to save the illusion.catastrophe and ideological myth-making
asserts
Practical jokes and ironic distance from military discipline do not undermine but actually enable it; the obscene supplement of discipline is its innermost constituent, not its transgression.military discipline and its obscene underside
asserts
The Dark Knight elevates lie into a general social principle: society can remain stable only if based on a lie, and truth (embodied in the Joker) means disintegration of social order.ideology and the noble lie
rejects
The statement 'If there is no God, everything is permitted' is wrong; the opposite is true: if you perceive yourself as a direct instrument of God's will, all narrow moral considerations disappear.religion, ethics, and the Dostoevsky pseudo-quote
asserts
Stalinism has the structure of a religious universe: the Stalinist agent experiences himself as a perfect servant of the big Other (History, the People) rather than as an arrogant master.Stalinism and the big Other
asserts
To undermine Stalinism one should not mock the leaders but demolish the mythic reference of 'the People' that legitimizes them—which Miloš Forman's early Czech films do.critique of Stalinism
asserts
In order to fully exist as individuals we need the fiction of the big Other as an agency that registers our predicament, but Lacan is right that there is no big Other.the big Other and subjectivity
asserts
Bureaucracy is, for the modern secular person, the only remaining contact with the divine; bureaucratic purposelessness generates an intense enjoyment that reproduces itself forever.bureaucracy and ideology
asserts
Hysteria is much more subversive than perversion: the pervert has no uncertainties, while the hysterical questioning of symbolic identity is the motor of all new inventions.hysteria versus perversion
asserts
Christianity is more radically atheist than ordinary atheism: Christ's death on the cross is the disintegration of the guarantee of divine meaning—God forsakes himself.Christianity and radical atheism
asserts
The only way to be a true atheist is to go through Christianity, because ordinary atheism still retains trust in some big Other (nature, evolution), while Christianity's kenosis truly abandons it.atheism and Christianity
asserts
We are responsible for our dreams: they stage our desires, and our desires are not objective facts we merely receive but things we create, sustain, and are accountable for.desire, dreams, and responsibility
asserts
A distinction must be drawn within our dreams between right dreams pointing beyond existing society and wrong dreams that are merely idealized consumerist reflections of it.ideology and emancipatory politics
asserts
The first step to freedom is not to change reality to fit your dreams but to change the way you dream—and this hurts.emancipation and ideology
asserts
It is easier today to imagine the end of all life on earth than a modest change in our economic order.ideological closure under capitalism
asserts
Every authentic revolution redeems also the past—failed revolutions, the unsatisfied ghosts of past struggles—which will find their home in the new freedom.revolution, memory, and redemption
Quotes 24
“I already am eating from the trash can all the time. The name of this trash can is ideology.”Slavoj Žižek · ideology as the medium of reality
“When we think that we escape ideology into our dreams, at that point we are within ideology.”Slavoj Žižek · ideology and the unconscious
“Ideology is not simply imposed on ourselves. Ideology is our spontaneous relationship to our social world, how we perceive its meaning and so on.”Slavoj Žižek · the nature of ideology
“You must be forced to be free. If you trust simply your spontaneous sense of well-being or whatever, you will never get free. Freedom hurts.”Slavoj Žižek · the violence of liberation
“The true hidden message: pretend to renounce and you can get it all.”Slavoj Žižek · the obscene supplement of official ideology
“Ideology always has to also work as an empty container open to all possible meanings.”Slavoj Žižek · ideological emptiness
“Whenever an ideological text says all humanity unite in brotherhood, joy, and so on, you should always ask: are these all really all, or is someone excluded?”Slavoj Žižek · the excluded remainder of universal fraternity
“If classical ideology functions in the mode of 'they don't know what they're doing but they're doing it,' cynical ideology functions in the mode of 'I know very well what I'm doing, but I'm still doing it.'”Slavoj Žižek · classical versus cynical ideology
“It's the price for the countermeasure for fighting consumerism is already included into the price of a commodity—the ultimate form of consumerism.”Slavoj Žižek · cultural capitalism / Starbucks ideology
“Capitalism has a strange religious structure. It is propelled by this absolute demand. Capital has to circulate, to reproduce itself, to expand, to multiply itself, and for this goal anything can be sacrificed.”Slavoj Žižek · capitalism as religion
“Capitalism is all the time in crisis. This is precisely why it appears almost indestructible. Crisis is not its obstacle, it is what pushes it forwards.”Slavoj Žižek · capitalism and crisis
“Every effective political ideological symbol or symptom has to rely on this dimension of petrified enjoyment, of the frozen grimace of an excessive pleasure in pain.”Slavoj Žižek · petrified enjoyment and ideology
“The truly disturbing thing about The Dark Knight is that it elevates lie into a general social principle—as if our societies can remain stable, can function only if based on a lie.”Slavoj Žižek · The Dark Knight and the noble lie
“If there is God, everything is permitted—to those who perceive themselves as direct instruments of the divine will.”Slavoj Žižek · religion and moral license
“There is no big Other. There may be a virtual big Other to whom you cannot confess; there may be a real other, but it's never the virtual one.”Slavoj Žižek · Lacan's claim: the big Other does not exist
“For a modern, secular, non-religious man, bureaucracy, state bureaucracy, is the only remaining contact with the dimension of the divine.”Slavoj Žižek · bureaucracy and the divine
“Hysteria is much more subversive than perversion. A pervert has no uncertainties, while the hysterical position is that of a doubt—which is an extremely productive position.”Slavoj Žižek · hysteria vs perversion
“The message of Christianity is radically atheist. The death of Christ is simply the disintegration of the God which guarantees the meaning of our lives.”Slavoj Žižek · Christianity as radical atheism
“The only way really to be an atheist is to go through Christianity. Christianity is much more atheist than the usual atheism.”Slavoj Žižek · Christianity and atheism
“We are responsible for our dreams. Our dreams stage our desires and our desires are not objective facts. We created them, we sustain them, we are responsible for them.”Slavoj Žižek · responsibility for desire and ideology
“The first step to freedom is not just to change reality to fit your dreams—it's to change the way you dream. And again, this hurts.”Slavoj Žižek · ideology and emancipation
“How come it is easier for us to imagine the end of all life on earth, an asteroid hitting the planet, than a modest change in our economic order?”Slavoj Žižek · ideological closure under capitalism
“Every revolution, if it is an authentic revolution, is not only directed towards the future, but it redeems also the past failed revolutions.”Slavoj Žižek · revolution and redemption
“You will never get rid of me. All the eyes in the world cannot kill a true idea.”Slavoj Žižek · persistence of emancipatory idea
Transcript 225 turns
Film Clip
I'm giving you a choice. either put on these glasses. I'll start eating that trash can.
I'm giving you a choice. either put on these glasses. I'll start eating that trash can.
Slavoj Žižek
I already am eating. from the trash can all the time. The name of this trash can is ideology. The material force of ideology makes me not see what I'm effectively eating. It's not only our reality which enslaves us. The tragedy. of our predicament when we are within ideology is that when we think that we escape it into our dreams at that point we are within ideology. They live from 19. 88. definitely one of the forgotten masterpieces of the Hollywood Left. It tells the story of John. Nada. Nada, of course, in Spanish means nothing. A pure subject, deprived of all substantial content. A homeless worker in LA who drifting around. One day enters into an abandoned church. and finds there a strange box full of sunglasses. And when he put One of them. On. Walking alone. the LA streets. He discovered something weird. The disc glasses function like critique of ideology Glasses. They allow you to see The real message beneath All the propaganda, publicity, glitz, posters, and so on. You see a large publicity board telling you have your holiday of a lifetime and when you put the glasses on you see just on the white background a gray inscription. We live so we are told. in a post-ideological society. We are interpolated That is to say, addressed by social authority. not as subjects. who should do their duty. sacrifice themselves. But… subjects of pleasures. realize your true potential. Be yourself. lead a satisfying life. When you put the glasses on. You see Dictatorship in Democracy is the invisible order which Sustains your apparent freedom. The explanation for the existence of this strange ideology, Glacies, is the standard story of the invasion of the body snatchers. Humanity is already under the control of Aliens.
I already am eating. from the trash can all the time. The name of this trash can is ideology. The material force of ideology makes me not see what I'm effectively eating. It's not only our reality which enslaves us. The tragedy. of our predicament when we are within ideology is that when we think that we escape it into our dreams at that point we are within ideology. They live from 19. 88. definitely one of the forgotten masterpieces of the Hollywood Left. It tells the story of John. Nada. Nada, of course, in Spanish means nothing. A pure subject, deprived of all substantial content. A homeless worker in LA who drifting around. One day enters into an abandoned church. and finds there a strange box full of sunglasses. And when he put One of them. On. Walking alone. the LA streets. He discovered something weird. The disc glasses function like critique of ideology Glasses. They allow you to see The real message beneath All the propaganda, publicity, glitz, posters, and so on. You see a large publicity board telling you have your holiday of a lifetime and when you put the glasses on you see just on the white background a gray inscription. We live so we are told. in a post-ideological society. We are interpolated That is to say, addressed by social authority. not as subjects. who should do their duty. sacrifice themselves. But… subjects of pleasures. realize your true potential. Be yourself. lead a satisfying life. When you put the glasses on. You see Dictatorship in Democracy is the invisible order which Sustains your apparent freedom. The explanation for the existence of this strange ideology, Glacies, is the standard story of the invasion of the body snatchers. Humanity is already under the control of Aliens.
Film Clip
Hey buddy. You're going to pay for that at what? Look, buddy. I don't want no hassle today. Either pay for it or put it back.
Hey buddy. You're going to pay for that at what? Look, buddy. I don't want no hassle today. Either pay for it or put it back.
Slavoj Žižek
According to our Common sense. We think that ideology is something blurring, confusing our straight view. Ideology should be glasses which distort our view and The critique of ideology should be the opposite like you take off the glasses so that you can finally see the way things really are. This precisely and here the pessimism of the film of They Live is well justified. This precisely is the ultimate illusion. Ideology is not simply imposed on ourselves. Ideology is our spontaneous Relationship 2. our social world, how we perceive its meaning and so on and so on. We in a way enjoy our ideology. All right. to step out of ideology. It hurts. It's a painful experience. You must force yourself to do it. This is rendered in a wonderful way with a further scene in the film where John Nada tries to force his best friend John Armitage to also put the glasses on.
According to our Common sense. We think that ideology is something blurring, confusing our straight view. Ideology should be glasses which distort our view and The critique of ideology should be the opposite like you take off the glasses so that you can finally see the way things really are. This precisely and here the pessimism of the film of They Live is well justified. This precisely is the ultimate illusion. Ideology is not simply imposed on ourselves. Ideology is our spontaneous Relationship 2. our social world, how we perceive its meaning and so on and so on. We in a way enjoy our ideology. All right. to step out of ideology. It hurts. It's a painful experience. You must force yourself to do it. This is rendered in a wonderful way with a further scene in the film where John Nada tries to force his best friend John Armitage to also put the glasses on.
Film Clip
I don't want to fight you. Come on. I don't want to fight you. Stop it. No.
I don't want to fight you. Come on. I don't want to fight you. Stop it. No.
Slavoj Žižek
And it's the weirdest scene in the film. The fight takes eight, nine minutes. It may appear irrational, because why does this guy reject so violently to put the glasses on. It is as if he is well aware that spontaneously he lives in a lie, that the glasses will make him see the truth, but that this truth can be painful, can shatter many of your Illusions. This is a paradox we have to accept.
And it's the weirdest scene in the film. The fight takes eight, nine minutes. It may appear irrational, because why does this guy reject so violently to put the glasses on. It is as if he is well aware that spontaneously he lives in a lie, that the glasses will make him see the truth, but that this truth can be painful, can shatter many of your Illusions. This is a paradox we have to accept.
Film Clip
The glass is all. Fork him up!
The glass is all. Fork him up!
Slavoj Žižek
the extreme violence of liberation. You must be forced to be free. If you trust simply your spontaneous sense of well-being or whatever, you will never get free. Look! Freedom. Hurt! The basic insight of psychoanalysis is to distinguish between enjoyment. And Simple. pleasures. They are not The same. enjoyment is Precisely enjoyment in disturbed pleasure. Even enjoyment in P and this excessive factor. disturbs the apparently simple relationship between Duty and pleasures. This is also a space where ideology. up to and especially religious ideology. operates. This brings me to maybe my favorite example. The great classical Hollywood film. The sound of music. We all know. It's the starting of A non. Who is Two. Alive with too much Energy ultimately, sexual energy to be constrained to the role of a nun.
the extreme violence of liberation. You must be forced to be free. If you trust simply your spontaneous sense of well-being or whatever, you will never get free. Look! Freedom. Hurt! The basic insight of psychoanalysis is to distinguish between enjoyment. And Simple. pleasures. They are not The same. enjoyment is Precisely enjoyment in disturbed pleasure. Even enjoyment in P and this excessive factor. disturbs the apparently simple relationship between Duty and pleasures. This is also a space where ideology. up to and especially religious ideology. operates. This brings me to maybe my favorite example. The great classical Hollywood film. The sound of music. We all know. It's the starting of A non. Who is Two. Alive with too much Energy ultimately, sexual energy to be constrained to the role of a nun.
Film Clip
Oh! Oh, reverend mother, I'm so sorry. I just couldn't help myself. The gates were open and the hills were beckoning and before I. I haven't summoned you here for apologies. Oh, please, mother, do let me ask for forgiveness. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, step together now.
Oh! Oh, reverend mother, I'm so sorry. I just couldn't help myself. The gates were open and the hills were beckoning and before I. I haven't summoned you here for apologies. Oh, please, mother, do let me ask for forgiveness. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, step together now.
Slavoj Žižek
So Mother Superior sends her to the Von Trepp family where she takes care of the children.
So Mother Superior sends her to the Von Trepp family where she takes care of the children.
Film Clip
under. Good. to practice.
under. Good. to practice.
Slavoj Žižek
Do allow me, won't you? And At the same time, of course, falls in love with the Baron von Trapp. And Maria gets too disturbed by it. cannot control it. Returns to the Convent.
Do allow me, won't you? And At the same time, of course, falls in love with the Baron von Trapp. And Maria gets too disturbed by it. cannot control it. Returns to the Convent.
Film Clip
Oh, there were times when we would look at each other. Oh, mother, I could hardly breathe. Did you let him see how you felt? If I did, I didn't know it. That's what's been torturing me. I was there on God's errand.
Oh, there were times when we would look at each other. Oh, mother, I could hardly breathe. Did you let him see how you felt? If I did, I didn't know it. That's what's been torturing me. I was there on God's errand.
Slavoj Žižek
No wonder that in old Communist Yugoslavia where I saw this film for the first time. Exactly. This scene, or more precisely the song which follows this strange hedonist, if you want, a. advised from the mother superior. Go back, seduce the guy, follow this path, do not betray your desire. namely The song which begins with "Climb every mountain." The song which is an almost embarrassing display and affirmation of desire. These three minutes Where? センサー
No wonder that in old Communist Yugoslavia where I saw this film for the first time. Exactly. This scene, or more precisely the song which follows this strange hedonist, if you want, a. advised from the mother superior. Go back, seduce the guy, follow this path, do not betray your desire. namely The song which begins with "Climb every mountain." The song which is an almost embarrassing display and affirmation of desire. These three minutes Where? センサー
Film Clip
Every mountain Search high and low. Follow every byway. Every path you know.
Every mountain Search high and low. Follow every byway. Every path you know.
Slavoj Žižek
I think the censor was a very intelligent man. He knew. as probably an atheist communist. where the power of attraction of Catholic religion Resides
I think the censor was a very intelligent man. He knew. as probably an atheist communist. where the power of attraction of Catholic religion Resides
Film Clip
Your dream. You know
Your dream. You know
Slavoj Žižek
If you read intelligent Catholic propagandists, and if you really try to discern what deal are they offering you, It's not to prohibit in this case sexual pleasures. It's a much more cynical contract, as it were, between the Church as an institution and The believer troubled with, in this case, sexual desires. It is this hidden, obscene permission that you get. You are covered by the divine big other. You can do whatever you want. Enjoy it. But we'll need This obscene contract does not belong to Christianity as such. It belongs to Catholic Church. as an institution. It is the logic of institution. at its purest. This is Again, a key to the functioning of the of ideology. not only the explicit message. renounce, suffer, and so on, but the true Hidden message. Pretend to renounce and you can get it all. My… Psychoanalytic friends are telling me that typically today patients who come. Pudhi. analysts to resolve their problems. Feel guilty, not because of excessive pleasures, not because they indulged in pleasures which go against their sense of duty or morality or whatsoever. On the contrary, they feel guilty for not enjoying enough, for not being able to enjoy. Oh my God, one is thirsty in the desert and What to drink? Go! The perfect commodity. Why? It was already Marx who long ago emphasized that a commodity is never just a simple object. that we buy and consume. A commodity isn't. Object. Full of theological, even metaphysical. NICE, LEE. Its presence always reflects an invisible transcendence. The classical publicity for Coke. quite openly refers to this absent, invisible quality. Coke is the real thing or Coke That's it. What is that it? The real thing. It's not just Another positive. Property of coke, something that can be described or. pinpointed through chemical analysis is that mysterious something more. Undescribable excess. which is the object. cause of my Desire. seis In our postmodern, however we call them societies. We are obliged to enjoy. Enjoyment becomes a kind of a weird, perverted Deut. Oh. Thank you. The paradox of coke is that You are thirsty, you drink it. As everyone knows, the more you drink it, the more thirsty you get. A desire. is never simply the desire for a certain thing, it's always also a desire for desire itself, a desire to continue to Desire, perhaps the ultimate horror of a desire. Isch. To be fully. filled in met so that I desire no longer. The ultimate melancholic experience is the experience of a Loss of desire itself. It's not that. in some return to an A previous era of natural a consumption where we got rid of this excess and were only consuming for actual needs like you were thirsty, you drank water and so on. We cannot return to that. The excess is with us forever. So Let's have a drink of coke. It's getting warm. It's no longer the real Coke and that's the problem. You know, this passage from. sublime to excremental dimension. When it's cold Properly served. It has a certain attraction. All of a sudden this can change into shit. It's the elementary dialectics of commodities. We are not talking about objective Factual properties of a commodity. We are talking only here about that elusive surplus. Kinder Surprise Egg a quite astonishing Commodity. The surprise of the Kinder, surprise, egg! is dead. this excessive object. the cause of your desire is here materialized in the guise of an object. a plastic toy which fills in the inner void of the chocolate egg. The whole delicate balance is between these two dimensions. What you bought the chocolate egg and The surplus probably made in some Chinese gulak or whatever, the surplus that you get for free. I don't think that The chocolate フレーム is here. Jaspo. send you on a deeper voyage towards The inner treasure, the What Plato calls the Agalma. which makes you a worthy person, which makes a commodity. The desirable commodity, I think, is the other way around. We should aim at The higher goal. The gold in the middle of an object precisely in order to be able to enjoy the surface. This is what is The anti-metaphysical lesson which is difficult to Accept. What does this Famous Oath to Joy, Stand for. It's usually perceived as a kind of a ode to humanity as such, to the brotherhood and freedom of all people. And what strikes the eye here is the universal adaptability of this well-known melody. It can be used by political movements which are totally opposed to each other. In Nazi Germany it was widely used to celebrate great public events. In Soviet Union Beethoven was lionized and the Ode to Joy was performed almost as a kind of a communist song. in China during the time of the Great Cultural Revolution. when almost all western music was prohibited. The ninth symphony was accepted. It was allowed to play it as a piece of progressive bourgeois music. at the extreme Hm Right. in South Rhodesia before it became Zimbabwe. proclaimed independence to be able to postpone the abolishment of apartheid. there for those couple of years of independent South Rhodesia. Again the melody of the Ode to Joy with changed lyrics, of course, was the anthem of the country.
If you read intelligent Catholic propagandists, and if you really try to discern what deal are they offering you, It's not to prohibit in this case sexual pleasures. It's a much more cynical contract, as it were, between the Church as an institution and The believer troubled with, in this case, sexual desires. It is this hidden, obscene permission that you get. You are covered by the divine big other. You can do whatever you want. Enjoy it. But we'll need This obscene contract does not belong to Christianity as such. It belongs to Catholic Church. as an institution. It is the logic of institution. at its purest. This is Again, a key to the functioning of the of ideology. not only the explicit message. renounce, suffer, and so on, but the true Hidden message. Pretend to renounce and you can get it all. My… Psychoanalytic friends are telling me that typically today patients who come. Pudhi. analysts to resolve their problems. Feel guilty, not because of excessive pleasures, not because they indulged in pleasures which go against their sense of duty or morality or whatsoever. On the contrary, they feel guilty for not enjoying enough, for not being able to enjoy. Oh my God, one is thirsty in the desert and What to drink? Go! The perfect commodity. Why? It was already Marx who long ago emphasized that a commodity is never just a simple object. that we buy and consume. A commodity isn't. Object. Full of theological, even metaphysical. NICE, LEE. Its presence always reflects an invisible transcendence. The classical publicity for Coke. quite openly refers to this absent, invisible quality. Coke is the real thing or Coke That's it. What is that it? The real thing. It's not just Another positive. Property of coke, something that can be described or. pinpointed through chemical analysis is that mysterious something more. Undescribable excess. which is the object. cause of my Desire. seis In our postmodern, however we call them societies. We are obliged to enjoy. Enjoyment becomes a kind of a weird, perverted Deut. Oh. Thank you. The paradox of coke is that You are thirsty, you drink it. As everyone knows, the more you drink it, the more thirsty you get. A desire. is never simply the desire for a certain thing, it's always also a desire for desire itself, a desire to continue to Desire, perhaps the ultimate horror of a desire. Isch. To be fully. filled in met so that I desire no longer. The ultimate melancholic experience is the experience of a Loss of desire itself. It's not that. in some return to an A previous era of natural a consumption where we got rid of this excess and were only consuming for actual needs like you were thirsty, you drank water and so on. We cannot return to that. The excess is with us forever. So Let's have a drink of coke. It's getting warm. It's no longer the real Coke and that's the problem. You know, this passage from. sublime to excremental dimension. When it's cold Properly served. It has a certain attraction. All of a sudden this can change into shit. It's the elementary dialectics of commodities. We are not talking about objective Factual properties of a commodity. We are talking only here about that elusive surplus. Kinder Surprise Egg a quite astonishing Commodity. The surprise of the Kinder, surprise, egg! is dead. this excessive object. the cause of your desire is here materialized in the guise of an object. a plastic toy which fills in the inner void of the chocolate egg. The whole delicate balance is between these two dimensions. What you bought the chocolate egg and The surplus probably made in some Chinese gulak or whatever, the surplus that you get for free. I don't think that The chocolate フレーム is here. Jaspo. send you on a deeper voyage towards The inner treasure, the What Plato calls the Agalma. which makes you a worthy person, which makes a commodity. The desirable commodity, I think, is the other way around. We should aim at The higher goal. The gold in the middle of an object precisely in order to be able to enjoy the surface. This is what is The anti-metaphysical lesson which is difficult to Accept. What does this Famous Oath to Joy, Stand for. It's usually perceived as a kind of a ode to humanity as such, to the brotherhood and freedom of all people. And what strikes the eye here is the universal adaptability of this well-known melody. It can be used by political movements which are totally opposed to each other. In Nazi Germany it was widely used to celebrate great public events. In Soviet Union Beethoven was lionized and the Ode to Joy was performed almost as a kind of a communist song. in China during the time of the Great Cultural Revolution. when almost all western music was prohibited. The ninth symphony was accepted. It was allowed to play it as a piece of progressive bourgeois music. at the extreme Hm Right. in South Rhodesia before it became Zimbabwe. proclaimed independence to be able to postpone the abolishment of apartheid. there for those couple of years of independent South Rhodesia. Again the melody of the Ode to Joy with changed lyrics, of course, was the anthem of the country.
Film Clip
La República Popular de la Democracia
La República Popular de la Democracia
Slavoj Žižek
At the opposite end. Abimael Guzmán, Presidente Gonzalo. The leader of Sendero Luminoso. The Shining Path. D. Extreme leftist guerrilla in Peru. When he was asked by a journalist which piece of music is his favorite he claimed again Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Out to joy. when Germany's were still divided. and their team. was appearing together at Olympics. When one of the Germans won golden medal. The game "Ode to Joy" was played instead of either East or West German national anthem. And even now, today, Ode to Joy is the unofficial anthem of the European Union. So it's truly that. We can imagine a kind of a perverse scene of universal fraternity where Osama bin Laden is embracing President Bush, Saddam is embracing Fidel Castro, White Racist is embracing Mao Zedong, and all together they sing out to joy. It works. And This is how Every ideology has to work. It's never just meaning. It always has to also work as an empty container open to all possible meanings. It's you know that gut feeling that we feel When we experience something pathetic and we say, "Oh my God, I'm so moved, there is something so deep." But you never know what this depth is. It's a void. Now, of course, there is a catch here. The catch is that, of course, this neutrality of a frame is never as neutral as it appears. Here, I think. The perspective of Alex from the Clockwork Orange enters. We were all feeling
At the opposite end. Abimael Guzmán, Presidente Gonzalo. The leader of Sendero Luminoso. The Shining Path. D. Extreme leftist guerrilla in Peru. When he was asked by a journalist which piece of music is his favorite he claimed again Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Out to joy. when Germany's were still divided. and their team. was appearing together at Olympics. When one of the Germans won golden medal. The game "Ode to Joy" was played instead of either East or West German national anthem. And even now, today, Ode to Joy is the unofficial anthem of the European Union. So it's truly that. We can imagine a kind of a perverse scene of universal fraternity where Osama bin Laden is embracing President Bush, Saddam is embracing Fidel Castro, White Racist is embracing Mao Zedong, and all together they sing out to joy. It works. And This is how Every ideology has to work. It's never just meaning. It always has to also work as an empty container open to all possible meanings. It's you know that gut feeling that we feel When we experience something pathetic and we say, "Oh my God, I'm so moved, there is something so deep." But you never know what this depth is. It's a void. Now, of course, there is a catch here. The catch is that, of course, this neutrality of a frame is never as neutral as it appears. Here, I think. The perspective of Alex from the Clockwork Orange enters. We were all feeling
Film Clip
Feeling a bit shagged and fagged and fashed. it having been an evening of some small energy expenditure. Oh, my brothers So we got rid of the auto and stopped off at the Kirova for an
Feeling a bit shagged and fagged and fashed. it having been an evening of some small energy expenditure. Oh, my brothers So we got rid of the auto and stopped off at the Kirova for an
Slavoj Žižek
Nightcap. Why is Alex? This ultimate. Cynical. Delinquent. The hero of Clockwork Orange. Why is he so fascinated? Overwhelmed. When he sees the lady singing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."
Nightcap. Why is Alex? This ultimate. Cynical. Delinquent. The hero of Clockwork Orange. Why is he so fascinated? Overwhelmed. When he sees the lady singing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."
Film Clip
And it was like, for a moment, O my brothers, some great bird had flown into the milk pot. And I felt all the melanky little hairs on my plot. Standing endwise. and the shivers crawling up like slow melanki lizards. and then down again. because I knew what she said. It was a bit from the "Glorious Ninth" by Ludwig van. Ja, ja, ja, ja.
And it was like, for a moment, O my brothers, some great bird had flown into the milk pot. And I felt all the melanky little hairs on my plot. Standing endwise. and the shivers crawling up like slow melanki lizards. and then down again. because I knew what she said. It was a bit from the "Glorious Ninth" by Ludwig van. Ja, ja, ja, ja.
Slavoj Žižek
Whenever an ideological text says all humanity unite in brotherhood, joy, and so on, you should always ask, "Okay, okay, okay, but are these all, really all, or is someone excluded?" I think Alex, the delinquent from Clockwork Orange, identifies with this place of exclusion. And the great genius of Beethoven is that he literally staged this exclusion. All of a sudden the whole tone changes into a kind of a carnevale-esque rhythm. It's no longer this sublime beauty.
Whenever an ideological text says all humanity unite in brotherhood, joy, and so on, you should always ask, "Okay, okay, okay, but are these all, really all, or is someone excluded?" I think Alex, the delinquent from Clockwork Orange, identifies with this place of exclusion. And the great genius of Beethoven is that he literally staged this exclusion. All of a sudden the whole tone changes into a kind of a carnevale-esque rhythm. It's no longer this sublime beauty.
Film Clip
Excuse me, brother. I ordered this two weeks ago. Can you see if it's arrived yet, please?"
Excuse me, brother. I ordered this two weeks ago. Can you see if it's arrived yet, please?"
Film Clip
Just a minute.
Just a minute.
Slavoj Žižek
We hear this vulgar music precisely when Alex enters a shopping arcade and we can see from his movements that now he feels at home. He's like fish in the water.
We hear this vulgar music precisely when Alex enters a shopping arcade and we can see from his movements that now he feels at home. He's like fish in the water.
Film Clip
Pardon me, ladies.
Pardon me, ladies.
Slavoj Žižek
Beethoven is not a cheap celebrator of the Brotherhood of Humanity and so on. We are one big happy family enjoying freedom, dignity and so on.
Beethoven is not a cheap celebrator of the Brotherhood of Humanity and so on. We are one big happy family enjoying freedom, dignity and so on.
Film Clip
Enjoying that, are you, my darling?
Enjoying that, are you, my darling?
Slavoj Žižek
The first part, which is falsely celebrated today, you hear it in all official events, is clearly identified with Beethoven as ideology. And then the second part tells the true story of that which disturbs the official ideology and of the failure of the official ideology to constrain it, to tame it. This is why Beethoven was doing something which may appear difficult to do. He was already in a purely musical work practicing critique of ideology. If the classical ideology function in the way designated by Marx. In his nice formula from Capital Volume 1, they don't know what they are doing, but they are nonetheless doing it. Cynical ideology functions in the mode of I know very well what I'm doing, but I'm still nonetheless doing it. This paradoxical constellation is staged in a beautiful way. in the famous song, "Officer Krupke," in Bernstein's and Sondheim's "West Side Story."
The first part, which is falsely celebrated today, you hear it in all official events, is clearly identified with Beethoven as ideology. And then the second part tells the true story of that which disturbs the official ideology and of the failure of the official ideology to constrain it, to tame it. This is why Beethoven was doing something which may appear difficult to do. He was already in a purely musical work practicing critique of ideology. If the classical ideology function in the way designated by Marx. In his nice formula from Capital Volume 1, they don't know what they are doing, but they are nonetheless doing it. Cynical ideology functions in the mode of I know very well what I'm doing, but I'm still nonetheless doing it. This paradoxical constellation is staged in a beautiful way. in the famous song, "Officer Krupke," in Bernstein's and Sondheim's "West Side Story."
Film Clip
Hey you! Who me, Officer Krupki? Yeah, you! Give me one good reason for not dragging you down to the station house, you punk!" Dear, kindly Sergeant Krupke, you gotta understand, it's just our bringing up that gets us out of hand. Our mothers all are junkies, our fathers all are drunks. Golly Moses!
Hey you! Who me, Officer Krupki? Yeah, you! Give me one good reason for not dragging you down to the station house, you punk!" Dear, kindly Sergeant Krupke, you gotta understand, it's just our bringing up that gets us out of hand. Our mothers all are junkies, our fathers all are drunks. Golly Moses!
Slavoj Žižek
naturally
naturally
Film Clip
He was punks.
He was punks.
Slavoj Žižek
Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset. The delinquent gang inact A whole explanation is a musical number, of course, of why they are delinquents.
Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset. The delinquent gang inact A whole explanation is a musical number, of course, of why they are delinquents.
Film Clip
Good! There is good! There is good! There is on tap! Good! Like inside! The worst of us is good!
Good! There is good! There is good! There is on tap! Good! Like inside! The worst of us is good!
Slavoj Žižek
addressing the police officer Krupke, who is Not there, but Oleg's addressed the police officer.
addressing the police officer Krupke, who is Not there, but Oleg's addressed the police officer.
Film Clip
Such a good story. Let me tell it to the world. Let us tell her to the judge.
Such a good story. Let me tell it to the world. Let us tell her to the judge.
Slavoj Žižek
So one of them adopts the position of a judge.
So one of them adopts the position of a judge.
Film Clip
Dear, kindly judge your honor, My parents treat me rough, With all their marijuana. They won't give me a puff.
Dear, kindly judge your honor, My parents treat me rough, With all their marijuana. They won't give me a puff.
Slavoj Žižek
Then the psychological explanation.
Then the psychological explanation.
Film Clip
He shouldn't be here. This boy don't need a couch. He needs a useful career. Society's played him a terrible trick. Unsociologically he's sick. I am We are
He shouldn't be here. This boy don't need a couch. He needs a useful career. Society's played him a terrible trick. Unsociologically he's sick. I am We are
Film Clip
We are sick.
We are sick.
Slavoj Žižek
The paradox here is how can you know all this and still do it? This is the cynical functioning of ideology. They are never what they appear to be cynical, brutal, delinquents. They always have a tiny private dream. This dream can be many things. It can even be something quite ordinary. Let's take the English riots of August 2011. The standard liberal explanation really sounds like a repetition of Officer Krabke's song. We cannot just condemn these riots as delinquent vandalism. You have to see how these people live in practically ghettos, isolated communities, no proper family life, no proper education. They don't even have a prospect of a regular employment. But this is not enough. Because man is not simply a product of objective circumstances.
The paradox here is how can you know all this and still do it? This is the cynical functioning of ideology. They are never what they appear to be cynical, brutal, delinquents. They always have a tiny private dream. This dream can be many things. It can even be something quite ordinary. Let's take the English riots of August 2011. The standard liberal explanation really sounds like a repetition of Officer Krabke's song. We cannot just condemn these riots as delinquent vandalism. You have to see how these people live in practically ghettos, isolated communities, no proper family life, no proper education. They don't even have a prospect of a regular employment. But this is not enough. Because man is not simply a product of objective circumstances.
Film Clip
It's deep, it's black, it's deep.
It's deep, it's black, it's deep.
Slavoj Žižek
We all have this margin of freedom. in deciding how we subjectivize these objective circumstances which of course determine us. How we react to them by constructing our own universe. The conservative solution is we need more police, we need courts which pass severe judgments. I think this solution is too simple. If one listened closely to some of David Cameron's statements it looked as if okay they are beating people burning houses but the truly horrible thing is that they were taking objects without paying for them, the ultimate sin that we can imagine. in a very limited way. Cameron was right. There was no ideological justification. It is the reaction of people who are totally caught into the predominant ideology but have no ways to realize what this ideology demands of them. So it's a kind of a wild thing. Acting out. within this ideological space of consumerism. Even if we are dealing with apparently totally non-ideological brutality, I just want to burn houses to get objects. It is the result of a very specific social and ideological constellation. where big ideology, striving for justice, equality, etc., disintegrates. The only functioning ideology is pure consumerism and then no wonder what you get is a form of protest. Every violent acting out is a sign. that there is something you are not able to put into works. Even the most brutal violence is the enacting of a certain Symbolic. Deadlock The great thing about The taxi driver. Is that it? brings this brutal outburst of violence to its radical suicidal dimension. We are not dealing here with something which simply concerns the fragile Psychology. Over… distorted person what Travis in Taxi Driver is, it has something to do with ideology.
We all have this margin of freedom. in deciding how we subjectivize these objective circumstances which of course determine us. How we react to them by constructing our own universe. The conservative solution is we need more police, we need courts which pass severe judgments. I think this solution is too simple. If one listened closely to some of David Cameron's statements it looked as if okay they are beating people burning houses but the truly horrible thing is that they were taking objects without paying for them, the ultimate sin that we can imagine. in a very limited way. Cameron was right. There was no ideological justification. It is the reaction of people who are totally caught into the predominant ideology but have no ways to realize what this ideology demands of them. So it's a kind of a wild thing. Acting out. within this ideological space of consumerism. Even if we are dealing with apparently totally non-ideological brutality, I just want to burn houses to get objects. It is the result of a very specific social and ideological constellation. where big ideology, striving for justice, equality, etc., disintegrates. The only functioning ideology is pure consumerism and then no wonder what you get is a form of protest. Every violent acting out is a sign. that there is something you are not able to put into works. Even the most brutal violence is the enacting of a certain Symbolic. Deadlock The great thing about The taxi driver. Is that it? brings this brutal outburst of violence to its radical suicidal dimension. We are not dealing here with something which simply concerns the fragile Psychology. Over… distorted person what Travis in Taxi Driver is, it has something to do with ideology.
Film Clip
Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads, here is a man who would not take it anymore, who would not Let Listen, you fuckers! Use screw heads. He is a man. who would not take it any more. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is someone who stood up In the 10th.
Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads, here is a man who would not take it anymore, who would not Let Listen, you fuckers! Use screw heads. He is a man. who would not take it any more. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is someone who stood up In the 10th.
Slavoj Žižek
Taxi driver Travis, the hero, is bothered by the young prostitute played by Jodie Foster. What bothers him are, of course, as is always the case, precisely his fantasies, fantasies of her victimhood, of her hidden pleasures. And fantasies are not just a private matter of individuals. Fantasies are the central stuff our ideologies are made of. Fantasy is, in psychoanalytic perspective, fundamentally a lie. not a lie in the sense that it's just a fantasy but not a reality but a lie in the sense that fantasy covers up a certain gap inconsistency. When things are blurred, when we cannot really get to know things, Fantasy provides an easy answer. The usual mode of fantasy is to construct a scene, not a scene where I get what I desire, but a scene in which I imagine myself as desired by others. A taxi driver is an unacknowledged Remake of perhaps the greatest of John Ford's Westerns, his late Classic. The searchers. I take many Scalps. セレターノスデイ In both films, the hero tries to save a young woman who is perceived as a victim of brutal abuse. In The searchers. The young Natalie Wood was kidnapped and lived for a couple of years as the wife of an Indian chief. In "Taxi Driver" the young Jodie Foster is controlled by a ruthless pimp
Taxi driver Travis, the hero, is bothered by the young prostitute played by Jodie Foster. What bothers him are, of course, as is always the case, precisely his fantasies, fantasies of her victimhood, of her hidden pleasures. And fantasies are not just a private matter of individuals. Fantasies are the central stuff our ideologies are made of. Fantasy is, in psychoanalytic perspective, fundamentally a lie. not a lie in the sense that it's just a fantasy but not a reality but a lie in the sense that fantasy covers up a certain gap inconsistency. When things are blurred, when we cannot really get to know things, Fantasy provides an easy answer. The usual mode of fantasy is to construct a scene, not a scene where I get what I desire, but a scene in which I imagine myself as desired by others. A taxi driver is an unacknowledged Remake of perhaps the greatest of John Ford's Westerns, his late Classic. The searchers. I take many Scalps. セレターノスデイ In both films, the hero tries to save a young woman who is perceived as a victim of brutal abuse. In The searchers. The young Natalie Wood was kidnapped and lived for a couple of years as the wife of an Indian chief. In "Taxi Driver" the young Jodie Foster is controlled by a ruthless pimp
Film Clip
You walk out with those fucking creeps and lowlives and degenerates out on the street and you sell your little pussy for nothing, man. For some low-life pimp. stands in a hall, I'm square. You're the one that's square, man. I don't go screwing fuck with a bunch of killers and junkies the way you do.
You walk out with those fucking creeps and lowlives and degenerates out on the street and you sell your little pussy for nothing, man. For some low-life pimp. stands in a hall, I'm square. You're the one that's square, man. I don't go screwing fuck with a bunch of killers and junkies the way you do.
Slavoj Žižek
The task is always to save the perceived Viktor von But what really drives this violence of the hero is a deep suspicion that the victim is not simply a victim, that the victim, effectively in a perverted way, enjoys or participates in what appears as her victimhood, so that, to put it very simply, she doesn't want to be redeemed. She resists it.
The task is always to save the perceived Viktor von But what really drives this violence of the hero is a deep suspicion that the victim is not simply a victim, that the victim, effectively in a perverted way, enjoys or participates in what appears as her victimhood, so that, to put it very simply, she doesn't want to be redeemed. She resists it.
Film Clip
Let's go home, Debbie.
Let's go home, Debbie.
Slavoj Žižek
And this is the big problem, if I make an immediate jump to the political dimension, the big problem of American military interventions, especially so-called humanitarian interventions. From Iraq to already Vietnam. Eh? Half a century ago We try to help Then But what if they really did not want our help? The result of this debilitating deadlock can only be an outburst of violence. We do get towards the end of the film. Trev is exploding. In a killing spree. killing the pimps, all the people around the young girl. Violence is never just abstract. Violence. It's a kind of brutal intervention in the real to cover up a certain impotence concerning What we may call cognitive mapping. You lack a clear picture of what's going on. Where are we? Exactly the same holds for the terrifying outburst of violence.
And this is the big problem, if I make an immediate jump to the political dimension, the big problem of American military interventions, especially so-called humanitarian interventions. From Iraq to already Vietnam. Eh? Half a century ago We try to help Then But what if they really did not want our help? The result of this debilitating deadlock can only be an outburst of violence. We do get towards the end of the film. Trev is exploding. In a killing spree. killing the pimps, all the people around the young girl. Violence is never just abstract. Violence. It's a kind of brutal intervention in the real to cover up a certain impotence concerning What we may call cognitive mapping. You lack a clear picture of what's going on. Where are we? Exactly the same holds for the terrifying outburst of violence.
Film Clip
I don't care.
I don't care.
Slavoj Žižek
Anders Behring Breivik's murderous spree in Oslo, exploding a bomb in front of the government building and then killing dozens of young members of the Social Democratic Party in an island close to Oslo.
Anders Behring Breivik's murderous spree in Oslo, exploding a bomb in front of the government building and then killing dozens of young members of the Social Democratic Party in an island close to Oslo.
Film Clip
Onkoma na onkoma efla eya.
Onkoma na onkoma efla eya.
Slavoj Žižek
Many commentators tried to dismiss this as a clear case of personal insanity. But I think Breivik's manifesto is well worth reading. It is. palmably clear there. How! This violence that brave it not only theorized about, but also enacted, is a. Reaction to the impenetrability and confusion of global capital. It's exactly like Travis Bickles. Eh? Killing spree at the end of the taxi. Driver. When he is there barely alive, he symbolically with his fingers points a gun at his own head, clear sign that all this violence was basically suicidal. He was on the right path in a way, Travis in the taxi driver. You should have the outburst of violence, and you should direct it at yourself. but in a very specific way. At what in yourself Change you ties you to the ruling ideology.
Many commentators tried to dismiss this as a clear case of personal insanity. But I think Breivik's manifesto is well worth reading. It is. palmably clear there. How! This violence that brave it not only theorized about, but also enacted, is a. Reaction to the impenetrability and confusion of global capital. It's exactly like Travis Bickles. Eh? Killing spree at the end of the taxi. Driver. When he is there barely alive, he symbolically with his fingers points a gun at his own head, clear sign that all this violence was basically suicidal. He was on the right path in a way, Travis in the taxi driver. You should have the outburst of violence, and you should direct it at yourself. but in a very specific way. At what in yourself Change you ties you to the ruling ideology.
Film Clip
Pipit pipit Pipit
Pipit pipit Pipit
Slavoj Žižek
In Stephen Pielberg's. Joss. A SHARK! starts to attack. people on the beach. What does this attack Mean. What does the shark stand to 4. There were Different, even mutually exclusive answers to this question. On the one hand, some critics claim that obviously the shark stands for the foreign threat to ordinary Americans. The shark is a metaphor for either natural disaster, storms, or immigrants threatening United States citizens and so on. On the other hand, It's interesting to note that Fidel Castro, who loves the film, once said that for him it was obvious that Joss is kind of a leftist Marxist film and that the shark is a metaphor for Brute! Bic. Capital exploiting Ordinary. Americans. So, "quickly" is the right answer. I claim None of them and at the same time all of them. Ordinary Americans, as ordinary people in all countries, have a multitude of fears. We fear all kind of things. We fear Maybe immigrants or people whom we perceive as lower than ourselves attacking us, robbing us. We fear people raping our children. We fear natural disasters, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis. We fear corrupted politicians, we fear big companies which can basically do with us whatever they want. The function of the shark. is to unite all these fears. so that we can in a way trade all these fears for one fear alone. In this way our experience of reality gets much simpler. Why am I mentioning this? Because isn't it that For example, The most extreme case of ideology may be in the history of humanity. the Nazi fascist anti-Semitism. work precisely in the same way. Imagine an ordinary German citizen in the late 20s, early 30s, his situation is, in an abstract way, the same as that of a small child. He's totally perplexed. Social authority, symbolic order, is telling him you are a German worker, banker, whatever, but nothing functions. What does society want from him? Why is everything going wrong? The way he perceives the situation is that newspapers lied to him. He lost his work because of inflation. He lost all his All his money in the bank, his moral degradation and so on. So what's the meaning of this all? The original fascist Dream is To, of course, as a dream of every ideology, to have a cake and to eat it. As it was often pointed out, fascism is, at its most elementary, a conservative revolution. revolution, economic development, modern industry, yes, but a revolution which would nonetheless maintain or even reassert a traditional hierarchical society. a society which is modern, efficient, but at the same time controlled by hierarchic values, with no class or other antagonisms. No. They have a problem here. the fascists. But Antagonism. class struggle and other tensions. is something inherent to capitalism. Modernization, industrialization, as we know from the history of capitalism, means disintegration of old, stable relations. It means social conflicts. Instability is The way capitalism Functions. So how to solve this problem? You need to generate an ideological Narrative which explains how things went wrong in a society not as the result of the inherent tensions in the development of this society, but as the result of a foreign intruder. Things were okay till Jews penetrated our social body. The way to restore the health of our social body is to eliminate The Jews. It's the same operation as with the shark in Jaws. You have a multitude of fears, and this multiplicity of fears confuses you like. You simply don't know what's the meaning of all this confusion. And you replace this confused multitude with one clear figure. The Jew, and everything becomes clear.
In Stephen Pielberg's. Joss. A SHARK! starts to attack. people on the beach. What does this attack Mean. What does the shark stand to 4. There were Different, even mutually exclusive answers to this question. On the one hand, some critics claim that obviously the shark stands for the foreign threat to ordinary Americans. The shark is a metaphor for either natural disaster, storms, or immigrants threatening United States citizens and so on. On the other hand, It's interesting to note that Fidel Castro, who loves the film, once said that for him it was obvious that Joss is kind of a leftist Marxist film and that the shark is a metaphor for Brute! Bic. Capital exploiting Ordinary. Americans. So, "quickly" is the right answer. I claim None of them and at the same time all of them. Ordinary Americans, as ordinary people in all countries, have a multitude of fears. We fear all kind of things. We fear Maybe immigrants or people whom we perceive as lower than ourselves attacking us, robbing us. We fear people raping our children. We fear natural disasters, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis. We fear corrupted politicians, we fear big companies which can basically do with us whatever they want. The function of the shark. is to unite all these fears. so that we can in a way trade all these fears for one fear alone. In this way our experience of reality gets much simpler. Why am I mentioning this? Because isn't it that For example, The most extreme case of ideology may be in the history of humanity. the Nazi fascist anti-Semitism. work precisely in the same way. Imagine an ordinary German citizen in the late 20s, early 30s, his situation is, in an abstract way, the same as that of a small child. He's totally perplexed. Social authority, symbolic order, is telling him you are a German worker, banker, whatever, but nothing functions. What does society want from him? Why is everything going wrong? The way he perceives the situation is that newspapers lied to him. He lost his work because of inflation. He lost all his All his money in the bank, his moral degradation and so on. So what's the meaning of this all? The original fascist Dream is To, of course, as a dream of every ideology, to have a cake and to eat it. As it was often pointed out, fascism is, at its most elementary, a conservative revolution. revolution, economic development, modern industry, yes, but a revolution which would nonetheless maintain or even reassert a traditional hierarchical society. a society which is modern, efficient, but at the same time controlled by hierarchic values, with no class or other antagonisms. No. They have a problem here. the fascists. But Antagonism. class struggle and other tensions. is something inherent to capitalism. Modernization, industrialization, as we know from the history of capitalism, means disintegration of old, stable relations. It means social conflicts. Instability is The way capitalism Functions. So how to solve this problem? You need to generate an ideological Narrative which explains how things went wrong in a society not as the result of the inherent tensions in the development of this society, but as the result of a foreign intruder. Things were okay till Jews penetrated our social body. The way to restore the health of our social body is to eliminate The Jews. It's the same operation as with the shark in Jaws. You have a multitude of fears, and this multiplicity of fears confuses you like. You simply don't know what's the meaning of all this confusion. And you replace this confused multitude with one clear figure. The Jew, and everything becomes clear.
Archival Speech
year The search for cuts in the social security provision to lone parent families in part spurred this report. The Social Security Department fears that the accelerating budget for single mothers on benefits could reach nearly £5 billion by the end of the decade. But the issue of the lone parent has increasingly been seen as the heart of John Major's back-to-basics crusade. Remember, I think around
year The search for cuts in the social security provision to lone parent families in part spurred this report. The Social Security Department fears that the accelerating budget for single mothers on benefits could reach nearly £5 billion by the end of the decade. But the issue of the lone parent has increasingly been seen as the heart of John Major's back-to-basics crusade. Remember, I think around
Slavoj Žižek
Two, three decades ago when the Prime Minister of United Kingdom was John Major. There was a kind of ideological campaign to return to morality and so on. All the evils of society Where? embodied in the conservative narrative in the figure of Uh unemployed single mother like there is violence in our suburbs of course because single unemployed mothers cannot take care of their of their children don't properly educate them and so on. We have. lack in our budget, not enough money, of course, because we have to support unwed single mothers and so on and so on. in an ideological edifice. You need some pseudo-concrete image like this to fixate your imagination and then this image can mobilize us. Imagine ideology as a kind of a Filter. A frame. So that if you look at the same ordinary reality through that frame. Everything changes. In what sense? It's not that the frame Actually, adds anything. It's just that the frame opens the abyss of suspicion.
Two, three decades ago when the Prime Minister of United Kingdom was John Major. There was a kind of ideological campaign to return to morality and so on. All the evils of society Where? embodied in the conservative narrative in the figure of Uh unemployed single mother like there is violence in our suburbs of course because single unemployed mothers cannot take care of their of their children don't properly educate them and so on. We have. lack in our budget, not enough money, of course, because we have to support unwed single mothers and so on and so on. in an ideological edifice. You need some pseudo-concrete image like this to fixate your imagination and then this image can mobilize us. Imagine ideology as a kind of a Filter. A frame. So that if you look at the same ordinary reality through that frame. Everything changes. In what sense? It's not that the frame Actually, adds anything. It's just that the frame opens the abyss of suspicion.
Archival Clip
Thank you. Freilich wandeln sie ihr Äußeres, wenn sie von der polnischen Niststätte in die reiche Welt hinausgelangen.
Thank you. Freilich wandeln sie ihr Äußeres, wenn sie von der polnischen Niststätte in die reiche Welt hinausgelangen.
Slavoj Žižek
If we look at the anti-Semitic image of the Jew, it's crucial to notice how contradictory this figure of the Jew is.
If we look at the anti-Semitic image of the Jew, it's crucial to notice how contradictory this figure of the Jew is.
Archival Clip
Der Relativitätsjude Einstein! der seinen deutschen Hass hinter einer obskuren Pseudowissenschaft versteckte. Der Jude Kestenberg. betreute im preußischen Kultusministerium die deutsche Musik.
Der Relativitätsjude Einstein! der seinen deutschen Hass hinter einer obskuren Pseudowissenschaft versteckte. Der Jude Kestenberg. betreute im preußischen Kultusministerium die deutsche Musik.
Slavoj Žižek
Jews are at the same time extra intellectual, like mathematicians, whatever. And vulgar.
Jews are at the same time extra intellectual, like mathematicians, whatever. And vulgar.
Archival Clip
Auf Deutsch gesagt. Die jüdischen Behausungen sind unsauber und verwahrlost.
Auf Deutsch gesagt. Die jüdischen Behausungen sind unsauber und verwahrlost.
Slavoj Žižek
not washing regularly
not washing regularly
Archival Clip
Der Jüdische Schädel wurde bei seinem Besuch in Berlin von einer begeisterten Menge begrüßt.
Der Jüdische Schädel wurde bei seinem Besuch in Berlin von einer begeisterten Menge begrüßt.
Slavoj Žižek
seducing innocent girls all the time and so on and so on.
seducing innocent girls all the time and so on and so on.
Archival Clip
Es lässt sich nicht leugnen, ein Teil des deutschen Volkes applaudierte damals ahnungslos den zugewanderten Juden. den Todfreunden seiner Rasse Wie war das möglich? Natürlich wissen sich diese Ghetto Juden zunächst noch nicht richtig in den sauberen europäischen Anzügen zu bewegen. Etwas besser können es diese Berliner Juden. Ihr Väter und Großväter Haben zwar auch noch im Ghetto gelebt Aber davon merkt man nun äußerlich nichts mehr. Hier in der zweiten und dritten Generation. Hat die Assimilation ihren Höhepunkt erreicht. In allen Äußerlichkeiten versuchen sie, es dem Gastvolk gleichzutun. Wann ist ein Stinkflöhe auf der Percha? Lassen sie sich von dieser Mimikry täuschen! und betrachten sie tatsächlich als ihresgleichen. Darin liegt die ungeheure Gefahr. Denn auch diese assimilierten Juden Bremmkörper im Organismus ihres Gastvolkes. so sehr sie ihn äußerlich ähnlich sehen mögen.
Es lässt sich nicht leugnen, ein Teil des deutschen Volkes applaudierte damals ahnungslos den zugewanderten Juden. den Todfreunden seiner Rasse Wie war das möglich? Natürlich wissen sich diese Ghetto Juden zunächst noch nicht richtig in den sauberen europäischen Anzügen zu bewegen. Etwas besser können es diese Berliner Juden. Ihr Väter und Großväter Haben zwar auch noch im Ghetto gelebt Aber davon merkt man nun äußerlich nichts mehr. Hier in der zweiten und dritten Generation. Hat die Assimilation ihren Höhepunkt erreicht. In allen Äußerlichkeiten versuchen sie, es dem Gastvolk gleichzutun. Wann ist ein Stinkflöhe auf der Percha? Lassen sie sich von dieser Mimikry täuschen! und betrachten sie tatsächlich als ihresgleichen. Darin liegt die ungeheure Gefahr. Denn auch diese assimilierten Juden Bremmkörper im Organismus ihres Gastvolkes. so sehr sie ihn äußerlich ähnlich sehen mögen.
Slavoj Žižek
This is typical for racism. You try to imagine how the other enjoys all the secret orgies or whatever, because in racism the other is not simply an enemy. Usually it is also invested with some specific perverse enjoyment or in an inverted way, the other can be someone who tries to steal from us our enjoyments, our to disturb, as we usually put it. our way of life. We should be here. very precise. not to fall into the usual trap of disqualifying all elements out of which the Nazi ideological edifice is composed. to disqualify all them as proto-fascists. We should never forget that the large majority of these elements which we today associate We Fascism were taken from The workers moved.
This is typical for racism. You try to imagine how the other enjoys all the secret orgies or whatever, because in racism the other is not simply an enemy. Usually it is also invested with some specific perverse enjoyment or in an inverted way, the other can be someone who tries to steal from us our enjoyments, our to disturb, as we usually put it. our way of life. We should be here. very precise. not to fall into the usual trap of disqualifying all elements out of which the Nazi ideological edifice is composed. to disqualify all them as proto-fascists. We should never forget that the large majority of these elements which we today associate We Fascism were taken from The workers moved.
Archival Clip
I… I don't know, it's better.
I… I don't know, it's better.
Slavoj Žižek
This idea of large Numbers of people marching together. This idea of Street Bodily. Discipline is our due to… The Nazis directly took this over from social democracy. from the left. Let me just take some other central concepts of the Nazi worldview. The solidarity of the people. My God, there is nothing bad in this notion as such. The problem is solidarity to what kind of people? If by people you mean. Volksgemeinschaft, the organic community of people. Where then? The enemy is automatically. The foreign intruder. In this case we are in Nazism. The crucial thing is to locate ideology where it belongs. Let's take a clear example. The well-known song "Tomorrow belongs to me" from the film "Cabaret".
This idea of large Numbers of people marching together. This idea of Street Bodily. Discipline is our due to… The Nazis directly took this over from social democracy. from the left. Let me just take some other central concepts of the Nazi worldview. The solidarity of the people. My God, there is nothing bad in this notion as such. The problem is solidarity to what kind of people? If by people you mean. Volksgemeinschaft, the organic community of people. Where then? The enemy is automatically. The foreign intruder. In this case we are in Nazism. The crucial thing is to locate ideology where it belongs. Let's take a clear example. The well-known song "Tomorrow belongs to me" from the film "Cabaret".
Film Clip
I'm sorry. Evon. Uh, thanks for the question.
I'm sorry. Evon. Uh, thanks for the question.
Slavoj Žižek
Some of my friends After seeing the film, Bob Fossis, cabaret, thought that after they heard this song, they finally understood what, at its deepest, as to its emotional impact, what fascism is. But I think this precisely is the mistake to be avoided. This song is a rather ordinary popular song incidentally it was composed while they were shooting the movie by a Jewish couple. Nice irony. If you look not only at the music, at the way it is sung, but even at the words, Awakening of a nation tomorrow belongs to me. One can well imagine with a slight change of words, radically leftist, communist song.
Some of my friends After seeing the film, Bob Fossis, cabaret, thought that after they heard this song, they finally understood what, at its deepest, as to its emotional impact, what fascism is. But I think this precisely is the mistake to be avoided. This song is a rather ordinary popular song incidentally it was composed while they were shooting the movie by a Jewish couple. Nice irony. If you look not only at the music, at the way it is sung, but even at the words, Awakening of a nation tomorrow belongs to me. One can well imagine with a slight change of words, radically leftist, communist song.
Film Clip
What soon sets off Thank you.
What soon sets off Thank you.
Slavoj Žižek
The German hard rock band Rammstein. are often accused of flirting, playing with the Nazi militaristic iconography. But if one observes closely their show, one can see very nicely what they are doing. Exemplarily in one of their best known songs, "Rise, Rise". The minimal elements. of the Nazi ideology. enacted by Ramstein are something like pure elements of libidinal investment. Enjoyment has to be, as it were, condensed in some minimal ticks, gestures, which do not have any precise ideological meaning.
The German hard rock band Rammstein. are often accused of flirting, playing with the Nazi militaristic iconography. But if one observes closely their show, one can see very nicely what they are doing. Exemplarily in one of their best known songs, "Rise, Rise". The minimal elements. of the Nazi ideology. enacted by Ramstein are something like pure elements of libidinal investment. Enjoyment has to be, as it were, condensed in some minimal ticks, gestures, which do not have any precise ideological meaning.
Film Clip
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Slavoj Žižek
What Ramstein does. is it liberates this element from their Nazi articulations. It allows us to enjoy them in their pre-ideological state. The way to fight Nazism is to enjoy these elements. ridiculous as they may appear. By suspending the Nazi horizon of meaning. This way. You undermine Nazism from within. So how does nonetheless ideology do this? How That's it. articulate. pre-ideological elements. These elements can also be seen as a kind of a バイ the way ideology tells us to seduce us into its These bribes can be purely libidinal bribes, although sticks which are condensed enjoyment, or they can be explicit discursive elements, like notions of solidarity, Uh, uh, uh. of collective discipline struggle. for one's destiny, and so on and so on. All this in itself are free floating elements which open themselves to Different ideological fields. Let's turn to the high point of our Consumerism. Let me They… A day. Steam. Some of it Starbucks coffee I'm regularly. Drinking it. I must. Admit it. But are we aware of Death. When we buy a cappuccino from Starbucks, we also buy quite a lot of ideology. Which ideology? You know, when you enter a Starbucks store, It's usually always displaced in some posters their message which is yes our cappuccino is more expensive than others but And then comes the story. We give 1% of all our income to some Guatemala children to keep them healthy, for the water supply, for some Sahara farmers, or to save the forests to enable organic growing on coffee, whatever, whatever. Now, I admire the ingenuity of this solution. In the old days, of pure simple consumerism. You bought a product and then you felt bad. My God, I'm just a consumerist while people are starving in Africa. So the idea was you had to do something to counteract your pure destructive consumerism. For example, I don't know, you contribute to charity and so on. What Starbucks enables you is to Be a consumerist. And be a consumerist without any bad conscience because the price for the countermeasure for fighting consumerism is already included into the price of a commodity like you pay a little bit more and you are not just a consumerist but you do also your duty to work environment, the poor starving people in Africa and so on and so on. It's, I think, the ultimate form of consumerism. We should not simply oppose. A principled life dedicated to Duty and enjoying Our Small pleasures. Let's take today's Capitalism. We have… On the one hand. the demands of the circulation of the capital which push us towards profit-making expansion. exploitation and destruction of nature and On the other hand, ecological Dimanche. Let's think about our posterity and about our own survival. Let's take care of nature. And so on. In this opposition between ruthless pursuit of Capitalist expansion, &c. Ecological awareness. Duty, a strange, perverted duty, of course. Duty. is on the side of Capitalism. as many perspicuous analysts. Note it. Capitalism has a strange religious structure. It is. Propelled by this absolute demand. Capital has to circulate, to reproduce itself, to expand, to multiply itself, and for this goal anything can be sacrificed, up to our lives, up to nature, and so on. Here we have a strange, unconditional injunction, and a true capitalist is a miser who is ready to sacrifice everything for this perverted duty. What we see here in Mojave Desert at this Resting place for abandoned planes is the other side of capitalist dynamics. Capitalism is all the time in crisis. This is precisely why it appears almost indestructible. Crisis is not its obstacle, it is what pushes it forwards to Permanent self-revolutionizing, permanent extended self-reproduction. Always new products. The other invisible side of it is waste. tremendous amount of waste. We shouldn't react. to these heaps of waste by trying to somehow get rid of it. Maybe. The first thing to do is to accept this waste, to accept that there are things out there which serve Nothing. to break out of this eternal cycle of functioning. The German philosopher Walter Benjamin said something very deep. He said that We experience history. What does it mean for us to be historical beings? Not when we are engaged in things, when things move. Only when we see. This, again, rest, waste of culture, being half retaken by nature. At that point we get an intuition of what history means. Maybe this also accounts for the redemptive value of post-catastrophic movies. like I am legend and so on. We see the Devastated. Human environment. Half empty factories. Machines falling apart. Half empty stores. What we experience at this moment The psychoanalytic term for it would have been the inertia of the real, this mute presence beyond meaning. What moments like confronting plains here in Mojave Desert bring to us is maybe a chance for an authentic passive experience. Maybe without this properly artistic moment of authentic passivity nothing new can emerge. Maybe something new only emerges through the failure The suspension of proper functioning of the existing network of our life work. where we are. Maybe this is what we need. more than ever today. What does the wreck of the Titanic stand for? We all know the standard reading. of the impact of the sinking of the Titanic. Not only. the film but the real accident. This thinking had such an impact because it happened in a society at that point still in all its glitz and glory. unaware of the decay that awaited it in the near future. the world wars and so on. But there is something in excess of this entire field of meanings, which is the very fascinating presence of the ruin of the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean. when James Cameron organized A trip to the real wreck of Titanic. He also made a similar remark. When the explorers approached the wreck. They had this almost metaphysical experience that they are approaching a forbidden territory in which the sacred and the obscene overlap.
What Ramstein does. is it liberates this element from their Nazi articulations. It allows us to enjoy them in their pre-ideological state. The way to fight Nazism is to enjoy these elements. ridiculous as they may appear. By suspending the Nazi horizon of meaning. This way. You undermine Nazism from within. So how does nonetheless ideology do this? How That's it. articulate. pre-ideological elements. These elements can also be seen as a kind of a バイ the way ideology tells us to seduce us into its These bribes can be purely libidinal bribes, although sticks which are condensed enjoyment, or they can be explicit discursive elements, like notions of solidarity, Uh, uh, uh. of collective discipline struggle. for one's destiny, and so on and so on. All this in itself are free floating elements which open themselves to Different ideological fields. Let's turn to the high point of our Consumerism. Let me They… A day. Steam. Some of it Starbucks coffee I'm regularly. Drinking it. I must. Admit it. But are we aware of Death. When we buy a cappuccino from Starbucks, we also buy quite a lot of ideology. Which ideology? You know, when you enter a Starbucks store, It's usually always displaced in some posters their message which is yes our cappuccino is more expensive than others but And then comes the story. We give 1% of all our income to some Guatemala children to keep them healthy, for the water supply, for some Sahara farmers, or to save the forests to enable organic growing on coffee, whatever, whatever. Now, I admire the ingenuity of this solution. In the old days, of pure simple consumerism. You bought a product and then you felt bad. My God, I'm just a consumerist while people are starving in Africa. So the idea was you had to do something to counteract your pure destructive consumerism. For example, I don't know, you contribute to charity and so on. What Starbucks enables you is to Be a consumerist. And be a consumerist without any bad conscience because the price for the countermeasure for fighting consumerism is already included into the price of a commodity like you pay a little bit more and you are not just a consumerist but you do also your duty to work environment, the poor starving people in Africa and so on and so on. It's, I think, the ultimate form of consumerism. We should not simply oppose. A principled life dedicated to Duty and enjoying Our Small pleasures. Let's take today's Capitalism. We have… On the one hand. the demands of the circulation of the capital which push us towards profit-making expansion. exploitation and destruction of nature and On the other hand, ecological Dimanche. Let's think about our posterity and about our own survival. Let's take care of nature. And so on. In this opposition between ruthless pursuit of Capitalist expansion, &c. Ecological awareness. Duty, a strange, perverted duty, of course. Duty. is on the side of Capitalism. as many perspicuous analysts. Note it. Capitalism has a strange religious structure. It is. Propelled by this absolute demand. Capital has to circulate, to reproduce itself, to expand, to multiply itself, and for this goal anything can be sacrificed, up to our lives, up to nature, and so on. Here we have a strange, unconditional injunction, and a true capitalist is a miser who is ready to sacrifice everything for this perverted duty. What we see here in Mojave Desert at this Resting place for abandoned planes is the other side of capitalist dynamics. Capitalism is all the time in crisis. This is precisely why it appears almost indestructible. Crisis is not its obstacle, it is what pushes it forwards to Permanent self-revolutionizing, permanent extended self-reproduction. Always new products. The other invisible side of it is waste. tremendous amount of waste. We shouldn't react. to these heaps of waste by trying to somehow get rid of it. Maybe. The first thing to do is to accept this waste, to accept that there are things out there which serve Nothing. to break out of this eternal cycle of functioning. The German philosopher Walter Benjamin said something very deep. He said that We experience history. What does it mean for us to be historical beings? Not when we are engaged in things, when things move. Only when we see. This, again, rest, waste of culture, being half retaken by nature. At that point we get an intuition of what history means. Maybe this also accounts for the redemptive value of post-catastrophic movies. like I am legend and so on. We see the Devastated. Human environment. Half empty factories. Machines falling apart. Half empty stores. What we experience at this moment The psychoanalytic term for it would have been the inertia of the real, this mute presence beyond meaning. What moments like confronting plains here in Mojave Desert bring to us is maybe a chance for an authentic passive experience. Maybe without this properly artistic moment of authentic passivity nothing new can emerge. Maybe something new only emerges through the failure The suspension of proper functioning of the existing network of our life work. where we are. Maybe this is what we need. more than ever today. What does the wreck of the Titanic stand for? We all know the standard reading. of the impact of the sinking of the Titanic. Not only. the film but the real accident. This thinking had such an impact because it happened in a society at that point still in all its glitz and glory. unaware of the decay that awaited it in the near future. the world wars and so on. But there is something in excess of this entire field of meanings, which is the very fascinating presence of the ruin of the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean. when James Cameron organized A trip to the real wreck of Titanic. He also made a similar remark. When the explorers approached the wreck. They had this almost metaphysical experience that they are approaching a forbidden territory in which the sacred and the obscene overlap.
Film Clip
Yeah, Roger that. Okay, drop down and go into the first class gangway door. I want you guys working the D deck.
Yeah, Roger that. Okay, drop down and go into the first class gangway door. I want you guys working the D deck.
Slavoj Žižek
every effective political ideological symbol or symptom. has to rely on this dimension of petrified enjoyment. of the frozen grimace of an excessive Pleasure in pain. What am I doing here? In the middle of the ocean. alone in a boat. surrounded by frozen corpses. I'm in a scene from James Cameron's Titanic. which is The supreme case of ideology in recent Hollywood. Why? because of the imminent tension. to the story of the film.
every effective political ideological symbol or symptom. has to rely on this dimension of petrified enjoyment. of the frozen grimace of an excessive Pleasure in pain. What am I doing here? In the middle of the ocean. alone in a boat. surrounded by frozen corpses. I'm in a scene from James Cameron's Titanic. which is The supreme case of ideology in recent Hollywood. Why? because of the imminent tension. to the story of the film.
Film Clip
On the steps. Just go with it.
On the steps. Just go with it.
Slavoj Žižek
have at least three levels. First, there is what people ironically refer to as James Cameron's Hollywood Marxism. This Ridiculous. Sake. Sympathy with lower classes. Up there, first-class passengers, they are mostly all evil, egotistic. You know I don't like that role. embodied in Kate Winslet's fiancee, played by Billy Zane.
have at least three levels. First, there is what people ironically refer to as James Cameron's Hollywood Marxism. This Ridiculous. Sake. Sympathy with lower classes. Up there, first-class passengers, they are mostly all evil, egotistic. You know I don't like that role. embodied in Kate Winslet's fiancee, played by Billy Zane.
Film Clip
Okay.
Okay.
Slavoj Žižek
This whole narrative is sustained by a much more reactionary myth.
This whole narrative is sustained by a much more reactionary myth.
Film Clip
He said, "I'm sorry." Those guys' faces.
He said, "I'm sorry." Those guys' faces.
Slavoj Žižek
We should ask what role does the iceberg hitting the ship play in the development of the love story.
We should ask what role does the iceberg hitting the ship play in the development of the love story.
Film Clip
The ship docks. I'm getting off with you.
The ship docks. I'm getting off with you.
Slavoj Žižek
This is crazy.
This is crazy.
Film Clip
I know.
I know.
Slavoj Žižek
My claim is here a slightly cynical one. This would have been the true catastrophe. We can. Imagine how! Maybe after two, three weeks of Intense sex in New York. The love affair would somehow fade away.
My claim is here a slightly cynical one. This would have been the true catastrophe. We can. Imagine how! Maybe after two, three weeks of Intense sex in New York. The love affair would somehow fade away.
Film Clip
As a paying customer. I expect to get what I want.
As a paying customer. I expect to get what I want.
Slavoj Žižek
Kate Winslet is An upper class. Girl! In… psychological. distressed. confused. Her ego is in shatters. And the function of Leonardo DiCaprio. The bed. The catch. is simply that. He helps her too. Ree constitute her ego. Lie down. Her self-image Literally, he dross, corny.
Kate Winslet is An upper class. Girl! In… psychological. distressed. confused. Her ego is in shatters. And the function of Leonardo DiCaprio. The bed. The catch. is simply that. He helps her too. Ree constitute her ego. Lie down. Her self-image Literally, he dross, corny.
Film Clip
Tell me when it looks right. Put your arm back the way it was.
Tell me when it looks right. Put your arm back the way it was.
Slavoj Žižek
was It's really a new version of one of the old favored imperialist myths. The idea being that when the upper class people lose their vitality. They need a contact with lower classes. Basically ruthlessly. exploiting them in a vampire-like way. As it were, sucking from them the life energy. revitalize they can join their secluded Upper class life.
was It's really a new version of one of the old favored imperialist myths. The idea being that when the upper class people lose their vitality. They need a contact with lower classes. Basically ruthlessly. exploiting them in a vampire-like way. As it were, sucking from them the life energy. revitalize they can join their secluded Upper class life.
Film Clip
My heart was pounding the whole time. It was the most erotic moment of my life.
My heart was pounding the whole time. It was the most erotic moment of my life.
Slavoj Žižek
up until The cheapest. hits the iceberg. not immediately after. Six. Win. The couple goes up to the open space and decide to stay together. Eh, look at this! You know often in history. The event which may appear as a catastrophe. Saves persons or an idea, elevating it into a myth. Remember the intervention of the Soviet army and other Warsaw Pact armies in 1968 in Czechoslovakia. to strangle the so-called Prague Spring. the attempt of the Czech Democratic Communists to introduce a more human-faced socialism. Usually we perceive this brutal Soviet intervention as something that destroyed. The brief dream of Prague Spring. I think it saved the dream. Either Czechoslovakia would have turned into an ordinary liberal capitalist state or at a certain point, which was usually the fate of reformist communists, the communists in power would be obliged to set a certain limit. Okay, you had your fun, your freedom, That's enough now we again Defin. The limits. Again. The paradox is that precisely the Soviet intervention saved the dream of the possibility of another communism and so on and so on. So here again. through the temporal catastrophe We have a love story which if, as it were, redeemed in its idea, saved for eternity. We can ultimately read the catastrophe as a desperate maneuver to save the illusion of eternal love. We can see how ideology works effectively here. We have two superficial levels. all the fascination of the accidental Then the last story, but all this, which is quite acceptable for our liberal progressive minds, all this is just a threat Something to Lower our attention. Threshold, as it were. to open us Up! to be ready to accept The true conservative. Message of Rich people having the right to revitalize themselves by ruthlessly appropriating The vitality of the poor people.
up until The cheapest. hits the iceberg. not immediately after. Six. Win. The couple goes up to the open space and decide to stay together. Eh, look at this! You know often in history. The event which may appear as a catastrophe. Saves persons or an idea, elevating it into a myth. Remember the intervention of the Soviet army and other Warsaw Pact armies in 1968 in Czechoslovakia. to strangle the so-called Prague Spring. the attempt of the Czech Democratic Communists to introduce a more human-faced socialism. Usually we perceive this brutal Soviet intervention as something that destroyed. The brief dream of Prague Spring. I think it saved the dream. Either Czechoslovakia would have turned into an ordinary liberal capitalist state or at a certain point, which was usually the fate of reformist communists, the communists in power would be obliged to set a certain limit. Okay, you had your fun, your freedom, That's enough now we again Defin. The limits. Again. The paradox is that precisely the Soviet intervention saved the dream of the possibility of another communism and so on and so on. So here again. through the temporal catastrophe We have a love story which if, as it were, redeemed in its idea, saved for eternity. We can ultimately read the catastrophe as a desperate maneuver to save the illusion of eternal love. We can see how ideology works effectively here. We have two superficial levels. all the fascination of the accidental Then the last story, but all this, which is quite acceptable for our liberal progressive minds, all this is just a threat Something to Lower our attention. Threshold, as it were. to open us Up! to be ready to accept The true conservative. Message of Rich people having the right to revitalize themselves by ruthlessly appropriating The vitality of the poor people.
Archival Clip
There's nothing else, sir.
There's nothing else, sir.
Slavoj Žižek
There is a wonderful detail which tells everything. When Kate Winslet notices that Leonardo DiCaprio is dead She, of course, starts to shout, "I will never let go! I will never let go! Why, at the same moment, "Never let go! She pushes him off. He is what we may call, ironically, A vanishing mediator. This logic of the production of a couple. has a long History Hollywood. Whatever the story is about it may be about the end of the world an asteroid threatening the very survival of humanity or a great war, whatever. As a rule, We always have a couple who's Link is threatened and who, somehow, Through this ordeal, At the end, uh… Happily. Gets together. This logic does not hold only for Hollywood films. Come on.
There is a wonderful detail which tells everything. When Kate Winslet notices that Leonardo DiCaprio is dead She, of course, starts to shout, "I will never let go! I will never let go! Why, at the same moment, "Never let go! She pushes him off. He is what we may call, ironically, A vanishing mediator. This logic of the production of a couple. has a long History Hollywood. Whatever the story is about it may be about the end of the world an asteroid threatening the very survival of humanity or a great war, whatever. As a rule, We always have a couple who's Link is threatened and who, somehow, Through this ordeal, At the end, uh… Happily. Gets together. This logic does not hold only for Hollywood films. Come on.
Archival Clip
Erzähle mit dem Himmler. What a great start!
Erzähle mit dem Himmler. What a great start!
Slavoj Žižek
In the late 40s. In Soviet Union They produced arguably one of the most expensive films of all times, "The Fall of Berlin". The Chronicle of the Second World War. 1. From the Soviet standpoint. And it's incredible how closely this film also follows the logic of the production of a couple. The story begins just before the German attack on Soviet Union when a model worker who is in love with a local girl that is too shy. to propose to her, is called to Moscow. to get a medal from Comrade Stalin. There Stalin notices his Confusion, distress, and Stalin gives him some advice, which poetry to quote, and so on. This part unfortunately was lost. Because in the background of this scene there was Beria, a Soviet politician who after Stalin's death became a non-person. was shot as a traitor. But we know from the screenplay what was there. If Stalin gives you a love advice it has to succeed so the couple embraces.
In the late 40s. In Soviet Union They produced arguably one of the most expensive films of all times, "The Fall of Berlin". The Chronicle of the Second World War. 1. From the Soviet standpoint. And it's incredible how closely this film also follows the logic of the production of a couple. The story begins just before the German attack on Soviet Union when a model worker who is in love with a local girl that is too shy. to propose to her, is called to Moscow. to get a medal from Comrade Stalin. There Stalin notices his Confusion, distress, and Stalin gives him some advice, which poetry to quote, and so on. This part unfortunately was lost. Because in the background of this scene there was Beria, a Soviet politician who after Stalin's death became a non-person. was shot as a traitor. But we know from the screenplay what was there. If Stalin gives you a love advice it has to succeed so the couple embraces.
Archival Clip
Masha! Thank you.
Masha! Thank you.
Slavoj Žižek
He carries her probably to make love. At that very moment there is the triumphant, violent entrance of the obstacle. German plays come. dropping bombs.
He carries her probably to make love. At that very moment there is the triumphant, violent entrance of the obstacle. German plays come. dropping bombs.
Archival Clip
Natalia! Natação, Gargantas Me too.
Natalia! Natação, Gargantas Me too.
Slavoj Žižek
The girl is taken prisoner.
The girl is taken prisoner.
Archival Clip
It's your rabbit. A muechtok, kriyak, yiraski, kajay.
It's your rabbit. A muechtok, kriyak, yiraski, kajay.
Slavoj Žižek
The boy, of course, joins the Red Army and we follow him through all the great battles. The idea being that in a deeper Logic of the film, what these battles were about. was really to recreate The couple. The boy has to get his girl. This is what happens at the end. But in a very strange way which re-confirms Stalin's role as the supreme divine matchmaker. The scene itself, Stalin immersing himself into a crowd of ordinary people, never happened. Stalin was totally paranoid about flying about taking planes. But nonetheless. When he saw this scene he cried.
The boy, of course, joins the Red Army and we follow him through all the great battles. The idea being that in a deeper Logic of the film, what these battles were about. was really to recreate The couple. The boy has to get his girl. This is what happens at the end. But in a very strange way which re-confirms Stalin's role as the supreme divine matchmaker. The scene itself, Stalin immersing himself into a crowd of ordinary people, never happened. Stalin was totally paranoid about flying about taking planes. But nonetheless. When he saw this scene he cried.
Archival Clip
ただし Sevokada We praise thee in Elipu y Pagadu. Adgerman's skin fascism.
ただし Sevokada We praise thee in Elipu y Pagadu. Adgerman's skin fascism.
Slavoj Žižek
Of course, he himself, as we know, wrote. The lines. When the couple encounters each other The girl first kissed Stalin. Then she turns around and, surprised, sees her lover for whom she was waiting all the time of the war. So it's only through the presence of Stalin that the couple gets reunited.
Of course, he himself, as we know, wrote. The lines. When the couple encounters each other The girl first kissed Stalin. Then she turns around and, surprised, sees her lover for whom she was waiting all the time of the war. So it's only through the presence of Stalin that the couple gets reunited.
Archival Clip
Are you sure? I know I know I know Natacha!
Are you sure? I know I know I know Natacha!
Slavoj Žižek
This is how ideology works. Not the explicit ideology of the film, which we hear at the end, Stalin saying, now all the free people will enjoy peace and so on and so on. But precisely ideology at its more fundamental. This apparently totally subordinated motive. and important in itself. The story of a couple This is what いいし The key element which holds the entire film. together that small surplus element which attracts us, which maintains our attention. This is how ideology works.
This is how ideology works. Not the explicit ideology of the film, which we hear at the end, Stalin saying, now all the free people will enjoy peace and so on and so on. But precisely ideology at its more fundamental. This apparently totally subordinated motive. and important in itself. The story of a couple This is what いいし The key element which holds the entire film. together that small surplus element which attracts us, which maintains our attention. This is how ideology works.
Archival Clip
Nice. Everything clean. All right. so that your action is beautiful.
Nice. Everything clean. All right. so that your action is beautiful.
Slavoj Žižek
It's really shiny. We usually think that military discipline is just a matter of mindlessly following orders, obeying the rules. You don't think you do what is your duty. It's not as simple as that. If we do this we just become machines. There has to be something more. This mark can have two basic forms. The first, more benign form is an ironic distance. Best epitomized by the well-known movie and TV series, "Mash". where the military doctors are involved in sexual escapades.
It's really shiny. We usually think that military discipline is just a matter of mindlessly following orders, obeying the rules. You don't think you do what is your duty. It's not as simple as that. If we do this we just become machines. There has to be something more. This mark can have two basic forms. The first, more benign form is an ironic distance. Best epitomized by the well-known movie and TV series, "Mash". where the military doctors are involved in sexual escapades.
Film Clip
Same.
Same.
Slavoj Žižek
make jokes all the time. Some people took Robert Altman's movie "Mash" even as a kind of an anti-militaristic satiric product. But it's not. We should always bear in mind that these soldiers, with all their practical jokes, making fun of their superiors and so on, operated perfectly as soldiers. They did their Duty. Time for this one's for you, babe. much more ominous is a kind of Opinion Supplement to Pure military discipline. In practically all movies about the U.S. Marines, the best known embodiment of this obscenity are marching troops. A mixture of nonsense. and obscenity. I don't know This is not undermining, making fun of military discipline. it is its innermost constituent. You take this Opshin. Supplement. Away, and military Machine stops Working.
make jokes all the time. Some people took Robert Altman's movie "Mash" even as a kind of an anti-militaristic satiric product. But it's not. We should always bear in mind that these soldiers, with all their practical jokes, making fun of their superiors and so on, operated perfectly as soldiers. They did their Duty. Time for this one's for you, babe. much more ominous is a kind of Opinion Supplement to Pure military discipline. In practically all movies about the U.S. Marines, the best known embodiment of this obscenity are marching troops. A mixture of nonsense. and obscenity. I don't know This is not undermining, making fun of military discipline. it is its innermost constituent. You take this Opshin. Supplement. Away, and military Machine stops Working.
Film Clip
Well, No shit. What have we got here? A fucking comedian! Private Joker! I admire your honesty. Hell, I like you. You can come over to my house and fuck my sister. Oh! You little scumbag! I got your name. I got your ass. You will not laugh, you will not cry, you will learn by the numbers. I will teach you. Now get up, get on your feet. You at best unfuck yourself, or I will unscrew your head and shake down your neck. Sir, yes, sir. Private Joker, why did you join my beloved corps? I think
Well, No shit. What have we got here? A fucking comedian! Private Joker! I admire your honesty. Hell, I like you. You can come over to my house and fuck my sister. Oh! You little scumbag! I got your name. I got your ass. You will not laugh, you will not cry, you will learn by the numbers. I will teach you. Now get up, get on your feet. You at best unfuck yourself, or I will unscrew your head and shake down your neck. Sir, yes, sir. Private Joker, why did you join my beloved corps? I think
Slavoj Žižek
that The drill sergeant. the way it is. Plate. In an exemplary way in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. The drill sergeant. is rather a tragic figure. I always like to imagine him as a person who, after his work, returns home, is quite decent, and so on.
that The drill sergeant. the way it is. Plate. In an exemplary way in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. The drill sergeant. is rather a tragic figure. I always like to imagine him as a person who, after his work, returns home, is quite decent, and so on.
Archival Clip
I'm going to
I'm going to
Slavoj Žižek
All his obscene shouting is just a show put on not so much to impress ordinary soldiers whom he is training as to bribe them with Witch of Enchantment. It's not just a question of this obscenities which sustains the military machinery, it's another more general rule which holds for military communities, but Even more, I would say, for all. human communities, from the largest nations, ethnic groups, up to small university departments and so on. You don't only have explicit rules You always in order to become part of a community you need some implicit, unwritten rules. which are never publicly recognized but are absolutely crucial as the point of the identification of a group. In the UK. Everyone knows about the obscene unwritten rituals which regulate life in Public schools
All his obscene shouting is just a show put on not so much to impress ordinary soldiers whom he is training as to bribe them with Witch of Enchantment. It's not just a question of this obscenities which sustains the military machinery, it's another more general rule which holds for military communities, but Even more, I would say, for all. human communities, from the largest nations, ethnic groups, up to small university departments and so on. You don't only have explicit rules You always in order to become part of a community you need some implicit, unwritten rules. which are never publicly recognized but are absolutely crucial as the point of the identification of a group. In the UK. Everyone knows about the obscene unwritten rituals which regulate life in Public schools
Film Clip
Thank you, Fincher. I want to see your wits in my study after break, Bryson. Oh, how is India? Enjoy it? Jolly good, which is
Thank you, Fincher. I want to see your wits in my study after break, Bryson. Oh, how is India? Enjoy it? Jolly good, which is
Slavoj Žižek
Just think about Lindsay Anderson's classic if. The public life is democratic. We have professors who interact with their pupils, nice atmosphere, teaching, friendship, spirit of cooperation. But then we all know what happens. beneath the surface. older pupils torturing sexually abusing the younger, this same mixture of obscenity and sadistic violence. And again, what is crucial here is we should not simply put all the blame or all the enjoyment on the older cupcakes.
Just think about Lindsay Anderson's classic if. The public life is democratic. We have professors who interact with their pupils, nice atmosphere, teaching, friendship, spirit of cooperation. But then we all know what happens. beneath the surface. older pupils torturing sexually abusing the younger, this same mixture of obscenity and sadistic violence. And again, what is crucial here is we should not simply put all the blame or all the enjoyment on the older cupcakes.
Film Clip
It's like no no no no
It's like no no no no
Slavoj Žižek
The victims even are part of this infernal cycle of obscenity. It is as if in order to really be a member of a community you have to render your hands dirty. And I think that even The Abu Ghraib scandal of American soldiers torturing and especially humiliating Iraqi prisoners is to be read in this way. It's not simply We, the arrogant Americans, are humiliating others. What Iraqi soldiers experienced there was the staging of the obscene underside of the American military culture. In full metal jacket. It's the character of Joker. Played by Matthew Modine. who is close to what we would call a normal soldier, a mess type of soldier. He has a proper ironic distance. He proves at the end militarily the most efficient soldier. Returning back to me. Why, then, will I soon shoot myself? Something went wrong there, but what? Rock and roll. I did not just run amok. Order! Hear!
The victims even are part of this infernal cycle of obscenity. It is as if in order to really be a member of a community you have to render your hands dirty. And I think that even The Abu Ghraib scandal of American soldiers torturing and especially humiliating Iraqi prisoners is to be read in this way. It's not simply We, the arrogant Americans, are humiliating others. What Iraqi soldiers experienced there was the staging of the obscene underside of the American military culture. In full metal jacket. It's the character of Joker. Played by Matthew Modine. who is close to what we would call a normal soldier, a mess type of soldier. He has a proper ironic distance. He proves at the end militarily the most efficient soldier. Returning back to me. Why, then, will I soon shoot myself? Something went wrong there, but what? Rock and roll. I did not just run amok. Order! Hear!
Film Clip
This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Slavoj Žižek
but I got too directly identified with these obscene rituals, I lost the distance, I took them seriously.
but I got too directly identified with these obscene rituals, I lost the distance, I took them seriously.
Film Clip
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Slavoj Žižek
Es ist You get too close to it, if you over identify with it, if you really immediately become the voice of this super ego, it's self destructive. You kill people around you. You end up Killing yourself.
Es ist You get too close to it, if you over identify with it, if you really immediately become the voice of this super ego, it's self destructive. You kill people around you. You end up Killing yourself.
Film Clip
シュシュシュシュシュシュ So you think Batman's made Gotham a better place. Huh? Thank you. Look at me. What does that mean? You see, this is how crazy Batman's made Gotham. If you want order in Gotham, Batman must take off his mask and turn himself in. Every day he doesn't, people will die. starting tonight. I'm a man of my word. So who is she? Joker.
シュシュシュシュシュシュ So you think Batman's made Gotham a better place. Huh? Thank you. Look at me. What does that mean? You see, this is how crazy Batman's made Gotham. If you want order in Gotham, Batman must take off his mask and turn himself in. Every day he doesn't, people will die. starting tonight. I'm a man of my word. So who is she? Joker.
Slavoj Žižek
which is the lie he is opposing. I'm gonna need
which is the lie he is opposing. I'm gonna need
Film Clip
I need a cup of coffee. The good cop, bad cop routine.
I need a cup of coffee. The good cop, bad cop routine.
Slavoj Žižek
Not exactly. The truly disturbing thing about The dark Night. Is that it elevates Lye. into a general social principle into the principle of organization of our social political life as if Our societies can remain stable. can function only if based on a lie, as if telling the truth and this telling the truth is embodied in Joker. means destruction. disintegration of the social order.
Not exactly. The truly disturbing thing about The dark Night. Is that it elevates Lye. into a general social principle into the principle of organization of our social political life as if Our societies can remain stable. can function only if based on a lie, as if telling the truth and this telling the truth is embodied in Joker. means destruction. disintegration of the social order.
Film Clip
Never start with the head. The victim gets all buzzed. You can't feel the next.
Never start with the head. The victim gets all buzzed. You can't feel the next.
Slavoj Žižek
Towards the end it is as if light functions as a hot potato. Passing from one person's hand to another person's hand. First there is Harvey Dent. Thank you. Take the batman in. The public prosecutor who lies claiming that he is the real person behind Batman's mask that he is Batman. Then we have Gord. Honest policeman, Batman's friend, who? Fakes states his own Death!
Towards the end it is as if light functions as a hot potato. Passing from one person's hand to another person's hand. First there is Harvey Dent. Thank you. Take the batman in. The public prosecutor who lies claiming that he is the real person behind Batman's mask that he is Batman. Then we have Gord. Honest policeman, Batman's friend, who? Fakes states his own Death!
Film Clip
I'll see you later. Thank you.
I'll see you later. Thank you.
Film Clip
Five dead. Two of them cops. You can't sweep them.
Five dead. Two of them cops. You can't sweep them.
Slavoj Žižek
At the end, Batman himself. takes upon himself The crimes, murders committed by Harvey Dent. The public prosecutor turned criminal. God! It's true. in order to Maintain The trust of the public into the legal system. The idea is if the ordinary public were to learn how corrupted was or is the very core of our legal system then everything would have collapsed so we need a lie to maintain order.
At the end, Batman himself. takes upon himself The crimes, murders committed by Harvey Dent. The public prosecutor turned criminal. God! It's true. in order to Maintain The trust of the public into the legal system. The idea is if the ordinary public were to learn how corrupted was or is the very core of our legal system then everything would have collapsed so we need a lie to maintain order.
Film Clip
I hear it. Not a hero. We deserved to be the hero we needed. Nothing less than a knight. Chine
I hear it. Not a hero. We deserved to be the hero we needed. Nothing less than a knight. Chine
Slavoj Žižek
There is nothing new in this. This is an old conservative Wisdom. asserted long ago by philosophers from Plato, but especially, and then Immanuel Kant, Edmund Burke, and so on and so on, this idea that The truth is too strong that a politician should be a cynicist who although he knows what is true tells to ordinary people what Plato called a noble fable a lie.
There is nothing new in this. This is an old conservative Wisdom. asserted long ago by philosophers from Plato, but especially, and then Immanuel Kant, Edmund Burke, and so on and so on, this idea that The truth is too strong that a politician should be a cynicist who although he knows what is true tells to ordinary people what Plato called a noble fable a lie.
Archival Speech
Um… The United States knows. that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The UK knows. That's great. They have weapons of mass destruction. any country on the face of the earth with an active intelligence program. knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. which could be activated within 45 minutes, including against his own Shia population.
Um… The United States knows. that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The UK knows. That's great. They have weapons of mass destruction. any country on the face of the earth with an active intelligence program. knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. which could be activated within 45 minutes, including against his own Shia population.
Archival Speech
The choice is his. And if he does not disarm, the United States of America will lead a coalition and disarm him in the name of peace.
The choice is his. And if he does not disarm, the United States of America will lead a coalition and disarm him in the name of peace.
Slavoj Žižek
Different. We can have a state public system of power. as legitimate as you want submitted to critical press, democratic elections and so on and so on, apparently it just served. serves us. Duck Nonetheless, if you look closely into how even the most democratic State power functions. In order for it to display through authority and power niche authority. There has to be, as it were, between the lines. All the time this message of yeah, yeah, yeah, we are legalized through elections, but basically we can do with you whatever we want.
Different. We can have a state public system of power. as legitimate as you want submitted to critical press, democratic elections and so on and so on, apparently it just served. serves us. Duck Nonetheless, if you look closely into how even the most democratic State power functions. In order for it to display through authority and power niche authority. There has to be, as it were, between the lines. All the time this message of yeah, yeah, yeah, we are legalized through elections, but basically we can do with you whatever we want.
Film Clip
Because that's what needs to happen. Because sometimes The truth isn't good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve have their faith.
Because that's what needs to happen. Because sometimes The truth isn't good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve have their faith.
Slavoj Žižek
One of the great Platitudes. which are popular today. When we are. confronted with Aktschov. Violence. Is to refer to Fyodor Dostoevsky's Famous statement from Brother Skaramazov. If there is No, God! then Everything is Permitted. Well, The first problem with this statement is that Dostoievsky, of course, never made it. The first one who used this phrase is allegedly made by Dostoevsky was Jean-Paul Sartre in 1933. But... The main point is that this Statement is simply wrong. Even a brief look at our predicament today clearly tells us this.
One of the great Platitudes. which are popular today. When we are. confronted with Aktschov. Violence. Is to refer to Fyodor Dostoevsky's Famous statement from Brother Skaramazov. If there is No, God! then Everything is Permitted. Well, The first problem with this statement is that Dostoievsky, of course, never made it. The first one who used this phrase is allegedly made by Dostoevsky was Jean-Paul Sartre in 1933. But... The main point is that this Statement is simply wrong. Even a brief look at our predicament today clearly tells us this.
Archival Clip
Kaukabatani Muntawak, Muntawak, Abi Nasrul.
Kaukabatani Muntawak, Muntawak, Abi Nasrul.
Slavoj Žižek
Precisely. If there is God. that everything is permitted to those who not only believe in God, but who perceive themselves as instruments, direct instruments of the divine will. If you posit or perceive or legitimize yourself as a direct instrument of the Divine Will, Then, of course, all. Narrow petty Moral considerations. disappear. How can you even think in such narrow terms when you are a director. instruments of God. This is how so-called religious fundamentalists work, but not only them. Every form of so-called Totalitarianism works like death. Even if it is presented or if it presents itself as atheist, let's take Stalinism, officially. Stalinism was based on atheist Marxist theories. If we look closely at this. subjective experience of a Stalinist political agent. Leader We see that it's not a position of an arrogant master who can do whatever he wants, it's on the contrary the position of a perfect servant. In the Stalinist universe there definitely is what in psychoanalytic theory we call the big other.
Precisely. If there is God. that everything is permitted to those who not only believe in God, but who perceive themselves as instruments, direct instruments of the divine will. If you posit or perceive or legitimize yourself as a direct instrument of the Divine Will, Then, of course, all. Narrow petty Moral considerations. disappear. How can you even think in such narrow terms when you are a director. instruments of God. This is how so-called religious fundamentalists work, but not only them. Every form of so-called Totalitarianism works like death. Even if it is presented or if it presents itself as atheist, let's take Stalinism, officially. Stalinism was based on atheist Marxist theories. If we look closely at this. subjective experience of a Stalinist political agent. Leader We see that it's not a position of an arrogant master who can do whatever he wants, it's on the contrary the position of a perfect servant. In the Stalinist universe there definitely is what in psychoanalytic theory we call the big other.
Film Clip
España. See you in a couple. I should be in the club more. Stop! Thank you. Oh my god All the girls. バイバイ Thank you.
España. See you in a couple. I should be in the club more. Stop! Thank you. Oh my god All the girls. バイバイ Thank you.
Slavoj Žižek
This big Other in the Stalinist universe has many names. The best known of them are the necessity of historical progress towards communism or simply History History itself is the big other. History is. the necessary succession of historical stages. A communist experiences himself as simply an instrument whose function is to actualize a historical necessity. The people, mythic people. whose instrument the totalitarian leader is. are never simply the actually existing individuals, groups of people, and so on. It's some kind of imagined, idealized. point of reference which works even when For example, in Rebellions against the communist rule. Like in Hungary 56. When? The large majority of Actually resisting people raises up is opposed to the regime. They can still say no, these are just individuals, they are not The true people. When you are accused of, my God, how could you have been doing all these horrible things? You could have said, and this is the standard Stalinist excuse, "Of course my heart bleeds for all the poor victims." I am not fully responsible for it. I was only acting on behalf of the big other.
This big Other in the Stalinist universe has many names. The best known of them are the necessity of historical progress towards communism or simply History History itself is the big other. History is. the necessary succession of historical stages. A communist experiences himself as simply an instrument whose function is to actualize a historical necessity. The people, mythic people. whose instrument the totalitarian leader is. are never simply the actually existing individuals, groups of people, and so on. It's some kind of imagined, idealized. point of reference which works even when For example, in Rebellions against the communist rule. Like in Hungary 56. When? The large majority of Actually resisting people raises up is opposed to the regime. They can still say no, these are just individuals, they are not The true people. When you are accused of, my God, how could you have been doing all these horrible things? You could have said, and this is the standard Stalinist excuse, "Of course my heart bleeds for all the poor victims." I am not fully responsible for it. I was only acting on behalf of the big other.
Film Clip
Stabilize.
Stabilize.
Slavoj Žižek
Oh, _skazon! As for myself, I like cats, small children, whatever. This is always part of the iconography of a Stalinist leader. Lenin in Stalinism is always presented as someone who likes small children and cats, the implication being Lenin had to order many killings and so on, but his heart was not there. This was his duty as instrument of historical progress and so on and so on. The way to undermine Stalinism is not simply to make fun of the leader, which can be up to a point even tolerated. It is to undermine This very reference, mythic reference, which legitimizes the Stalinist leader, the people. This is how. I read The by far Best work of Miloš Forman, his early Czech films. Black Peter, the Loves of a Blonde, and Fireman's Ball. where he mocks precisely the ordinary people. in their daily conformism, stupidity, egotistic lust, and so on and so on.
Oh, _skazon! As for myself, I like cats, small children, whatever. This is always part of the iconography of a Stalinist leader. Lenin in Stalinism is always presented as someone who likes small children and cats, the implication being Lenin had to order many killings and so on, but his heart was not there. This was his duty as instrument of historical progress and so on and so on. The way to undermine Stalinism is not simply to make fun of the leader, which can be up to a point even tolerated. It is to undermine This very reference, mythic reference, which legitimizes the Stalinist leader, the people. This is how. I read The by far Best work of Miloš Forman, his early Czech films. Black Peter, the Loves of a Blonde, and Fireman's Ball. where he mocks precisely the ordinary people. in their daily conformism, stupidity, egotistic lust, and so on and so on.
Archival Clip
Hello. では。 Troschkuški muta to. Mikesen, oh, Herr Gott! Auch die Bürgerinnen und Bürger sind in der Lage, sich gegen die Verfolgung zu wehren.
Hello. では。 Troschkuški muta to. Mikesen, oh, Herr Gott! Auch die Bürgerinnen und Bürger sind in der Lage, sich gegen die Verfolgung zu wehren.
Slavoj Žižek
It may appear that this is something very arrogant, but no, I think that this is the way to undermine the entire structure of the Stalinist universe, to demonstrate not that leaders are not leaders, they are always ready to say, oh, but we're just ordinary people like you, know that. There is no mythic people which serves as the ultimate legitimization.
It may appear that this is something very arrogant, but no, I think that this is the way to undermine the entire structure of the Stalinist universe, to demonstrate not that leaders are not leaders, they are always ready to say, oh, but we're just ordinary people like you, know that. There is no mythic people which serves as the ultimate legitimization.
Film Clip
おめでとうございます。
おめでとうございます。
Slavoj Žižek
So what is the big other? This basic element of every ideological edifice. It has two… quite contradictory aspects. On the one hand, of course, the big other is the secret order of things, like divine reason, fate, or whatever, which is controlling our destiny. But this is maybe the least interesting aspect of the big other. as the agency which guarantees the meaning of what we are doing. Much more interesting is the big Other is the order of Appearances.
So what is the big other? This basic element of every ideological edifice. It has two… quite contradictory aspects. On the one hand, of course, the big other is the secret order of things, like divine reason, fate, or whatever, which is controlling our destiny. But this is maybe the least interesting aspect of the big other. as the agency which guarantees the meaning of what we are doing. Much more interesting is the big Other is the order of Appearances.
Film Clip
Yeah.
Yeah.
Slavoj Žižek
Many things which are prohibited. are not simply prohibited, but They should not happen for the big other. A supreme example of this. Agency of the Big Other as the agency of Appearance is the prattling busybody in David Lean's masterpiece Brief Encounter. At the very beginning of the film. The two lovers, Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, arranged for their last meeting in a cafeteria of a small train station.
Many things which are prohibited. are not simply prohibited, but They should not happen for the big other. A supreme example of this. Agency of the Big Other as the agency of Appearance is the prattling busybody in David Lean's masterpiece Brief Encounter. At the very beginning of the film. The two lovers, Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, arranged for their last meeting in a cafeteria of a small train station.
Film Clip
Lora, what happened? Lovely surprise!" "Oh, Dr. " "My dear, I've been shopping till I'm dropping. My feet are nearly off, my throat's parched. I thought of having tea at Spindles', but I was terrified of losing the train. Oh, dear! This is Dr. Harvey. Would you be a perfect dear and get me my cup of tea? I really don't think I could drag my poor old bones over the counter.
Lora, what happened? Lovely surprise!" "Oh, Dr. " "My dear, I've been shopping till I'm dropping. My feet are nearly off, my throat's parched. I thought of having tea at Spindles', but I was terrified of losing the train. Oh, dear! This is Dr. Harvey. Would you be a perfect dear and get me my cup of tea? I really don't think I could drag my poor old bones over the counter.
Slavoj Žižek
Why is this situation so interesting? Because on the one hand, We cannot but experience this annoying lady as a brutal intruder.
Why is this situation so interesting? Because on the one hand, We cannot but experience this annoying lady as a brutal intruder.
Film Clip
There's your train.
There's your train.
Slavoj Žižek
I know.
I know.
Film Clip
Oh, aren't you coming with us?
Oh, aren't you coming with us?
Slavoj Žižek
I go in the opposite direction. My practice is in Shirley.
I go in the opposite direction. My practice is in Shirley.
Film Clip
Oh, I see.
Oh, I see.
Slavoj Žižek
I'm a general practitioner at the moment.
I'm a general practitioner at the moment.
Film Clip
Dr. Harvey's going out to Africa next week. Oh, that's really it.
Dr. Harvey's going out to Africa next week. Oh, that's really it.
Slavoj Žižek
Instead of the two lovers being allowed at least their final moments alone they have to maintain the appearances that nothing is happening between them that they are just acquaintances and so on and so on.
Instead of the two lovers being allowed at least their final moments alone they have to maintain the appearances that nothing is happening between them that they are just acquaintances and so on and so on.
Film Clip
He'll have to run or he'll miss it. He's got to get right over to the other platform.
He'll have to run or he'll miss it. He's got to get right over to the other platform.
Slavoj Žižek
This precisely is the function of the big other. We need for our stability a figure of big other for whom we maintain appearances.
This precisely is the function of the big other. We need for our stability a figure of big other for whom we maintain appearances.
Film Clip
And I arrived at the station with exactly half a minute to spare. My dear, I flew!
And I arrived at the station with exactly half a minute to spare. My dear, I flew!
Slavoj Žižek
But are things really as simple as that? The next scene, the scene of Celia Johnson, totally desperate, she knows that she will never again see her lover.
But are things really as simple as that? The next scene, the scene of Celia Johnson, totally desperate, she knows that she will never again see her lover.
Film Clip
Yes, he's a nice creature. Have you known him long? No, not very long. I hardly know 'em at all, really." "Well, my dear, I've always had a passion for doctors.
Yes, he's a nice creature. Have you known him long? No, not very long. I hardly know 'em at all, really." "Well, my dear, I've always had a passion for doctors.
Slavoj Žižek
Then we hear the line of Celia Johnson's thought.
Then we hear the line of Celia Johnson's thought.
Film Clip
Okay.
Okay.
Slavoj Žižek
Trust
Trust
Film Clip
I wish you were a wise, kind friend. instead of a gossiping acquaintance I've known casually for years and never particularly cared for.
I wish you were a wise, kind friend. instead of a gossiping acquaintance I've known casually for years and never particularly cared for.
Slavoj Žižek
What is the nature of this deadlock of Celia Johnson? She is split. between the two figures in the film of the Big Other. On the one hand, it's her husband. The ideal Listener But It's out of question to confess to him.
What is the nature of this deadlock of Celia Johnson? She is split. between the two figures in the film of the Big Other. On the one hand, it's her husband. The ideal Listener But It's out of question to confess to him.
Film Clip
Okay. Are you afraid? There's so much that I want to say to you. You're the only one in the world with enough wisdom and gentleness to understand. Wild horses wouldn't drag me away from England and home and all the things I'm used to. I mean, one has one's roots after all, hasn't one? Yes, one has one's roots.
Okay. Are you afraid? There's so much that I want to say to you. You're the only one in the world with enough wisdom and gentleness to understand. Wild horses wouldn't drag me away from England and home and all the things I'm used to. I mean, one has one's roots after all, hasn't one? Yes, one has one's roots.
Slavoj Žižek
On the other hand, you have here this stupid person who is available as a confessor, but there is not even an elementary trust.
On the other hand, you have here this stupid person who is available as a confessor, but there is not even an elementary trust.
Film Clip
I wish you'd stop talking. That we should stop prying and trying to find things out. I wish you were dead. No, I don't mean that. that was silly and unkind. I wish you'd stop talking." "My dear, all her hair came out, and she said the social life was quite, quite horrid, provincial, you know, and very nouveau riche." "Oh, darling, what's the matter, dear? Are you feeling ill again?"
I wish you'd stop talking. That we should stop prying and trying to find things out. I wish you were dead. No, I don't mean that. that was silly and unkind. I wish you'd stop talking." "My dear, all her hair came out, and she said the social life was quite, quite horrid, provincial, you know, and very nouveau riche." "Oh, darling, what's the matter, dear? Are you feeling ill again?"
Slavoj Žižek
So that's the tragedy of our predicament. In order to fully exist as individuals, we need the fiction of a big other. There must be an agency which, as it were, registers our predicament, an agency, where the truth of ourselves will be inscribed. Accept it. An agency to which to confess. But what if There is no such agency. This was The utmost despair of many women raped in the post-Yugoslav war in Bosnia in the early 90s. They survived their terrible predicament. And what kept them alive was the idea, "I must survive to tell the truth." If When, if they survived. They made a terrible discovery. There is no one really to listen to them, either some totally ignorant board social worker or some relative. who usually made obscene insinuations like, are you sure you were not even enjoying a little bit the rape and so on and so on. The truth of what? Jacques Lacan claims there is no Big Other. There! may be a virtual big Other. to whom you cannot confess There may be. A. real other but it's never The virtual one.
So that's the tragedy of our predicament. In order to fully exist as individuals, we need the fiction of a big other. There must be an agency which, as it were, registers our predicament, an agency, where the truth of ourselves will be inscribed. Accept it. An agency to which to confess. But what if There is no such agency. This was The utmost despair of many women raped in the post-Yugoslav war in Bosnia in the early 90s. They survived their terrible predicament. And what kept them alive was the idea, "I must survive to tell the truth." If When, if they survived. They made a terrible discovery. There is no one really to listen to them, either some totally ignorant board social worker or some relative. who usually made obscene insinuations like, are you sure you were not even enjoying a little bit the rape and so on and so on. The truth of what? Jacques Lacan claims there is no Big Other. There! may be a virtual big Other. to whom you cannot confess There may be. A. real other but it's never The virtual one.
Film Clip
We are… Hallo.
We are… Hallo.
Slavoj Žižek
I think Kafka was right. When he said that. For a modern, secular, non-religious man. Bureaucracy, state bureaucracy, is the only remaining contact with the dimension of the divine. It is in this scene from Brazil that we see the intimate link between bureaucracy and enjoyment. What the impenetrable omnipotence of bureaucracy harbors is divine enjoyment.
I think Kafka was right. When he said that. For a modern, secular, non-religious man. Bureaucracy, state bureaucracy, is the only remaining contact with the dimension of the divine. It is in this scene from Brazil that we see the intimate link between bureaucracy and enjoyment. What the impenetrable omnipotence of bureaucracy harbors is divine enjoyment.
Film Clip
The first terrorist is the last of his victims. Mr. Walsh, yes. Mr. Walsh, no. Mr. Walsh, Captain, they know.
The first terrorist is the last of his victims. Mr. Walsh, yes. Mr. Walsh, no. Mr. Walsh, Captain, they know.
Slavoj Žižek
Mr. Warren, standby. the intense rush of bureaucratic engagement. Serves nothing.
Mr. Warren, standby. the intense rush of bureaucratic engagement. Serves nothing.
Film Clip
I'm glad to have you with me. Yes
I'm glad to have you with me. Yes
Slavoj Žižek
It is the performance of its very purposelessness. that generates an intense enjoyment ready to reproduce itself forever.
It is the performance of its very purposelessness. that generates an intense enjoyment ready to reproduce itself forever.
Film Clip
Big things to come, Mr. Finance. Between you and me, Larry, this no-no department, tell records to get stuck. It's about to be upgraded. Here we are. Your video number on your video door. And behind that door your very own office. Congratulations, DZ Stroke 015. Welcome to the team. No, cancel that. Send two copies to Findout.
Big things to come, Mr. Finance. Between you and me, Larry, this no-no department, tell records to get stuck. It's about to be upgraded. Here we are. Your video number on your video door. And behind that door your very own office. Congratulations, DZ Stroke 015. Welcome to the team. No, cancel that. Send two copies to Findout.
Slavoj Žižek
The obverse of this is a wonderful scene more towards the beginning of the film.
The obverse of this is a wonderful scene more towards the beginning of the film.
Film Clip
Thank you. "Harry Tuttle, heating engineer, at your service."
Thank you. "Harry Tuttle, heating engineer, at your service."
Slavoj Žižek
The hero who has a problem in his apartment with plumbing tries to get the state agency to fix it.
The hero who has a problem in his apartment with plumbing tries to get the state agency to fix it.
Film Clip
Are you from central services?
Are you from central services?
Slavoj Žižek
Of course, two guys come. They just want forms to fill in. They do nothing. I call it central services. And then the ultimate subversive figure comes. A kind of clandestine plumber played by Robert De Niro.
Of course, two guys come. They just want forms to fill in. They do nothing. I call it central services. And then the ultimate subversive figure comes. A kind of clandestine plumber played by Robert De Niro.
Film Clip
Score that business with a gun. This is the precaution, sir. Just to pre-
Score that business with a gun. This is the precaution, sir. Just to pre-
Slavoj Žižek
He who tells him just tell me what is the problem and promises quickly to fix it. This, of course, is the ultimate offense to bureaucracy.
He who tells him just tell me what is the problem and promises quickly to fix it. This, of course, is the ultimate offense to bureaucracy.
Film Clip
Are you telling me that this is illegal?
Are you telling me that this is illegal?
Slavoj Žižek
Thanks. in China. We're all in it together. In the ordinary theological universe, your duty is imposed onto you by God or society and other higher authority, and your responsibility is to do it. But in a radically atheist universe. You are not only responsible for doing your duty. You are also responsible for deciding what is your duty. There is always in our subjectivity, in the way we experience ourselves, a minimum of Sisteria Hysteria is what. Hysteria is the way we question our social symbolic identity.
Thanks. in China. We're all in it together. In the ordinary theological universe, your duty is imposed onto you by God or society and other higher authority, and your responsibility is to do it. But in a radically atheist universe. You are not only responsible for doing your duty. You are also responsible for deciding what is your duty. There is always in our subjectivity, in the way we experience ourselves, a minimum of Sisteria Hysteria is what. Hysteria is the way we question our social symbolic identity.
Film Clip
You're sure it's God? You're sure it's not the devil?"
You're sure it's God? You're sure it's not the devil?"
Slavoj Žižek
I'm not sure.
I'm not sure.
Film Clip
I'm not sure if anything If it's the devil, the devil can be cast out.
I'm not sure if anything If it's the devil, the devil can be cast out.
Film Clip
But what if it's gone?
But what if it's gone?
Slavoj Žižek
You can't cast out God, can you? What is hysteria at its most elementary? It's a question addressed at the authority which defines my identity. It's why am I what you are telling me that I am? In psychoanalytic theory, hysteria is much more subversive than perversion. A pervert has no uncertainties, while, again, the hysterical position is that of a doubt, which is an extremely productive position. All new inventions come from hysterical questioning. And the unique character of Christianity is that it transposes this hysterical questioning onto God Himself as a subject.
You can't cast out God, can you? What is hysteria at its most elementary? It's a question addressed at the authority which defines my identity. It's why am I what you are telling me that I am? In psychoanalytic theory, hysteria is much more subversive than perversion. A pervert has no uncertainties, while, again, the hysterical position is that of a doubt, which is an extremely productive position. All new inventions come from hysterical questioning. And the unique character of Christianity is that it transposes this hysterical questioning onto God Himself as a subject.
Film Clip
Who's that? Who's following me? Is that you?
Who's that? Who's following me? Is that you?
Slavoj Žižek
This is the ingenious idea of The last temptation of Christ. Ah!
This is the ingenious idea of The last temptation of Christ. Ah!
Film Clip
ja
ja
Slavoj Žižek
I don't know. Sorry. Kazantzakis' novel and Scorsese's film, namely the idea that when Jesus Christ in his youth He stole. that he is. not only the Son of God, but basically God Himself. He doesn't simply accept it. This is For Jesus Christ, boy, traumatic news like, 'My God, why am I dead? Am I really dead? How did we come to that unique point, which I think makes Christianity an exception? It all began with the Book of Job. As we all know, things turn out bad for Job. He loses everything. His house. his family, his possessions, and so on. Three friends visit him and each of them tries to justify Job's misfortunes. The greatness of Job is that he does not accept this deeper meaning. Bend towards the end of the book of Job. God Himself appears. God gives right to choice. He says, "Everything that the theological friends We're telling you Job is false. Everything Job was saying is true. No meaning in catastrophes. Here we have the first step in the direction of delegitimizing Suffering. Stay with me. Don't leave me.
I don't know. Sorry. Kazantzakis' novel and Scorsese's film, namely the idea that when Jesus Christ in his youth He stole. that he is. not only the Son of God, but basically God Himself. He doesn't simply accept it. This is For Jesus Christ, boy, traumatic news like, 'My God, why am I dead? Am I really dead? How did we come to that unique point, which I think makes Christianity an exception? It all began with the Book of Job. As we all know, things turn out bad for Job. He loses everything. His house. his family, his possessions, and so on. Three friends visit him and each of them tries to justify Job's misfortunes. The greatness of Job is that he does not accept this deeper meaning. Bend towards the end of the book of Job. God Himself appears. God gives right to choice. He says, "Everything that the theological friends We're telling you Job is false. Everything Job was saying is true. No meaning in catastrophes. Here we have the first step in the direction of delegitimizing Suffering. Stay with me. Don't leave me.
Film Clip
Oh
Oh
Slavoj Žižek
The contrast! between Judaism and Christianity is the contrast between anxiety and love. The idea is that The Jewish God. is the god of the abyss of the other's desire. Terrible things happen. God is in charge, but we do not know what the big other God wants from us. What is the divine desire? to designate this traumatic experience. Lacon used the Italian phrase "cavvoi". What do you want? This. Terrifying question, but what do you want from me? The idea is that Judaism persists in this anxiety like God remains this enigmatic, terrifying other. And then Christianity resolved the tension through love. by sacrificing his son. God demonstrates that He loves us. So it's a kind of a imaginary, sentimental, even Resolution of a situation of radical anxiety.
The contrast! between Judaism and Christianity is the contrast between anxiety and love. The idea is that The Jewish God. is the god of the abyss of the other's desire. Terrible things happen. God is in charge, but we do not know what the big other God wants from us. What is the divine desire? to designate this traumatic experience. Lacon used the Italian phrase "cavvoi". What do you want? This. Terrifying question, but what do you want from me? The idea is that Judaism persists in this anxiety like God remains this enigmatic, terrifying other. And then Christianity resolved the tension through love. by sacrificing his son. God demonstrates that He loves us. So it's a kind of a imaginary, sentimental, even Resolution of a situation of radical anxiety.
Film Clip
Es ist ein sehr guter Film. She's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got Don't don't
Es ist ein sehr guter Film. She's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got a she's got Don't don't
Slavoj Žižek
Ah, oui.
Ah, oui.
Film Clip
I give.
I give.
Slavoj Žižek
If this were to be the case, then Christianity would have been kind of ideological reversal or pacification of the deep, much more shattering Jewish insight. But I think one can read the Christian gesture in a much more radical way. This is what the sequence of crucifixion in Scorcese's film shows us. What dies on the cross is precisely this guarantee of the big other. The message of Christianity is here radically atheist. It's the death of Christ is not any kind of redemption or commercial affair in the sense of Christ suffers to pay for our sins, pay to whom, for what and so on. It's simply the disintegration of the God which guarantees the meaning of our lives. and that's the meaning of that famous Frais, Eli, Eli, Lama Shabak Tami. Father, why have you forsaken me?
If this were to be the case, then Christianity would have been kind of ideological reversal or pacification of the deep, much more shattering Jewish insight. But I think one can read the Christian gesture in a much more radical way. This is what the sequence of crucifixion in Scorcese's film shows us. What dies on the cross is precisely this guarantee of the big other. The message of Christianity is here radically atheist. It's the death of Christ is not any kind of redemption or commercial affair in the sense of Christ suffers to pay for our sins, pay to whom, for what and so on. It's simply the disintegration of the God which guarantees the meaning of our lives. and that's the meaning of that famous Frais, Eli, Eli, Lama Shabak Tami. Father, why have you forsaken me?
Film Clip
Forsaken me!
Forsaken me!
Slavoj Žižek
Just before Christ's death. We get what in psychoanalytic terms we call subjective destitution. stepping out totally of the domain of Symbolic. Identification. cancelling or suspending the entire field of symbolic authority the entire field of the big other. Of course we cannot know what God wants from us because there is no God. This is the Jesus Christ, who says, among other things. I bring shirt. not peace. If you don't hate your father, your mother, you are not my follower. Of course, this doesn't mean that you should actively hate or kill your parents. I think that family relations stand here for hierarchic social relations. The message of Christ is. I'm dying, but my death itself is good news. It means you are alone, left to your freedom. be in the Holy Ghost. holy spirit, which is just the community of believers. It's wrong to think that The second coming will be that Christ as a figure will Return, somehow. Christ is already here when Believers form an emancipatory collective. This is why I claim that The only way really to be an atheist is to go through Christianity. Christianity is much more atheist than The usual Atheism. Which? can claim there is no God and so on, but nonetheless it retains a certain trust into the big other. This big other can be called natural necessity, evolution, or whatever. We humans are nonetheless reduced to a. position within a harmonious whole of evolution, whatever. But the difficult thing to accept is again that there is no big other, no point of reference which guarantees meaning. We are in… John Frankenheimer's seconds. A Neglect at Hollywood. masterpiece from 1966 from the very heart of the hippie era. which preached unrestrained hedonism, realized your dreams, enjoy life fully. The film is the story of a late middle-aged businessman leading a gray, totally alienated life, and then he decides at some point that he has enough of it. Through one of his friends, he contacts a mysterious agency which offers him a deal. They will reorganize his life so that he will be Reborn.
Just before Christ's death. We get what in psychoanalytic terms we call subjective destitution. stepping out totally of the domain of Symbolic. Identification. cancelling or suspending the entire field of symbolic authority the entire field of the big other. Of course we cannot know what God wants from us because there is no God. This is the Jesus Christ, who says, among other things. I bring shirt. not peace. If you don't hate your father, your mother, you are not my follower. Of course, this doesn't mean that you should actively hate or kill your parents. I think that family relations stand here for hierarchic social relations. The message of Christ is. I'm dying, but my death itself is good news. It means you are alone, left to your freedom. be in the Holy Ghost. holy spirit, which is just the community of believers. It's wrong to think that The second coming will be that Christ as a figure will Return, somehow. Christ is already here when Believers form an emancipatory collective. This is why I claim that The only way really to be an atheist is to go through Christianity. Christianity is much more atheist than The usual Atheism. Which? can claim there is no God and so on, but nonetheless it retains a certain trust into the big other. This big other can be called natural necessity, evolution, or whatever. We humans are nonetheless reduced to a. position within a harmonious whole of evolution, whatever. But the difficult thing to accept is again that there is no big other, no point of reference which guarantees meaning. We are in… John Frankenheimer's seconds. A Neglect at Hollywood. masterpiece from 1966 from the very heart of the hippie era. which preached unrestrained hedonism, realized your dreams, enjoy life fully. The film is the story of a late middle-aged businessman leading a gray, totally alienated life, and then he decides at some point that he has enough of it. Through one of his friends, he contacts a mysterious agency which offers him a deal. They will reorganize his life so that he will be Reborn.
Film Clip
The cost runs in the neighborhood of thirty thousand dollars. I know this seems rather high, but in addition to the rather Extensive cosmetic renovation by way of plastic surgery for you. C.P.S. has to provide a fresh corpse that perfectly matches. Your physical dimensions and medical specifications? CPS. Oh, cadaver, procurement section.
The cost runs in the neighborhood of thirty thousand dollars. I know this seems rather high, but in addition to the rather Extensive cosmetic renovation by way of plastic surgery for you. C.P.S. has to provide a fresh corpse that perfectly matches. Your physical dimensions and medical specifications? CPS. Oh, cadaver, procurement section.
Slavoj Žižek
They use some corpse, they change it to look like his own body. They planted this corpse stage a pseudo accident so that police thinks he is dead. Mr. Wilson, you represent something of a stone around here. And then, uh, . The agency organizes an alternate life. in a nice villa somewhere around La, they even organize a nice lady who conveniently stumbles upon him when he is taking a walk along the beach. He is thus reborn.
They use some corpse, they change it to look like his own body. They planted this corpse stage a pseudo accident so that police thinks he is dead. Mr. Wilson, you represent something of a stone around here. And then, uh, . The agency organizes an alternate life. in a nice villa somewhere around La, they even organize a nice lady who conveniently stumbles upon him when he is taking a walk along the beach. He is thus reborn.
Film Clip
I'm Norma.
I'm Norma.
Slavoj Žižek
no longer as a boring businessman but as a modernist, painter, Tony Wilson, golf. Don't you Wilson. played by none other than Rock Hudson. So the woman Nora, his new love. tries to engage him in life, even takes him to some wine orgy where people get drunk, dance naked, and so on. Everything seems okay. But Tony Wilson Starts to miss his old life. More and more he is haunted by his Pasta Finally, he breaks down. approaches again the agency. telling them that he wants to return to his old life. the boss of this mysterious company, a kind of kindly cruel. "Hello, son! Super ego paternal figure! tells him the truth. He disappointed them by not being able to adapt himself to his new life.
no longer as a boring businessman but as a modernist, painter, Tony Wilson, golf. Don't you Wilson. played by none other than Rock Hudson. So the woman Nora, his new love. tries to engage him in life, even takes him to some wine orgy where people get drunk, dance naked, and so on. Everything seems okay. But Tony Wilson Starts to miss his old life. More and more he is haunted by his Pasta Finally, he breaks down. approaches again the agency. telling them that he wants to return to his old life. the boss of this mysterious company, a kind of kindly cruel. "Hello, son! Super ego paternal figure! tells him the truth. He disappointed them by not being able to adapt himself to his new life.
Film Clip
You know, I sure hoped you'd make it. Find your dream come true. I said I sure hoped that you'd make it. Find your dream come true?
You know, I sure hoped you'd make it. Find your dream come true. I said I sure hoped that you'd make it. Find your dream come true?
Film Clip
You can call it
You can call it
Film Clip
Peaceful thinking, sir. Life is built on wish. And you've got to just keep plugging away at him. Can't. Give up.
Peaceful thinking, sir. Life is built on wish. And you've got to just keep plugging away at him. Can't. Give up.
Slavoj Žižek
can't let the mistakes So what went wrong here? The problem was that his past in its material existence was erased. "Here's your transportation." Well, surgery, sir. He lived in a totally new environment, new job. new friends and so on. What remained the same were his dreams. Because when the company organized his rebirth When the company provided new Existence. for him. They simply followed his dreams. His dreams were wrong dreams. And this is quite a deep lesson for the theory of ideology. Just remember, son, we gotta keep plugging away at the dream. The mistakes teach us how. It wasn't wasted. Remember that." On the way to the operation hall, he discovers the horrible truth. He will not be reborn but he will be used as a Cadaver for another person. who wants to be reborn. Solveve We should draw a line of distinction within the very field of our dreams. So keep it until life eternal. Between those who are the right dreams. pointing towards a dimension effectively beyond our existing society and the wrong dreams, the dreams which are just an idealized Consumerist. Reflection. Mirror image of our society. We are not simply submitted to our dreams. They just come from some unfathomable depths and we can't do anything about it. This is the basic lesson of psychoanalysis and fiction cinema. We are responsible for our dreams. Our dreams stage our desires and our desires are not objective facts. We created them, we sustain them, we are responsible for them.
can't let the mistakes So what went wrong here? The problem was that his past in its material existence was erased. "Here's your transportation." Well, surgery, sir. He lived in a totally new environment, new job. new friends and so on. What remained the same were his dreams. Because when the company organized his rebirth When the company provided new Existence. for him. They simply followed his dreams. His dreams were wrong dreams. And this is quite a deep lesson for the theory of ideology. Just remember, son, we gotta keep plugging away at the dream. The mistakes teach us how. It wasn't wasted. Remember that." On the way to the operation hall, he discovers the horrible truth. He will not be reborn but he will be used as a Cadaver for another person. who wants to be reborn. Solveve We should draw a line of distinction within the very field of our dreams. So keep it until life eternal. Between those who are the right dreams. pointing towards a dimension effectively beyond our existing society and the wrong dreams, the dreams which are just an idealized Consumerist. Reflection. Mirror image of our society. We are not simply submitted to our dreams. They just come from some unfathomable depths and we can't do anything about it. This is the basic lesson of psychoanalysis and fiction cinema. We are responsible for our dreams. Our dreams stage our desires and our desires are not objective facts. We created them, we sustain them, we are responsible for them.
Film Clip
This is an area of ancient lakebeds deposited 5 to 10 million years ago.
This is an area of ancient lakebeds deposited 5 to 10 million years ago.
Slavoj Žižek
The scene of mass orgy in Zabriskie Point. is a nice metaphor of what went wrong. with the 1960s hippie revolution. It's crucial that Zabriskie Point was made in 1970. when the authentic revolutionary energy of the 60s was already losing its strength. This orgy is somewhere between subversion of the existing social order And already the full aestheticized reincorporation of these allegedly transgressive activities into the hegemonic ideology. although Antonioni meant this as a kind of transcendence of the existing constraints We can easily imagine this thought. in some publicity campaign. The first step to freedom is not just to change reality to fit your dreams, it's to change the way you dream. And again, this hurts, because all satisfactions we have come from our
The scene of mass orgy in Zabriskie Point. is a nice metaphor of what went wrong. with the 1960s hippie revolution. It's crucial that Zabriskie Point was made in 1970. when the authentic revolutionary energy of the 60s was already losing its strength. This orgy is somewhere between subversion of the existing social order And already the full aestheticized reincorporation of these allegedly transgressive activities into the hegemonic ideology. although Antonioni meant this as a kind of transcendence of the existing constraints We can easily imagine this thought. in some publicity campaign. The first step to freedom is not just to change reality to fit your dreams, it's to change the way you dream. And again, this hurts, because all satisfactions we have come from our
Archival Speech
Trinche. The great Supreme Commander, Chairman Mao, issued a world-shaking call to us. You should pay attention to state affairs. and carry the great proletarian cultural revolution Move to the end.
Trinche. The great Supreme Commander, Chairman Mao, issued a world-shaking call to us. You should pay attention to state affairs. and carry the great proletarian cultural revolution Move to the end.
Slavoj Žižek
One of the big problems of all great revolutionary movements of the 20th century such as Russia, Cuba, or China, is that they did change the social body But the egalitarian communist society was never realized. The dreams remained the old dreams. And they turned into the ultimate nightmare. Now what remains of the Radical Left? Waits for a magical event when the true revolutionary agent will finally awaken. While the depressing lesson of the last decades is that capitalism has been the true revolutionizing force, even as it serves only itself. How come it is easier for us to imagine the end of all life on earth, an asteroid hitting the planet, than a modest change in our economic order? Perhaps the time has come to set our possibilities straight and to become realists by way of demanding what appears as impossible in the economic domain. The surprising explosion of Occupy Wall Street protests. The mass mobilization in Greece. The crowds on Tahrir Square. They all bear witness to the hidden potential for a different future. There is no guarantee that this future will arrive. No train of history on which we simply have to take a ride. It depends on us. on our will. In… REVOLUTIONARY UPHEAVALS. Some energy, or rather some Utopian dreams, take place, they explode, and even if the actual result of a social upheaval is just a commercialized everyday. Life Vich Excess of energy what gets lost in the result. Presents. not in reality, but as a dream. haunting us, waiting to be redeemed. In this sense. Whenever we are engaged in radical emancipatory politics We should never forget. As Walter Benjamin Put it. almost a century ago. That's right. Every revolution is not only If it is an authentic revolution is not only directed towards the future, but it redeems Also the past. Failed. REVOLUTIONS. All the ghosts, as if we're the living dead of the past revolution. which are roaming around unsatisfied. will finally find their home. in the new Freedom.
One of the big problems of all great revolutionary movements of the 20th century such as Russia, Cuba, or China, is that they did change the social body But the egalitarian communist society was never realized. The dreams remained the old dreams. And they turned into the ultimate nightmare. Now what remains of the Radical Left? Waits for a magical event when the true revolutionary agent will finally awaken. While the depressing lesson of the last decades is that capitalism has been the true revolutionizing force, even as it serves only itself. How come it is easier for us to imagine the end of all life on earth, an asteroid hitting the planet, than a modest change in our economic order? Perhaps the time has come to set our possibilities straight and to become realists by way of demanding what appears as impossible in the economic domain. The surprising explosion of Occupy Wall Street protests. The mass mobilization in Greece. The crowds on Tahrir Square. They all bear witness to the hidden potential for a different future. There is no guarantee that this future will arrive. No train of history on which we simply have to take a ride. It depends on us. on our will. In… REVOLUTIONARY UPHEAVALS. Some energy, or rather some Utopian dreams, take place, they explode, and even if the actual result of a social upheaval is just a commercialized everyday. Life Vich Excess of energy what gets lost in the result. Presents. not in reality, but as a dream. haunting us, waiting to be redeemed. In this sense. Whenever we are engaged in radical emancipatory politics We should never forget. As Walter Benjamin Put it. almost a century ago. That's right. Every revolution is not only If it is an authentic revolution is not only directed towards the future, but it redeems Also the past. Failed. REVOLUTIONS. All the ghosts, as if we're the living dead of the past revolution. which are roaming around unsatisfied. will finally find their home. in the new Freedom.
Film Clip
Bischen, bischen, bischen, bischen. Tengo que ser libre, rudo y fuerte. Oh, my God. Oh. I'm feeling it. Thank you. I'm going to march again. Thank you. No, no, no. Oh, fie on thee! The last and not the only
Bischen, bischen, bischen, bischen. Tengo que ser libre, rudo y fuerte. Oh, my God. Oh. I'm feeling it. Thank you. I'm going to march again. Thank you. No, no, no. Oh, fie on thee! The last and not the only
Slavoj Žižek
I may be freezing. to death. But you will never get rid of me. All the eyes in the world cannot kill a true idea.
I may be freezing. to death. But you will never get rid of me. All the eyes in the world cannot kill a true idea.