“In order effectively to liberate oneself from the grip of existing social reality, one should first renounce the transgressive fantasmatic supplement that attaches us to it.” ShouldFirstsRealityOrderSocialOneselfRenounceSupplements Book:The Fragile Absolute Or, Why is the Christian Legacy Worth Fighting For? Source: The Fragile Absolute Or, Why is the Christian Legacy Worth Fighting For?
“What Americans don't want to admit ... is that not only is there not a contradiction between state regulation and freedom, but in order for us to actually be free in our social interactions, there must be an extremely elaborated network of health, law, institutions, moral rules and so on.” WantStatesLawOrderSocialMoralInstitutionsContradictionInteractionRegulationSocial Interaction Author:Slavoj Žižek
“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 Author:Slavoj Žižek
“For me, ideology is defined only by how the coordinates of your meaningful experience of the world, and your place within society, relate to the basic tensions and antagonisms of social orders.” WorldOrderSocialMeaningfulIdeologyDefinedRelateTensionSocial OrderAntagonismCoordinates Author:Slavoj Žižek
“The ultimate goal of radical politics is gradually to displace the limit of social exclusions, empowering the excluded agents (sexual and ethnic minorities) by creating marginal spaces in which they can articulate and question their identity. Radical politics thus becomes an endless mocking parody and provocation, a gradual process of reidentification in which there are not final victories and ultimate demarcations” PoliticsSocialProcessGoalSpaceIdentityVictoryLimitsCreatingUltimateFinalsEndlessAgentsRadicalEmpoweringMinoritiesExclusionParodyExcludedUltimate GoalProvocation Author:Slavoj Žižek
“There is a contradiction between market liberalism and political liberalism. The market liberals (e.g., social conservatives) of today want family values, less government, and maintain the traditions of society (at least in America's case). However, we must face the cultural contradiction of capitalism: the progress of capitalism, which necessitates a consumer culture, undermines the values which render capitalism possible” WantGovernmentTodayAmericaFacesPoliticalValuesCultureSocialCasesProgressCapitalismTraditionConsumersLiberalismContradictionFamily ValuesConsumer Culture Author:Slavoj Žižek