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Published on Monday, November 9, 2009 by Democracy Now!
e“First as Tragedy, Then As Farce”: Philosopher and Cultural Theorist Slavoj Žižek Speaks at Cooper Union
Dubbed by the National Review as “the most dangerous political philosopher in the West” and the New York Times as “the Elvis of cultural theory,” Slovenian philosopher and public intellectual Slavoj Žižek has written over fifty books on philosophy, psychoanalysis, theology, history and political theory.
In his latest book, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, Žižek analyzes how the United States has moved from the tragedy of 9/11 to what he calls the farce of the financial meltdown.
He spoke on that same theme at Cooper Union during a recent trip to New York.
© 2009 Democracy Now!
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8 Comments so far
Show AllThey sure like this Zizek guy on CD and Democracy Now, don't they? How many times has he been featured on both sites in the last month or two?
the marxist worldview, now more than ever!
Oh I agree. It is great to see different views, like Zizek's, being aired.
I just find it funny that until this last summer, this guy was completely unknown to me . . . and now all of a sudden I read and hear him very frequently.
the BIGGEST ZOMBIE WALKING in the world is CAPITALISM.
it's just pretending to be "alive" but in reality - it's a dead fish staring at you.
I had been turned off by the canonization of Zizek as "Eminent Thinker" in a previous article. But this time I listened. It is kind of a rambling presentation, hard to follow a line of thought, but many good points worth listening to.
Joe
Yes, I had the same reaction. Maybe his books are good (I don't know), but he's not a good speaker. That said, someone needs to talk about the former Soviet Union. It's transition to capitalism has pushed people into destitution. If he didn't talk about that, then it's reasonable to just ignore him.
-TIA
I'm glad that the net-left is finally catching up with Slavoj . . .
t_g
Wonderful train of thoughts, as always - tortured delivery, as always.
If you can't watch him, just listen and doodle...
A couple of really good points brought up: people simply can't believe that their dream of capitalism is very different from the reality. They do feel betrayed. Noone thought that they might become worse off under "freedom and liberty".
Mr Zizek is right: the future is for regimes that are compassionate, caring, yet freedom loving.