Communist Absconditus (transcript)

[Transcript below video.] Schirmacher: If you don’t know him, you don’t live in this world. Obviously he is the one best-known philosopher in the world, the not the best but the best-known …. To say, the most dangerous one, you know. And he has already threatened us with his last 1000-page book, Hegel is coming… Continue reading Communist Absconditus (transcript)

The Heart Of The People Of Europe Beats In Greece

[Transcript below video.] I am honoured to be here, but ashamed that I don’t speak your language. So, let me begin: Late in his life, Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, asked the famous question; ‘What does a woman want?’ Admitting the perplexity, when faced with the enigma of feminine sexuality. And a similar perplexity… Continue reading The Heart Of The People Of Europe Beats In Greece

Too Much Democracy

“Democracy” is not merely the “power of, by, and for the people,” it is not enough just to claim that, in democracy, the will and the interests (the two in no way automatically coincide) of the large majority determine the state decisions. Democracy – in the way this term is used today – concerns, above… Continue reading Too Much Democracy

Laugh Yourself to Death: the new wave of Holocaust comedies!

[Delivered at Lunds University on 15th 1999.] The success of Benigni’s [amazon asin=B00BB8VSXS&text=Life Is Beautiful] seems to mark the beginning of a new sub-genre or at least a new trend: the holocaust comedies. It was followed by Jacob the Liar with Robin Williams, the remake of the old GDR classic about the owner of a… Continue reading Laugh Yourself to Death: the new wave of Holocaust comedies!

Human Rights and Its Discontents

[Delivered at Bard College on November 15th 1999.] Thank you for the kind invitation. Let me go directly to the point: It is a well-known fact that the close-the-door button in most elevators is a totally dysfunctional placebo which is placed there just to give individuals the impression that they are somehow participating, contributing to the speed of… Continue reading Human Rights and Its Discontents

The Superego and the Act

I want to begin with Coca-cola. It’s no surprise that Coca-cola was first introduced as a medicine. Its strange taste seems to provide no particular satisfaction. It is not directly pleasing, however, it is as such, as transcending any use-value, like water, beer or wine, which definitely do quench our thirst, that Coke functions as… Continue reading The Superego and the Act

The Interpassive Subject

[Delivered at Centre Georges Pampidou, Traverses, 1998. Minor editing, headings, etc.] Fetish Between Structure and Humanism According to the classic Althusserian criticism, the Marxist problematic of commodity fetishism relies on the humanist ideological opposition of “human persons” versus “things.” Is it not one of Marx’s standard determinations of fetishism that it deals with “relations between things… Continue reading The Interpassive Subject