After the tragic events in the US following proposals to remove the statues of General Robert E Lee, the commander of the Confederate Army in the Civil War, Donald Trump claimed that as George Washington was also a slave-owner, the two can be equated. There is a figure of Southern gentleman popular even in “progressive” literature. Recall Horace from Lillian Hellmann’s Little Foxes,… Continue reading Why Donald Trump is wrong about American history and liberals are wrong about the West
Tag: identity
A Reply to My Critics (re: The Sexual is Political)
Lately I am getting used to attacks that not only render my position in a totally wrong way but also practice slander pure and simple, so that, at this level, any minimally rational debate becomes meaningless. Among many examples, suffice it to mention Hamid Dabashi, who begins his book Can Non-Europeans Think? with: “‘Fuck you,… Continue reading A Reply to My Critics (re: The Sexual is Political)
Slavoj Žižek Responds to His Critics
If I am repelled by John Gray’s review of my two last books (“The Violent Visions of Slavoj Žižek,” New York Review of Books, 12 July 2012), it is not because the review is highly critical of my work, but because its arguments are based on such a crude misreading of my position that, if I were… Continue reading Slavoj Žižek Responds to His Critics
Deleuze and the Lacanian Real
Why is structuralism serious? For the serious to be truly serious, there must be the serial, which is made up of elements, of results, of configurations, of homologies, of repetitions. What is serious for Lacan is the logic of the signifier, that is to say the opposite of a philosophy, inasmuch as every philosophy rests… Continue reading Deleuze and the Lacanian Real
Humanism is not enough, Interview with Michael Hauser
[Appeared in 2009, International Journal of Zizek Studies, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 1-20; Interview held in November 2007. (pdf)] On a large scale you draw from Lacan and you show his potential usable to found a new direction of thought, sometimes called a post-deconstruction. Could you outline this new thought? First, I should clarify… Continue reading Humanism is not enough, Interview with Michael Hauser
Is this digital democracy, or a new tyranny of cyberspace?
Time magazine’s 2006 “Person of the Year” award went not to Ahmadinejad, Chávez, Kim Jong-il, or any other of the usual suspects, but to “you”, that is each and every one of us using or creating content on the world wide web. The cover showed a white keyboard with a mirror for a computer screen… Continue reading Is this digital democracy, or a new tyranny of cyberspace?
Why We All Love to Hate Haider
[New Left Review 2, March-April 2000 – pdf] Abstract: What is the significance of the EU’s boycott of the new Austrian government? Beyond the Tartuffery of official reactions to Haider in the West, Slavoj Zizek dissects the political function of the new rectitudes of the Third Way. The entry of Jörg Haider’s Freedom Party into a coalition… Continue reading Why We All Love to Hate Haider
