i finally finished watching the complete youtubing of slavoj zizek's democracy now interview. zizek is in his usual rambling, hilarious, contrarian form (albeit a bit more sniffly than usual... cocaine or just the flu?)... he says some totally annoying stuff about the czech reforms of '68, and there's his usual everything-is-secretly-the-exact-opposite-of-what-it-seems-to-be stuff, but it gets better as it goes along. by its end, zizek is speaking less abrasively than usual, and making some unsettling claims about the alliegance between capital and authoritarianism that i found pretty spot on.
plus, you get a rare glimpse of amy goodman's sense of humor... she seems to spend the whole interview trying to not bust out laughing. i think i have a minor crush on her.
(apologies to all you non-justin folks that don't give a shit about this, etc... good luck with the show btw, hustles...)
July 16, 2008
slavoj zizek on 'democracy now!"
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7 comments:
i love what he says about cuba and the impossible in the third one. some of what he says about the left is similar to the best of ted kaczynski's writings on the subject.
yeah, the bit about the impossible makes a good case for the necessity of a certain kind of philosophical thinker being around in the political process. i think we could use a lot more of that.
have you actually read kaczynski or are you making a joke here?
no joke. unabomber has some good stuff about leftist masochism or however he puts it. i want to see zizek be around for a while and have some staying power past his current rockstar status. (i guess he has been putting books out for verso for over a decade though.) i've never seen him debate anyone live. i'd love to see him have some encounters with hitchens, obama or bushwick bill or even get to have a talk show. can you imagine?
hitchens vs. younameit has varied results. his battle with katha pollitt as he left the nation struck me as one of the best conversations about the iraq war, pre-invasion. and his beef with chomsky after 9/11 is worth a look too (wikipedia hitch and you can find most of this stuff through the nation's archives). then again, his more recent debate with george galloway (also hosted by amy goodman) was laughably ridiculous-- like a WWF match between political demagogues. sometimes i feel like people like zizek and hitch need to calm down and chill with the button pushing. that's why i like the last bits of the above... where he stops flirting around with his admiration for stalin (or whatever) and speaks more frankly about his real uncertainties about capitalism (in relation to civil liberties, an ecological crisis, etc.)...
Balls--4 comments about Amy Goodman and zero on toilet seat guitars?! Ballz!!!
Just kidding. Thanks, I never heard this guy before.
If you don't know this movie The Power of Nightmares, please rent it. It's a 3-part documentary tracing the pre-history of 9/11 in the middle east and the States. The neo-cons and the pan-Arabic movement illustrated side-by-side in detail and without hyperbole or conspiracy. Fascinating the platforms that the 2 movements are built upon are like long-lost twins finally reunited for all of us to enjoy. The preview is a bit corny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk1WkmioQvA
ron wood's toilet guitar is awesome in a way that defies explanation... why ruin the moment with text? plus, dudeman apparently just checked back into rehab so we wouldn't want to pressure him into anything awesome.
i'm not familiar with the movie, but it sounds totally up my alley. thanks for the recommendation.
and just to tweak the interest, apparently the Power of Nightmares has never been broadcast in the States, although it is available for purchase and rent. which is funny because of how sober and unsensational it is (in a gripping sort of way).
PS, thanks for the toliet -guitar comment hook-up!
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