As Trump, Bannon, Assange & Oprah make headlines: The Empire Strikes Back

As Trump, Bannon, Assange & Oprah make headlines- The Empire Strikes Back

The global elite will use any means necessary to prevent the economic radicalization of the left. So “MeToo” and smears distract while tax evasion has become legitimate. Three widely reported recent events sum up our current sad predicament: the open conflict between Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, Oprah Winfrey’s speech at the Golden Globe awards,… Continue reading As Trump, Bannon, Assange & Oprah make headlines: The Empire Strikes Back

The Universal Exception (Preface)

The Universal Exception

The big Other between violence and civility Slavoj Zizek   The ‘universal exception’, according to Lacan, is the fundamental feature of the symbolic order (the ‘big Other’) as the order of universality: each universality is grounded in its constitutive exception. This feature is to be supplemented with its no less paradoxical obverse, the so-called ‘not-All… Continue reading The Universal Exception (Preface)

The ‘fake’ Mandela memorial interpreter said it all

The 'fake' Mandela memorial interpreter said it all

Our daily lives are mostly a mixture of drab routine and unpleasant surprises – however, from time to time, something unexpected happens which makes life worth living. Something of this order occurred at the memorial ceremony for Nelson Mandela last week. Tens of thousands were listening to world leaders making statements. And then …it happened… Continue reading The ‘fake’ Mandela memorial interpreter said it all

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot’s prison letters to Slavoj Žižek

Dear Nadezhda, I hope you have been able to organise your life in prison around small rituals that make it tolerable, and that you have time to read. Here are my thoughts on your predicament. John Jay Chapman, an American political essayist, wrote this about radicals in 1900: “They are really always saying the same… Continue reading Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot’s prison letters to Slavoj Žižek

A modest plea for enlightened catastrophism

A modest plea for enlightened catastrophism

How, out of the interaction of individuals, can the appearance of an “objective order” arise which cannot be reduced to that interaction, but is experienced by the individuals involved as something which determines their lives? This is the ultimate mystery of the so-called human or social sciences. The great theoretical breakthrough of Jean-Pierre Dupuy’s recent… Continue reading A modest plea for enlightened catastrophism

Choosing Our Fate

Choosing Our Fate

Item number PO 24.1999 in the Museum of Islamic Art is a simple 10th century earthenware circular dish from Nishapur or Samarqand; its diameter 43 cm, decorated with a (Farsi) proverb attributed to Yahya ibn Ziyad, written in black on white slip ground: “Foolish is the person who misses his chance and afterwards reproaches fate.”… Continue reading Choosing Our Fate

Beyond the occupations

Beyond the occupations

What to do after the occupations of Wall Street and beyond – the protests that started far away, reached the centre and are now, reinforced, rolling back around the world? One of the great dangers the protesters face is that they will fall in love with themselves. In a San Francisco echo of the Wall… Continue reading Beyond the occupations

Occupy first. Demands come later

Occupy first. Demands come later

What to do after the occupations of Wall Street and beyond – the protests that started far away, reached the centre and are now, reinforced, rolling back around the world? One of the great dangers the protesters face is that they will fall in love with themselves. In a San Francisco echo of the Wall… Continue reading Occupy first. Demands come later

Slavoj Žižek: Blofeld rides again, Interview with Danny Leigh

Slavoj Žižek: Blofeld rides again, Intervew with Danny Leigh

Slavoj Žižek is in bed. He’s wearing cheap pyjamas in a porridgy shade of grey. He looks exactly like the photographs I’ve seen of him: fag-ash beard, ghostly complexion. I loom over him, and he glowers back. His face is just inches from mine, so close I can feel his breath. “No, you are wrong!”… Continue reading Slavoj Žižek: Blofeld rides again, Interview with Danny Leigh