“The only ‘realistic’ prospect is to ground a new political universality by opting for the impossible, fully assuming the place of the exception, with no taboos, no a priori norms (‘human rights,’ ‘democracy’), respect for which would prevent us from ‘resignifying’ terror, the ruthless exercise of power, the spirit of sacrifice … if this radical choice is decried by some bleeding-heart liberals as Linksfaschismus, so be it!” IfsHumansHeartPoliticalSpiritChoicesDemocracyRightsImpossibleSacrificeExerciseAssumingHuman RightsTerrorRadicalExceptionRealisticNormRuthlessTabooBleedingUniversalityBleeding Heart Author:Slavoj Žižek
“Are we all not, when we sit in the cinema, in the position of humans in The Matrix, tied to chairs, immersed in the spectacle run by a machine? However, a more appropriate allegory is that of the viewer himself: beneath the illusion that we "just look" at the perceived objects from a safe distance, freely sliding along them, there is the reality of the innumerable ties that bind us to what we perceive.” HumansLooksRealityRunningPositionObjectsSafeIllusionMachinesDistancePerceiveCinemaTiesAppropriateChairsTiedViewersAllegoryTies That Bind Author:Slavoj Žižek
“There is an old joke about socialism as the synthesis of the highest achievements of the whole human history to date: from prehistoric societies it took primitivism; from the Ancient world it took slavery; from medieval society brutal domination; from capitalism exploitation; and from socialism the name.” WorldHumansWholeNamesAchievementHighestJokesCapitalismSlaveryAncientSocialismBrutalExploitationDominationHuman HistoryMedievalSynthesisPrehistoricAncient WorldOld Jokes Book:Revolution at the Gates: A Selection of Writings from February to October 1917 Source: Revolution at the Gates: A Selection of Writings from February to October 1917
“Probably never in human history did we live in a society in which, at the microlevel of personal behavior, our lives were so strongly regulated.” HumansOur LivesBehaviorHuman HistoryPersonal Behavior Author:Slavoj Žižek
“This, then, is the truth of the discourse of universal human rights: the Wall separating those covered by the umbrella of Human Rights and those excluded from its protective cover. Any reference to universal human rights as an 'unfinished project' to be gradually extended to all people is here a vain ideological chimera - and, faced with this prospect, do we, in the West, have any right to condemn the excluded when they use any means, inclusive of terror, to fight their exclusion?” PeopleHumansMeanUseFightingRightsWallProjectsUniversalWestHuman RightsTerrorVainCoveredDiscourseProtectiveIdeologicalExclusionUnfinishedUmbrellaExcludedSeparatingChimera Book:Welcome to the Desert of the Real!: Five Essays on September 11 and Related Dates Source: Welcome to the Desert of the Real!: Five Essays on September 11 and Related Dates
“Liberal democracy - as you know, in the old days, we were saying we want socialism with a human face. Today's left effectively offers global capitalism with a human face, more tolerance, more rights and so on. So the question is, is this enough or not? Here I remain a Marxist: I think not.” ThinkingKnowsWantHumansEnoughTodayFacesLeftDemocracyRightsOffersCapitalismToleranceSocialismOld DaysMarxistHuman FacesLiberal Democracy Author:Slavoj Žižek