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Today, students across America will be wetting their pants. And
not in the good sense. Famed Marxist philosopher-clown Slavoj Zizek has just
endorsed Donald Trump for the presidency.
Is it a joke or does he mean it? Of course, he means it. Unless
he doesn’t. Is it a joke? Perhaps, but if it is a joke that probably means that
he means it. In any event, the hordes of students who have glommed on to this
highly overrated philosopher will be severely troubled by the
fact that, between Hillary and Trump, Zizek prefers Trump.
One expects that he will be forever banned from American
college campuses.
To Zizek, “Hillary is the true danger.” He continues to
explain his preference:
In
every society there is a whole network of unwritten rules, how politics works,
and how you build consensus. Trump disturbed this. And if Trump wins, both big
parties, Republicans and Democrats, would have to return to basics, rethink
themselves, and maybe some things can happen there.
Zizek believes that Trump will produce a great American
awakening:
That’s
my desperate, very desperate hope, that if Trumps wins, listen, America is
still not a dictatorial state, he will not introduce fascism. But it will be a
kind of big awakening. New political processes will be set in motion, will be
triggered.
Why not Hillary? Zizek explains that:
… she stands
for this absolute inertia, the most dangerous one. Because she is a cold
warrior, and so on, connected with banks, pretending to be socially
progressive.
Now, put that in your bong and smoke it.
8 comments:
"connected with banks"
Why is being 'connected with banks' considered worse than being 'connected with lawyers'? (or for that matter, *being* a lawyer).
Both finance and law are important functions which have IMO grown disproportionately large, both in terms of size and of influence, as I discussed in this post:
http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/18204.html
For some reason, finance seems to come across at a form of black magic / witchcraft in the minds of many.
(And, of course, historically, Fear of Finance is closely linked to anti-Semitism)
Hey, I'm married to a lawyer. You shouldn't generalize. It's a mere 99% that give the rest a bad name.
The pro-Trump vote does seem to have split components, perhaps just like Trump himself seems to have a Dr Jeckal and Mr. Hyde divide. There's the anger side that is looking for scapegoats, and punishing the people doing bad things. And then there's the "Make America great again" side that fantasizes real problems are simple, once you get the bad people out of the way.
I'd guess a large portion of Trump supporters would be personally harmed by his policies, but they're already hurting, so they're willing to take the risk.
But Marxist philosopher-clown Slavoj Zizek clearly is a different sort, someone not personally hurting, but content to see the negatives of the current system without worrying about what alternatives really are, or the personal costs needed to create something better.
He's surely in a protected enough place that he can imagine whatever negative consequences of Trump won't hurt him personally. So he can fearlessness support leadership that is guaranteed to break more things than it fixes.
And he's not afraid of convincing people they are oppressed by an elite, despite the fact that such resentment beliefs merely encourage further disintegration of social order that still does a lot of good.
All "living" systems contain a war between order and chaos, and chaos always wins in the end, and chaos becomes the process of renewal, but dangerously, only after a lot of good is destroyed. Sometimes incrementalism is progess, and sometimes it moves us further down the road to hell.
I recall a poem/song by author Starhawk. Its more valuble to accept when you're stuck on a downward path that will take a long time to get out, but less good as advice how to speed up the destruction which won't necessarily lead to escaping faster.
---
Where there's fear there's power
Passion is the healer
Desire cracks open the gate
If you're ready it'll take you through
But nothing lasts forever
Time is the destroyer
The wheel turns again and again
Watch out, it'll take you through
But nothing dies forever
Nature is the renewer,The wheel turns again and again
If you're ready it'll take you through
- Starhawk
----
Ares, that's pretty good stuff as rhyming word salads go.
Starhawk: neopagan and ecofeminist "theoretician", Wiccan, inspiration for "goddess" movement, Master's degree from a diploma mill.
That's pretty much the whole shootin' match except for a bone in the nose.
Now I understand your attraction to Hillary. She's one of those [ahem] powerful women.
Sorry, that reply to Ares was from moi. Fat fingered it.
Anyway, I thought a little more info about these neopaganists, John Podesta, and associates might be amusing...
https://stream.org/spirit-cooking-simulated-cannibalism-the-election
Sounds like a fun time!
(Inhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaale.) Oh, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, I'm wasted.
I always liked Zizek, he's not your usual brain dead wishy washy progressive, and whatever you think of the substantiveness of his "philosophical" thinking, it's at least entertaining. Something you can't say of our technocratic progressive moralists.
Famous people often live in bubbles-- even famous philosophers. He is insulated from the real world. I'm sure plenty of insulated people supported various despots throughout history. After all, they had nothing much to lose-- or they thought they didn't.
Maybe he is hurting though. A lot of people who support Trump seem to be seriously depressed or have anxiety issues to the point of paranoia, and/or to be out of control with rage.
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