Think about the strangeness of today's situation. Thirty, forty years ago, we were still debating about what the future will be: communist, fascist, capitalist, whatever. Today, nobody even debates these issues. We all silently accept global capitalism is here to stay. On the other hand, we are obsessed with cosmic catastrophes: the whole life on earth disintegrating, because of some… — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share
There is a contradiction between market liberalism and political liberalism. The market liberals (e.g., social conservatives) of today want family values, less government, and maintain the traditions of society (at least in America's case). However, we must face the cultural contradiction of capitalism: the progress of capitalism, which necessitates a consumer culture, undermines the values which render capitalism possible — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share
Global capitalism is simply accepted as a fact that you cannot do anything about. The only question is, Will you accommodate yourself… — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share Image
You can be an extreme materialist, thinking that economic development ultimately determines everything; then you are truly ideological. — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share Image
“capitalism is for Karatani not a ‘pure’ reign of B, but a triad (or, rather, a Borromean knot) of nation–state–capital: nation as… — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share Image
“What we are dealing with here is another version of the Lacanian ' il n'y a pas de rapport ...': if, for… — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share Image
The ultimate goal of radical politics is gradually to displace the limit of social exclusions, empowering the excluded agents (sexual and ethnic minorities) by creating marginal spaces in which they can articulate and question their identity. Radical politics thus becomes an endless mocking parody and provocation, a gradual process of reidentification in which there are not final victories and ultimate… — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share
“In Kant’s description, ethical duty functions like a foreign traumatic intruder that from the outside disturbs the subject’s homeostatic balance, its unbearable pressure forcing the subject to act “beyond the pleasure principle,” ignoring the pursuit of pleasures. For Lacan, exactly the same description holds for desire, which is why enjoyment is not something that comes naturally to the subject, as… — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share
I think Kafka was right when he said that for a modern, secular, nonreligious man, state bureaucracy is the only remaining contact with the… — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share Image
“The cliche about prison life is that I am actually integrated into it, ruined by it, when my accommodation to it is so overwhelming that I can no longer stand or even imagine freedom, life outside prison, so that my release brings about a total psychic breakdown, or at least gives rise to a longing for the lost safety of… — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share
“In our quest for entertainment and instant gratification, we have become detached from the real world and its problems, contributing to the erosion of… — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share Image
The problem for us is not are our desires satisfied or not. The problem is how do we know what we desire. — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share Image
“In contrast to the situation in 1945, the world does not need the US; it is the US that needs the rest of the world” — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share Image
Those who were still able to write beautiful melodies were kitsch composers like Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky approaches true art not in his numerous beautiful melodies,… — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share Image
“as in Heinrich Heine’s (a contemporary of Kierkegaard’s) well-known saying that one should value above everything else ‘freedom, equality and crab soup’. ‘Crab soup’… — Slavoj Žižek Copy Share Image
