For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor PDF
Preview For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor
THE FRAGILE WO ESWAR ABSOLUTE Aseries from Verso editedbySlavoj Zizek or, Wo es war, solIich werden - Where itwas, I shallcome into being- is Freud's versionof'the Enlightenmentgoalofknowledgethatisinitselfanactof Why is the Christian legacy liberation. Is itstillpossibletopursue this goaltoday, inthe conditions worth fighting for? oflate capitalism? If 'it' today is the twin rule ofpragmatic-relativist NewSophistsandNewAgeobscurantists,what'shallcomeintobeing' in itsplace? Thepremissofthe seriesisthattheexplosivecombination .... """ ofLacanianpsychoanalysisandl\t1arxisttradition detonatesa dynamic freedom that enables us to question the very presuppositions of the circuitofCapital. SlAVOJ ZIZEK Inthesameseries: Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings. l~-='dited and introduced by lVl.iran Bozovic Alain Grosrichard, The Sultans Court: European Fantasies ofthe East. Translatedby Liz Heron andintroducedbyl'vlJaden Dolar Renata Saled, (Per}l7ersionsifLoveandflate Slavoj Zizek, TheMefastasesifEnjoyment:SixEssayson Women andCausality Slavoj Zizek, TheIndivisibleRemainder.AnEssayonSchellingandRelatedJlIIalters Slavoj Zizek, ThePlagueifFantasies Slavoj Zizek, TheTicklishSubject:TheAbsentCentreifPoliticalOntology Alenka ZupanCic, EthicsiftheReal'Kant, Lacan l' Forthcoming: Alain Badiou, Ethics:AnEssayonthe UnderstandingofEvil VERSO London· NewYork THE FRAGILE WO ESWAR ABSOLUTE Aseries from Verso editedbySlavoj Zizek or, Wo es war, solIich werden - Where itwas, I shallcome into being- is Freud's versionof'the Enlightenmentgoalofknowledgethatisinitselfanactof Why is the Christian legacy liberation. Is itstillpossibletopursue this goaltoday, inthe conditions worth fighting for? oflate capitalism? If 'it' today is the twin rule ofpragmatic-relativist NewSophistsandNewAgeobscurantists,what'shallcomeintobeing' in itsplace? Thepremissofthe seriesisthattheexplosivecombination .... """ ofLacanianpsychoanalysisandl\t1arxisttradition detonatesa dynamic freedom that enables us to question the very presuppositions of the circuitofCapital. SlAVOJ ZIZEK Inthesameseries: Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings. l~-='dited and introduced by lVl.iran Bozovic Alain Grosrichard, The Sultans Court: European Fantasies ofthe East. Translatedby Liz Heron andintroducedbyl'vlJaden Dolar Renata Saled, (Per}l7ersionsifLoveandflate Slavoj Zizek, TheMefastasesifEnjoyment:SixEssayson Women andCausality Slavoj Zizek, TheIndivisibleRemainder.AnEssayonSchellingandRelatedJlIIalters Slavoj Zizek, ThePlagueifFantasies Slavoj Zizek, TheTicklishSubject:TheAbsentCentreifPoliticalOntology Alenka ZupanCic, EthicsiftheReal'Kant, Lacan l' Forthcoming: Alain Badiou, Ethics:AnEssayonthe UnderstandingofEvil VERSO London· NewYork CONTENTS Giving Up the Balkan Ghost 3 FirstpublishedbyVerso2000 ©Slavoj Zizek2000 2 The Spectre of Capital 11 All rightsreserved 3 Coke as obje! petit a 21 Paperbackedition first publishedbyVerso2001 4 From tragique to moque-comtque 40 5 Victims, Victims Everywhere 54 I 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 6 The Fantasmatic Real 63 Themoral rightsoftheauthorhave beenasserted 7 \Vhy is the Truth Monstrous? 69 Verso 8 Of Stones, Lizards and Men 82 UK: 6MeaI'd Street, LondonWIFOEC 9 The Structure and its Event 92 US: 180VarickStreet, NewYork, l\ry 10014--4606 10 From the Decalogue to Human Rights 107 VersoistheimprintofNewLeft Books 11 The Principle of Charity 113 12 Christ's Uncoupling 123 ISBN 1-85984-326-3 13 'You must, because you can!' 130 BritishLihraryCataloguinginPublicationData 14 From Knowledge to Truth ... and Back 135 A catalogue recordfor thisbookisavailablefrom the British Library 15 The Breakout 143 LihraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Acatalogrecordfor thisbookisavailablefrom the LibralyofCongress Notes 161 1yPesetbyM RulesinCochin lO.5pt Index 177 Printedandboundinthe USAbyR.R. Donnelley& Sons Ltd CONTENTS Giving Up the Balkan Ghost 3 FirstpublishedbyVerso2000 ©Slavoj Zizek2000 2 The Spectre of Capital 11 All rightsreserved 3 Coke as obje! petit a 21 Paperbackedition first publishedbyVerso2001 4 From tragique to moque-comtque 40 5 Victims, Victims Everywhere 54 I 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 6 The Fantasmatic Real 63 Themoral rightsoftheauthorhave beenasserted 7 \Vhy is the Truth Monstrous? 69 Verso 8 Of Stones, Lizards and Men 82 UK: 6MeaI'd Street, LondonWIFOEC 9 The Structure and its Event 92 US: 180VarickStreet, NewYork, l\ry 10014--4606 10 From the Decalogue to Human Rights 107 VersoistheimprintofNewLeft Books 11 The Principle of Charity 113 12 Christ's Uncoupling 123 ISBN 1-85984-326-3 13 'You must, because you can!' 130 BritishLihraryCataloguinginPublicationData 14 From Knowledge to Truth ... and Back 135 A catalogue recordfor thisbookisavailablefrom the British Library 15 The Breakout 143 LihraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Acatalogrecordfor thisbookisavailablefrom the LibralyofCongress Notes 161 1yPesetbyM RulesinCochin lO.5pt Index 177 Printedandboundinthe USAbyR.R. Donnelley& Sons Ltd For nobody and nothing Oneofthe most deplorable aspects ofthepostmoderneraandits so-called 'thought' is the return ofthe religious dimension in all its different guises: from Christian and other fundamentalisms, through the multitude of New Age spiritualisms, up to the emerging religious sensitivitywithin deconstructionism itself(so called 'post-secular' thought). How is a Marxist, by definition a 'fightingmaterialist' (Lenin), to counterthismassive onslaughtof obscurantism? The obvious answer seems to be not only fero ciously to attack these tendencies, but mercilessly to denounce the remainders of the religious legacy within Marxism itself. For nobody and nothing Oneofthe most deplorable aspects ofthepostmoderneraandits so-called 'thought' is the return ofthe religious dimension in all its different guises: from Christian and other fundamentalisms, through the multitude of New Age spiritualisms, up to the emerging religious sensitivitywithin deconstructionism itself(so called 'post-secular' thought). How is a Marxist, by definition a 'fightingmaterialist' (Lenin), to counterthismassive onslaughtof obscurantism? The obvious answer seems to be not only fero ciously to attack these tendencies, but mercilessly to denounce the remainders of the religious legacy within Marxism itself. SLAVOJ ZIZEK THE FRAGILE ABSOLUTE Against the old liberal slander which draws on the parallel 1 Giving Up the Balkan Ghost between the Christian andMarxist'Messianic' notion ofhistory as the process ofthe final deliverance ofthe faithful (the notori Perhaps the best way ofencapsnlating the gist ofan epoch is to ous 'Communist-parties-are-secularized-religious-sects' theme), focus not on the explicit features that define its social and ideo should one not emphasize how this holds onlyfor ossified 'dog logical edifices but on the disavo~~(Lgh9.§!-".•lhi!Lhic'!.19!it, matic' .M.arxism, not for its authentic liberating kernel? d~e_l~i~~_in, ~_lT1'y~~ed?,~_~,"I~gl9g,,9,Ln.Q.lJ~flfi,§t~l:)J_~~~t~!i~§ __.,~h~,c;h __ Following AJain Badiou's path-breaking book on Saint PauI,1 n~~~:~~~~I~~it~~~!:~_;',-"~?;!i~,~,~_!9 ~:'f~rtth~ir-~f£i£q~'y~ Comingfrom ourpremiss here is exactlythe opposite one: instead ofadopting Slovenia, part of ex-Yugoslavia, I seem to be predestined to sucha defensive stance, allowingthe eneUIYto define the terrain speak about such ghosts today: is not one of the main cliches ofthe struggle, what one should do is to reverse the strategy by about the Balkans that they are the part of Europe which is 0/ fully endorsing what one is accused yes, there is a direct lineage haunted bythe notorious 'ghosts of'the past', forgetting nothing from Christianity to Marxism; yes, Christianity and Marxism and learning nothing, still fighting centuries-old battles, while should fight on the same side of the barricade against the the rest ofEurope is engagedin a rapid process ofglobalization7 onslaughtofnew spiritualisms- the authentic Christianlegacyis Here, however, we encounter the first paradoxofthe Balkans: it much too precious to be left to the fundamentalist freaks. seemsas ifthe Balkansthemselves had, in the eyes ofEurope, the Even those who acknowledg'e this direct lineage from peculiar status of' a ghost that haunts it - are not the post Christianity to Marxism, however, usually fetishize the early Yugoslav Balkans, this vortex of (self-)destructive ethnic 'authentic'followers ofChristagainstthe Church's 'institutional passions, the exact opposite, almost a kind ofphotographic neg ization' epitomized by the name of Saint Paul: yes to Christ's ative, ofthetolerantcoexistence ofethnic communities, a kindof 'originalauthenticmessage', noto itstransformati.onintothebody multiculturalist dream turned into a nightmare? Does not the of teaching that legitimizes the Church as a social institution. very indeterminate and shifting geographic delimitation ofthe What these followers of the maxim 'yes to Christ, no to Saint Balkans indicate their spectral status7 It seems as if there is no Paul' (who, as Nietzsche claimed, in effect invented Christianity) definitive answer to the question 'Where do the Balkans do is strictly parallel to the stance of those 'humanist Marxists' begin7'- the Balkansare always somewhereelse, a little bitmore from the mid-twentieth century whose maxim was 'yes to the towards the southeast.... earlyauthenticMarx, notohis Leninistossification'. Andin both For the Serbs, they begin down there, in Kosovo or in Bosnia, cases, oneshouldinsist thatsuch a 'defenceofthe authentic'isthe and they defend the Christian civilization against this Europe's most perhdIc;;:;;-ni'ode ofits betrayal: the;;;Sno'Christoutside Saint Other; for the Croats, they begin in orthodox, despotic and Paul; inexactlyt~;;;;;=;-;:th~1SnoaUffientiCf\!rarx"tThate1tn Byzantine Serbia, against which Croatia safeguards Western be approached directly, bypassing Lenin. . • democratic values; for Slovenestheybegin in Croatia, andweare 2 3 SLAVOJ ZIZEK THE FRAGILE ABSOLUTE Against the old liberal slander which draws on the parallel 1 Giving Up the Balkan Ghost between the Christian andMarxist'Messianic' notion ofhistory as the process ofthe final deliverance ofthe faithful (the notori Perhaps the best way ofencapsnlating the gist ofan epoch is to ous 'Communist-parties-are-secularized-religious-sects' theme), focus not on the explicit features that define its social and ideo should one not emphasize how this holds onlyfor ossified 'dog logical edifices but on the disavo~~(Lgh9.§!-".•lhi!Lhic'!.19!it, matic' .M.arxism, not for its authentic liberating kernel? d~e_l~i~~_in, ~_lT1'y~~ed?,~_~,"I~gl9g,,9,Ln.Q.lJ~flfi,§t~l:)J_~~~t~!i~§ __.,~h~,c;h __ Following AJain Badiou's path-breaking book on Saint PauI,1 n~~~:~~~~I~~it~~~!:~_;',-"~?;!i~,~,~_!9 ~:'f~rtth~ir-~f£i£q~'y~ Comingfrom ourpremiss here is exactlythe opposite one: instead ofadopting Slovenia, part of ex-Yugoslavia, I seem to be predestined to sucha defensive stance, allowingthe eneUIYto define the terrain speak about such ghosts today: is not one of the main cliches ofthe struggle, what one should do is to reverse the strategy by about the Balkans that they are the part of Europe which is 0/ fully endorsing what one is accused yes, there is a direct lineage haunted bythe notorious 'ghosts of'the past', forgetting nothing from Christianity to Marxism; yes, Christianity and Marxism and learning nothing, still fighting centuries-old battles, while should fight on the same side of the barricade against the the rest ofEurope is engagedin a rapid process ofglobalization7 onslaughtofnew spiritualisms- the authentic Christianlegacyis Here, however, we encounter the first paradoxofthe Balkans: it much too precious to be left to the fundamentalist freaks. seemsas ifthe Balkansthemselves had, in the eyes ofEurope, the Even those who acknowledg'e this direct lineage from peculiar status of' a ghost that haunts it - are not the post Christianity to Marxism, however, usually fetishize the early Yugoslav Balkans, this vortex of (self-)destructive ethnic 'authentic'followers ofChristagainstthe Church's 'institutional passions, the exact opposite, almost a kind ofphotographic neg ization' epitomized by the name of Saint Paul: yes to Christ's ative, ofthetolerantcoexistence ofethnic communities, a kindof 'originalauthenticmessage', noto itstransformati.onintothebody multiculturalist dream turned into a nightmare? Does not the of teaching that legitimizes the Church as a social institution. very indeterminate and shifting geographic delimitation ofthe What these followers of the maxim 'yes to Christ, no to Saint Balkans indicate their spectral status7 It seems as if there is no Paul' (who, as Nietzsche claimed, in effect invented Christianity) definitive answer to the question 'Where do the Balkans do is strictly parallel to the stance of those 'humanist Marxists' begin7'- the Balkansare always somewhereelse, a little bitmore from the mid-twentieth century whose maxim was 'yes to the towards the southeast.... earlyauthenticMarx, notohis Leninistossification'. Andin both For the Serbs, they begin down there, in Kosovo or in Bosnia, cases, oneshouldinsist thatsuch a 'defenceofthe authentic'isthe and they defend the Christian civilization against this Europe's most perhdIc;;:;;-ni'ode ofits betrayal: the;;;Sno'Christoutside Saint Other; for the Croats, they begin in orthodox, despotic and Paul; inexactlyt~;;;;;=;-;:th~1SnoaUffientiCf\!rarx"tThate1tn Byzantine Serbia, against which Croatia safeguards Western be approached directly, bypassing Lenin. . • democratic values; for Slovenestheybegin in Croatia, andweare 2 3 SLAVOJ ZIZEK THE FRAGILE ABSOLUTE the last bulwark of the peaceful Mitteleuropa; for many Italians old-fa~~ed_..!l!li\Q,,§h~clrejection of the (despotic,barbarian, and Austrians they begin in Slovenia, the Western outpost oT ~ox,Muslim, corrupt, Oriental ...)B~lkanathe;~n behalf the Slavic hordes; for many Germans, Austria itself: because of ~f-~~tI~~~~ti~"(W~-~-t~;'~I''''~i~ifi;-~d,--cl~~~~'~~~ti'~;---Ch;i~ti~~'.. .) its historical links, is alreadytaintedwith Balkancorruptionand var;;,:s:itE;;;:;the~;;-i;-'-;~ff;;;<'i;;;;p~i;t;~~ffYC~;;:;;::1.t~;;i~;;';: the inefficiency; for manyNorth Germans, Bavaria, withits Catholic l11ulti~ult;;t,;;rlst~p;;t~;;pi:l;;;:;oif:he~Balk~ausasthe terraiu ofetlinic provincialflair, is notfree ofa Balkan contarnination;manyarro horrors'ancr~n'toTerance:';;fp~i;~iti~~'"'i;;~ti~~;:r:;;;;~~g--pa:ss-l()nsl gant Frenchmen associate Germany itself with an Eastern t()be-()pp()sedt()-th;;p()st:;;';:t~;;;;:,,1';:t;;Iib;;;;J:J;;mo"1.';;1.i"process Balkan brutaliWentirelyforeign to Frenchfinesse; andthis brings ors;:'I;:;1;;g;;();;fli;;t;1:l;t-;;:;gh;:-ati~;;;I;;;;g;;t;~t;~~,;::~I11proIllisea;;cl us to the last link in this chain: to some conservative British mutuirresp~'a':'--'fle:re'racis~m"ls~--as"Tt'wei;~'" elevated'to--the--second opponents of the European Union, for whom - implicitly, at D~--f_.lw"-'~e-"r':--"i---t"i's.----a,...-t-~t-ributed to we occupy con- least- thewhole ofcontinental Europe functions todayas a new venient,p~~ition()f,~,Pt~~,tr:,?J1?,e:1?-,e:Y9J~;Ilt0 J::>seryqJ:"l.rig,hteously version ofthe Balkan Turkish Empire, with Brusselsas the new dismayedat tl:chorroIsgoing on 'down there'. Finally, there is Istanbul, a voracious despotic centre which threatens British the reverse racism.:which celebrates the exotic authenticiW of freedom and sovereignty....2 Is uot this identification ofconti theB~fk~-;'~Oth;;;'as inth~ notion ofSerbs who, in contrast to nental Europe itselfwith the Balkans, its barbarian Other, the anaenlicWestern Europeans, stillexhibita prodigious secrettruth ofthe entire movement ofthe displaceddelimitation It.;~tf;tiif',;=thi;f~~t a. f()1.;;,;;;{r';;"isl11 plays crucial role in the between the two? success ofEmir Kusturica's fllms in the West. This enigmatic multiple displacement of the frontier clearly The example ofKusturica also enables us to idcnti(yanother demonstrates that in the case ofthe Balkans we are dealing not feature oftheWesternperceptionofthe Balkans: thelogic ofdis~ with real geography but with an imaginary cartography which placed racism.3 Since the Balkans are geographically part of projects on to the real landscape its own shadowy, often dis Europe, populatedbywhite people, racist clicheswh_i':.l::~0!J0dy avowed, ideological antagonisms, justas Freud claimed that the todax!~ i;:> ()ur)'olitic"lly CorrecUim.es, WQuld d"r~ tQ "pply to localization of the hysteric's conversion Syulptoms projecton to AfricanorAsianpeople,,-a;:>beJr".e!l'..attribllt".?t() B,J~"n people: the physical body the map of another, imaginary anatomy. p()Eti~:'T;t~~ii!~s~nt.h"I3"I~ans are compared to ridiculous However, itis notonly thatthe BalkansserveasEuropesghost, the O~~I:~!~~~'.P~()!.~,~.rCeaUf~escu th~'c~'nt~-~p~~ary was presented as persistent remainder of its own disavowed past; the further reincarnation of Count ,Dracula.... Furthermore, it is as if, perhaps even more important - point to be made is that pre withinthe Balkanareaitself, Sloveniais mostexposedtothis dis ciselyinso far as 'the Balkans'function as suchaspectralentity, placedracisnl, since it is closesttoWestern Europe: when, in an reference to them enables us to discern, in a kind of spectral interview abont his film Underground, Kustnrica dismissed the analysis, the different modes oftoday's racism. First, there is the Slovenesas anation ofAustriangrooms, nobodyeven reactedto "-"'---'-~ 4 5
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