When I first read this in English-Chinese version, I thought it was written by a Chinese American in exile or someone else "escape" from old-time communist countries. I can't say I agree with all he says, but certainly there are several points out there that I think are different from American values, as far as my understanding of American culture. There are several brilliant jokes/ examples from the communists that I believe worth thinking.
I understand it as more a talk to the people protesting out there and to shape the movement to a more effective and practical direction, and even though I were not there, I can imagine people being provoked by his realistic talk.
From Wikipedia: Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher and critical theorist working in the traditions of Hegelianism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He has made contributions to political theory, film theory, and theoretical psychoanalysis....Žižek uses examples from popular culture to explain the theory of Jacques Lacan and uses Lacanian psychoanalysis, Hegelian philosophy and Marxist economic criticism to interpret and speak extensively on immediately current social phenomena, including the current ongoing global financial crisis.
Just to attract you read/ listen to his talk, I chose out some quote below:
1. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are. We are not dreamers. We are awakening from a dream which is tuning into a nightmare. We are not destroying anything. We are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself.
2. This is how we live. We have all the freedoms we want. But what we are missing is red ink. The language to articulate our non-freedom. The way we are taught to speak about freedom war and terrorism and so on falsifies freedom. And this is what you are doing here: You are giving all of us red ink. (read the communist joke if you want to know what is the red ink :)
3. There is a danger. Don’t fall in love with yourselves. We have a nice time here. But remember: carnivals come cheap. What matters is the day after. When we will have to return to normal life. Will there be any changes then. I don’t want you to remember these days, you know, like - oh, we were young, it was beautiful. Remember that our basic message is: We are allowed to think about alternatives. The rule is broken. We do not live in the best possible world. But there is a long road ahead. There are truly difficult questions that confront us. We know what we do not want. But what do we want? What social organization can replace capitalism? What type of new leaders do we want?
Remember: the problem is not corruption or greed. The problem is the system that pushes you to give up. Beware not only of the enemies. But also of false friends who are already working to dilute this process. In the same way you get coffee without caffeine, beer without alcohol, ice cream without fat. They will try to make this into a harmless moral protest.
4. If communism means the system which collapsed in 1990, remember that today those communists are the most efficient ruthless capitalists.
5. The only sense in which we are communists is that we care for the commons. The commons of nature.
Last note: Human microphones there are awesome in repeating what he said! Watch the video!
Enjoy.
---Yinan Hu
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