Zizek, Slavoj-Living in the End of Times

433 Pages·2010·34.49 MB·English

by  Slavoj Zizek

Living in the
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LIVING IN THE ENO TIMES

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SLawoy ZiZEK
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Betas ite 2010
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‘sxe 6 Mord Street, London W1E OEG
s.20 ap Sree Suite 1090, Brooklyn NY 11202
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‘Yorn ia the imprint of New Left Books

1SBN15. 9781 HUOT-8-2

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lable From the British Library

catalogue esoed for thie bok i ail

“Lary of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Dats
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“ype in Cochin by ewer Tent UK La Edinburgh
‘Pansed inthe USby Workdcclor Fairfield
Contents

Introduction: "The Spiritual Wickedness in the Heavens’

Denial: The Liberal Utopia
Against the TartarLavera — Legatists Versus Confacians —No Castes
Without Outeasts —Legat Luck, on the Loop of the Act ~The Utopia
for a Race of Devils — Coda: Mutticultaration, the Reality of an Hsin

Jotertude 1, Hollywood Today: Report from an Ideological
Battlefield

Wat Does the Joker Want? — The Sad Lesson af Remaket— Lee

nore dtapes eerent — The Price of Survival

Anger: The Actuality of the Theologico-Patitical
Thinking Backwards — "Nothing is forbidden in any faith” — "Tid
not come to bring peace, but award” — Guevara a at Reader of
Rowswan— Slap Thy Neighbor! — The Subject Suppored Not to Know

Interlude 2. Reverberations of the Crisis in a Multi-Ceatric
World
“The dew is within you, but yor, you are in the Joe” — Zionist Anti-
Semitivn — China, Haiti, Conga — Barope : US = Kant : Hegel?
Bargaining: The Return of the Critique of Political Economy
“Dare to win?" —In Defense af a Noa-Marxist Marx — Woy Masses
Are Not Divided lato Clases ~The Labor Theory of Value Revisited —
From Hegel ta Alar. and Back —Pruletariane ot Rentiers?

Interlude 3, ‘The Architectural Parallax
Postinodeeniam arad Class Straggle —The Incommensuratility —
The Hanelope...—. af the Class Struggle—Spanres

80

135

181

24a
CONTENTS
4 Depression: The Neuronal Trauma, or. the Rise of
the Profetarian Cogito
Cogive Aguinat Hiotoricium —The Freaslan Cncinacians Vertes
the Cerebral Unconsious— The Libidinad Proletariat

Interlude 4. Apocalypse at the Gates
Mi Onn Private Austria ~ The Ubuiom of Power — Welcome to the
Antbeopocene — Versions ofthe Apacalype

5 Acceptance: The Cause Regained
In 1368, Stractures Wathed the Strats: Will They Do So Again?
Sign From the Future: Kafka, Platonar, Stargeon, Vertis, Satie ~
Violence Between Discipline and Obwenity ~ Ue fofinte Judgment of
Democracy ~The Agent

Index

279

316

385

405
Introduction: “The Spiritual Wickedness in the Heavens”

‘The twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall should have been
atime for reflection. It has become a cliché to emphasize the “miraculous”
nature of the tall of the Wall: it was like a dream come true. With the
disintegration of the Communist regimes, which collapsed like a house
of cards, something unimaginable happened, something one would not
have considered possible even a couple of exonths earlier. Who in Foland
could have imagined the arrival of free elections, or Lech Walesa as presi-
dent? We should, however, note that an even greater “miracle” was to
vecur only a few years later: namely, the return of the ex-Communists to
power through free democratic elections, and the total marginalization
of Walgsa who had become even more unpopular thaa the man who,
decade and a half earlier, had attempted to crush Solidarnasé in a military
coup— General Wojciech Jaruzelski.

The standard explanation for this later reversal evokes the “immature”
utopian expectations of the majority, whose desire was deemed contradic-
tory, on rather, inconsistent. The people wanted to have their cake and
vat ic they wanted capitalist-democraric freedom and material abundance
bur without paying the full price of life in a "risk society”; that is, without
losing the security and stability once (more or less) guaranteed by the
Communist regimes, As sarcastic Western commentators duly noted. the
noble struggle for freedom and justice turned out to be little more than a
craving for bananas and pornography.

When the unavoidable sense of disappointment set in, it gave rise
fo three (sometimes opposed. sometimes overlapping) reactions: (1)
nostalgia for the “good old” Communist era: (2) right-wing nationalist

1 The eahaunton of tetotiehecetury Party State Saxain abou, fn.» major public spench
in Aug 23 Raul Cas arched the who mney shat Drath o US npn! Loge
the revolation!, inser a engging i duh ad patient wat, According to Castro. a he ame
forthe Caan wewation (a fer land which imports 8 peeent fs fon coal be id tte fet
af the US embargo there ave idle people a the oe side and emps ate cf lad on the tbe: Suey
‘he salaton in jaa to at work the fils? While al hin ebwinsly ra, Ces none
wi INTRODUCTION
awed and “belated” anti-Communist paranoia, The
‘enough to comprehend, Communist nostal.

far from expressing

populism: (3) a ren:
first two reactions are easy Fae a voush
in cular should not be taken too serious
ee onuae wah to return to the grey reality of the pre-existing regime, it
was closer to a form of mourning, a process of geatly relinguishing the
“The rise of rightist populism, for its part, is nat an Eastern European
vpocy, bt festure common toall ouncris caught up i the vortex of
elobalization, Mare interesting then isthe third reaction, the weird resur-
rection of anti-Communist paranoia two decacles on, To the question "It
capitaliam ia really s0 much better than socialism, why are our lives still
miserable?” it provides a simple answer: it is because we are not yet really
in capitalism, for the Communists are still ruling, only now wearing the
masks of new owners and managers
It is an obvious fact that, among the people protesting against the
Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, a large majority of them were
not demanding a capitalist society. They wanted social security, solidar-
‘ity, some kind of justice; they wanted the freedom to live their own lives.
outside the purview of state control, ro come together and talk as they
please; they wanted a life berated from primitive ideological indoctrina-
tion and the prevailing cynical hypocrisy. As many perspicuous analysts
have observed, the ideals that inspired the procesters were to alarge extent
taken from the ruling socialist ideology itself —they aspired to what can

‘most appropriately be designated "Socialism with a human face.”

The crucial question is how we are to read the collapse of these hopes.
‘The standard anewer. as we have seen, appeals to cxpitalist realism, or the
lack oft: the people simply did not possess a realistic image of capitalism
they were full of immarure utopian expectations. The morning after the
enthusiesm of the drunken days of victory, the people had to sober up and
face the painful process of learning the rules of the new reality, coming to
terms with the price one has to pay for political and economic freedom.
{sin effect, as if the European Left had to die twice: first as the “totali-
tarian” Communist Left, then as the moderate democratic Left which.
‘over recent years, has been gradually losing ground in Htaly, in France,
in Genmany. Up toa point, thie process can be accounted for by the lact
feng tend beam potion

isc sbwioely not becaue they are lay, hut boone th oe
Freer pcttrieentir tated the state-run eranomy ix not ale en provide
IntacoucTION

that the centrist and even the conservative parties now in the ascendant
have integrated many traditionally Leltist perspectives (support far some
form of welfare state, tolerance towards minorities, etc.), to the extent
that, were someone like Angela Merkel 1o present her program in the US,
she would be dismissed as a radical Leftist. Bur this is indeed true only up
tea point. In today’s post-political democracy, the traditional bipolarity
between a Souial-Democratic Center-Lelt and a Conservative Center-
Right is gradually being replaced by a new bipolarity between politics
and post-politics: the technocratic-liberal multicukuralisttolerant party
cof post-political administration and its Rightist-populist counterpart of
passionate political straggle—no wonder that the old Centrist oppo-
nents (Conservatives or Christian Democrats and Social Democrats or
Liberals) are often compelled to join forces against the common enemy.
(Freud wrote about Untebagen in der Kaltur, the discontent/unease in
culture: today, twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we experi-
ence a kind of Unbebagen in liberal capitalism. The key question now is:
who will articulate this discontent? Will it be left to nationalist pepulists
10 exploit? Therein resides the big task for the Left.)

Should we, thea, dismiss the utopian impulse which motivated the

anti-Communist protests as a sign of immaturity, or should we remain
faichful to it? At this poiat, it is well worth noting that the resistance ta
Communisea in Kastern Hurope in fact took three successive forms: (1)
the “revisionist” Marxiet critique of really-existing Socialiems (‘this is not
true Socialism, we want a return to the authentic vision of Socialism as a
here one might slyly remark that the same process went
on in the early modern period in Europe, where secular opposition to
the hegemonic role of religion first had to express itself in the guise of
religious heresy: (2) the demand for an autonomous space of civil sociery
treed from the constraints of Party-State control (this was the official
Position af Solidarity during the first years of its existence —its message
to the Communist Party was: “we do not want power, we just want a free
space outside your contral where we can engage in critical reflection om

free society

7 ro paioate explains ocured n May 206 oI + nb Burned the Roe suns
the aban of Rae fh beat spp a the ewe Righ-ppait goverment i ada
‘enn eee ae Hrs rear th gh Cop hn ed
Cenerin vray gar nel patel ie Earogee ita ar a he ore
Snctny ane resem ht Hae we ho when ease an pore ad bak
er apelledtom heavy tar ny hse mere Roma bing cre nd of
Prony lowey The eter eaplson ek cee Sth Ae, when eds ached gre oe
tthe ours lapel Zab) cling sa hy eve ean hiv and Roi a
Shampef Bropees ppoli acim rereduong el ong ik An sere
INTRODUCTION
(8) finally, the open struggle for power: “we

ee cncaal which means it's time for

‘want fall democratically legitimized power:
ne as ‘Are the first two forms really just illusions (ar rather, strategic

‘compromnises), and therefore to be discarded?

The underlying premize of the present book is a simple one: the global
capitalist system is approaching an apocalyptic zero-point. Its "four riders
of the apocalypse” are comprised by the ecological crisis, the conse.
quences of the biogenetic revolution, imbalances within the system itself
(problems with intellectual property: forthcoming struggles over raw
materials, food and water), and the explosive growth of social divisions
and exclusions.

‘To take up only the last point, nowhere are the new forms of apartheid
more palpable than in the wealthy Middle Eastern oil states Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia, Dubai. Hidden on the outskirts of the cities, often liter-
ally behind wall, are ens of thousands of “invisible” immigrant workers
doing all the diety work, from servicing to construction, separated from,
their families and refused al privileges.! Such a situation clearly embodies
an explosive potential which, while now exploited by religious funda-
mentalists, should have been channeled by the Left in ite struggle against
‘exploitation and corruption. A country like Saudi Arabia is literally
“beyond corruption’: there is no seed for corruption because the ruling
‘gang (the royal family) is already in possession of all the wealth, which it
can distribute freely as it sees fit. In such countries, the only alternative
to fundamentalist reaction would be a kind of social-democrati
state. Should this situation persist, can we even imagine the change in the
‘Western “collective psyche when (not jf but precisely when) some “rogue
nation” or group obtaine a nuclear device, or powerful biological or chem-
ical weapon, and deciares its “irrational” readiness to risk all in using it?
The moat basic coordinates of our awareness will have to change, insofar
4s, today, we live in 2 stare of collective fetishistic disavowal: we know
very well that this will happen at some point, but nevertheless cannot

welfare
INTROOUCTION

bring ourselves te really believe that it will. The US attempt to prevent
2 battle
thar has been lost in advance: the very notion that it might succeed relies,
on a fantasmatic vision,

A more standard form of “inclusive exclusion” are the slums—large
arcas outside of state governance. While generally perceived as spaces

such an occurrence through continuous pre-emptive activity i

in which gangs and religious sects fight for control, shims also offer the
space for radical political organizations, as isthe case in India, where the
‘Maoist movement of Naxalites is organizing a vast alternate social apace.
To quote an Indian state official: “The point is if you don't govera an area.
it is not yours. Except on the maps, itis not part of India. At least half of
India today is aot being governed. It is not ia your control . .. you have
to create a complete suciety ia which local people have very significant
stakes. We're not doing that ... And that is giving the Maoists space to

Although similar sigas of the “great disorder under heaven” abound,
the truth hurts, and we desperately try to avoid it. To explain how. we
can tucn to an unexpected guide, The Swiss-born psycholagist Elisabeth
Kibler-Ross proposed the famous scheme of the five stages of grief,
which follow, for example, upon learning that one has a terminal illness:
Aeniad (one simply refuses to accept the fact: “This can't be happening.
not to-me"); anger (which explodes when we can ne longer deny the fact:
“How can this happen to me"); Aargaining (in the hope that we can some-
how postpone or diminish the fact: “Just ler me live to see my children
graduate"): depression (libidinal disinvestment: “I'm going to die. so why
bother with anything?"); and acceptance ("I can’t fight it, 20 1 may as well
prepare for it"). Later, Kibler-Ross applied the same scheme to any form
of catastrophic personal loss (jablessness. death of a loved one. divorce.
drug addiction), emphasizing that the five stages do not necessarily come
in the same ordec, nor are they all experienced by every patient!

One can discern the same five figures in the way our social conscious-
ness attempts to deal with the forthcoming apocalypse. The first reaction
is one of ideological denial: there is no fundamental disorder; the second
is exemplified by explosions of anger at the injustices of the new world
order; the third involves attempts at bargaining (3F we change things
here and there, life could perhaps go on as before”); when the bargaining
fails, depression and withdrawal set in: finally, alter passing through this

4 Sadep Chakavart, Red. Neve Delhi: Pragain Bucks 200, p.112
5 See Elmebath Kabler Rows. Or Drath an? Pag. Neve Yor: Sirvn abd Schuster 1963