First as Tragedy, Then
as Farce.
It's Ideology, Stupid!
"But what if "moral
hazard" is inscribed into the very structure of capitalism?
That is to say, there is no way to separate the two: in
the capitalist system, welfare on Main Street depends on a
thriving Wall Street. . . To put it in more sophisticated
terms, the relationship is non-transitive: while
what is
good for Wall Street is not necessarily good for Main Street, Main
Street cannot thrive if Wall Street is feeling sickly, and this
asymmetry gives an a priori advantage to Wall Street."1a
"Incidentally, it is a
sign of the maturity of the US Public that there have been
no traces of anti-Semitism in their reaction to the
financial crisis, although it would have been easy to
imagine a reaction such as: "Did you notice how Jews, Jewish
financiers, made us hard-working Americans pay $700 billion to
cover the cost of their follies!""1b
"Are we thus not
gradually approaching a global state in which the
potential scarcity of three basic material resources (oil,
water, and food) will become the determining factor in
international politics? Is not the lack of food -- which
makes itself visible in (for the time being) sporadic crises here
and there -- one of the signs of the forthcoming apocalypse?"1c
The Communist Hypothesis
"The only true
question today is: do we endorse the predominant
naturalization of capitalism, or does today's global capitalism
contain antagonisms which are sufficiently strong to prevent its
indefinite reproduction? There are four such antagonisms:
the looming threat of an ecological catastrophe;
the inappropriateness of the notion of private
property in relation to so-called "intellectual
property"; the socio-ethical implications of new
techno-scientific developments (especially in
biogenetics); and, last but not least, the creation of
new forms of apartheid, new Walls and slums. . .
"What the struggles in all these domains
share is an awareness of the potential for destruction,
up to and including the self-annihilation of humanity itself,
should the capitalist logic of enclosing the commons be allowed a
free run. . .
"If this sounds apocalyptic, one can
only retort that we live in apocalyptic times. . ."1d
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*
Italics in the original.
1
Slavoj Zizek (b. 1949). First as
Tragedy, Then as Farce.
Slavoj Zizek, 2009. Brooklyn,
NY: Verso; New Left Books, 2009.
1. It's Ideology, Stupid!
a Capitalist Socialism, at 13.
b The
Structure of Enemy Propaganda, Note at 37.
c
Communism, Again!, at 83.
2. The Communist Hypothesis
d The New
Enclosure of the Commons, at 90-93.
MK-BOOK-ZIZEK-20110224.
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