how am i ever going to deal with my envy of slavoj zizek? christ now he's writing for the nytimes. well, maybe like this: for all of zizek's super-bold rhetoric etc - admittedly toned down here - the position is an extremely conventional statist leftism; really he just wants us all to be swedes. the great imagination of the prose is matched by the utter dullness of the actual positions. it's cool that he loves utopian thinking: a kind of nice reversal. but what does he actually want? "socialism with a human face." gee whiz.

just to give the capsule refutation: once you've constituted a state sufficient to give you your socialism, then whether it retains a human face is entirely at the whim of those who operate the power you've constituted.

Comments

[Ben]

I'm not a fan of Zizek, but surely when he uses the phrase "socialism with a human face" here, he is referring back to his previous paragraph:

"They wanted the freedom to live their lives outside state control, to come together and talk as they pleased; they wanted a life of simplicity and sincerity, liberated from the primitive ideological indoctrination and the prevailing cynical hypocrisy."

As far as I can tell, the phrase itself originates with the 'Prague Spring' of 1968, which was a socialist but anti-stalinist movement. This would make sense coming from Zizek, who is a self-professed Leninist, but not a Stalinist, I think. Whether that distinction is a tenable one, I won't attempt to argue here. His point is surely fairly inoffensive, though - that there are ways of resisting state socialism without calling for capitalism.

[Robert Kelly]

Some further thoughts.

-- "But I thought he was a Stalinist."

I really don't know what I'm talking about. If he's a Stalinist, then Laibach are fascists, which they're not.

-- His stuff about the dangers of authoritarian capitalism is refreshing. SO much better than reading Thomas Friedman, who embraces it.

[Robert Kelly]

I saw that on the bus home today. The philosophy department at my school gives out a free stack of the Times every morning.

:-)

I dunno. When I read Zizek, or watch one of his really bizarre lectures, I have the feeling that I'm watching a great mind, as I enjoy being in the room with someone who is way smart, but I have a hard time understanding it or keeping up. And I like that he's entertaining, which is important:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wErpJRY-VRc

But I thought he was a Stalinist. Or... whatever. I can't make sense out of him, or take him seriously, which I suppose is how to read Alain Badiou, or something.

[1littlewho]

really, everyone wants to be italian.
or have one...;)

[Stephen]

Man... he's good.

[some head]

Well, he's for that. And being for that while talking both ways is how you make it to the Times, since the '30s.