13 April 2010

Icon of The New Left: Slavoj Zizek




Have been reading Zizek recently and will be delving into a few more of his books in the coming months. A controversial modern-day leftist philosopher who basically holds no bar in all aspects in modern society, Zizek writes like a true left-wing polemicist. He was born in the ex-Yugoslavian state of Slovenia, today an independent nation (Laibach is from there though they would prefer to be known as from NSK of course), a former member of the Yugoslavian Communist Party and he is a full-fledged Left-wing ideologue, just like Alain Badiou from France. I dont totally agree with all he proposes but I do agree that in today's world we urgently need to warn others about and be critical about the behemoth self- serving and all-consuming monstrosity called neo-liberal capitalism. He uses, quotes and critiques films, poetry and books as well as bridging the gap between high and low culture by his selection of materials he dissects in his prose. Inspiring but dangerous. However there is one major irony here: if not for the fact that we are living under the hegemonic neo-liberal world order with all other alternatives discredited since the fall of the Berlin Wall (except maybe for religious fundamentalism), people in authoritarian capitalist states might not get to read his books. New Left's confrontational stance might have been curtailed and censored by the authorities if we were still living in a Cold War-like millieu. But anyway, it is good that there is someone like him out there making some NOISE...

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