“In a democracy, every ordinary citizen is effectively a king--but a king in a constitutional democracy, a monarch who decides only formally, whose function is merely to sign off on measures proposed by an executive administration. This is why the problem with democratic rituals is homologous to the great problem of constitutional monarchy: how to protect the dignity of the king? How to maintain the appearance that the king effectively makes decisions, when we all know this not to be true?” KnowsProblemDecisionDemocracyKingsCitizensProtectOrdinaryDignityFunctionDemocraticAppearanceBeing TrueAdministrationExecutivesRitualMonarchyMonarchsOrdinary CitizensConstitutional MonarchySigning Off Book:First As Tragedy, Then As Farce Source: First As Tragedy, Then As Farce
“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
“The problem for us is not are our desires satisfied or not. The problem is how do we know what we desire.” KnowsProblemDesireSatisfied Author:Slavoj Žižek
“We Slovenians are even better misers than you Scottish. You know how Scotland began? One of us Slovenians was spending too much money, so we put him on a boat and he landed in Scotland.” KnowsKnow HowToo MuchSpendingBoatScotlandScottishMisers Author:Slavoj Žižek
“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