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Famous Slavoj Žižek Quotes

“Confucius was not so much a philsopher as a proto-ideologist: what interested him was not metaphysical Truths but rather a harmonious social order within which individuals could lead happy and ethical lives. He was the first to outline clearly what one is tempted to call the elementary scene of ideology, its zero-level, which consists in asserting the (nameless) authority of some substantial Tradition.”

FirstsOrderIndividualSocialLevelsSceneAuthorityTraditionIdeologyZeroEthicalMetaphysicalTemptedHarmoniousOutlinesNamelessSocial Order
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“I planted some jokes in my wedding. Like, the organizers asked me to select music. So when I approached wife at the ceremony, they played the second movement from Shostakovich's 10th Symphony, which is usually known as the "portrait of Stalin." And then when we embraced, the music that they played was Schubert's "Death and the Maiden." I enjoyed this in a childish way! But marriage was all a nightmare and so on and so on.”

WayKnownWifeMovementJokesEnjoyedNightmarePortraitsCeremonySymphonySelectMaidensOrganizerSchubertShostakovich
Author:Slavoj Žižek
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“[A]t the beginning of November 2001, there was a series of meetings between White House advisers and senior Hollywood executives with the aim of co-ordinating the war effort and establishing how Hollywood could help in the "war against terrorism" by getting the right ideological message across not only to Americans, but also to the Hollywood public around the globe the ultimate empirical proof that Hollywood does in fact function as an "ideological state apparatus.”

DoeWarStatesFactsHelpingHouseWhiteEffortMessagesHollywoodUltimateFunctionAimMeetingsSeriesTerrorismProofExecutivesWhite HouseGlobesSeniorIdeologicalNovemberAdviser
Book:Welcome to the Desert of the Real!: Five Essays on September 11 and Related Dates
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“For me, Stalinism was even a greater philosophical problem than Nazism. Under Nazism, if you were a Jew, you were simply killed, no questions asked, you had nothing to prove. Under Stalinism, of course, most [victims] were on trial for false accusations; most of them were not traitors. There is one interesting feature: that they were tortured or through some kind of blackmail forced to confess to being traitors.”

IfsKindProblemCoursesInterestingGreaterProvePhilosophicalVictimJewTrialsFeaturesTraitorNazismAccusationBlackmailStalinismQuestions AskedFalse Accusation
Author:Slavoj Žižek
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“The problem with kitsch is that it is all too profound, manipulating deep libidinal and ideological forces, while true art knows how to remain at the surface, how to subtract it's subject from it's deepest context of historical reality. The same goes for contemporary art, where we often encounter brutal attempts to return to the Real, to remind the spectator or reader that he is perceiving a fiction, to awaken him from a sweet dream.”

KnowsArtRealProblemDreamRealityForceFictionKnow HowSubjectsSweetReturnReaderHistoricalProfoundSurfaceContemporaryEncountersBrutalSpectatorsIdeologicalKitschContemporary ArtSweet Dreams
Author:Slavoj Žižek
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“I think Kafka was right when he said that for a modern, secular, nonreligious man, state bureaucracy is the only remaining contact with the dimension of the divine; the impenetrable omnipotence of bureaucracy harbors is divine enjoyment. It is the performance of its very purposelessness that generates an intense enjoyment, ready to reproduce itself forever.”

ThinkingMenSaidStatesForeverModernDivineReadyPerformancesIntenseContactEnjoymentDimensionsSecularBureaucracyHarborsOmnipotencePurposelessness
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“What interests me is the following paradox: of how, precisely in our liberal societies, where no one can even imagine a transcendental cause for which to die, we are allowed to adopt a hedonistic, utilitarian, or even more spiritually egotistical stance - like, the goal of my life is the realization of all my potential, fulfillment of my innermost desires, whatever you want.”

WantLife IsDesireDiesCausesGoalInterestImagineFollowingRealizationFulfillmentParadoxStanceTranscendentalEgotisticalUtilitarianHedonistic
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“I believe in clear-cut positions. I think that the most arrogant position is this apparent, multidisciplinary modesty of "what I am saying now is not unconditional, it is just a hypothesis," and so on. It really is a most arrogant position. I think that the only way to be honest and expose yourself to criticism is to state clearly and dogmatically where you are. You must take the risk and have a position.”

ThinkingWayBelieveStatesI BelieveClearCuttingRiskHonestPositionCommitmentCriticismI Believe InBeing HonestWhere You AreArrogantModestyHypothesisUnconditionalBoldnessMost ArrogantMultidisciplinary
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“The fact that a cloud from a minor volcanic eruption in Iceland—a small disturbance in the complex mechanism of life on the Earth—can bring to a standstill the aerial traffic over an entire continent is a reminder of how, with all its power to transform nature, humankind remains just another species on the planet Earth.”

FactsEarthPlanetsRemainsSpeciesComplexesCloudsMechanismHumankindContinentsMinorsTrafficRemindersPlanet EarthDisturbanceIcelandEruptionStandstillVolcanic Eruptions
Author:Slavoj Žižek
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