Wednesday, September 10, 2008
In-der-Blog-sein
Seattlest on Žižek's talk at Town Hall Monday evening.
The crowd at Town Hall was mainly, and the all questions at the end were, political. Stalinists and Maoist were out in force, selling their newspapers as always - with the latest pearls of wisdom from Chairman Bob Avakian - and so forth. So, pearls before swine, lipstick or not, I refrained from asking Zizek his position on the end of metaphysics; the arc of Western Philsophy from its beginnings in Plato, through the Cartesian subject, to its end in Heidegger's ontological questioning. My impression is that Zizek is fighting a rear-guard action to keep metaphysics around for ideological purposes. The twin pillars of his texts are the Hegelian absolute and the Lacanian subject, and he won't abandon either because they prop up his way of thinking. Today's philosophers need to strap the bungee cords to their feet, jump into the abyss, and report back. To do otherwise is merely to indulge in nostalgia for metaphysics.
Oh, and the linked to article gets the movie Zizek's "small degenerate son" made him watch five times wrong. It was Kung-Fu Panda. ¶ 8:49 AM
Seattlest on Žižek's talk at Town Hall Monday evening.
Protesting that he's a stranger in a strange land, Žižek nonetheless let drop a few comments about the presidential campaign. Barack Obama's rhetoric may be genuine, he says, but "Obama" is being transformed into an icon of democratic stasis, just as Martin Luther King, Jr., is revered for what he accomplished, rather than what he was bent on accomplishing. And the American left, like the left everywhere, still struggles to connect with the working class--only the populist right is willing to harness the anger of people who "don't know what's going on but have had enough!"Another point Zizek made about the election is that if you ask yourself, "Where is the working class?", the answer is Todd Palin. It's looking like the electorate is being presented with a choice between Western egalitarianism and Eastern elitists. I myself am uncommitted until Ladies Home Journal publishes Todd's favorite chocolate-chip cookie recipe.
The crowd at Town Hall was mainly, and the all questions at the end were, political. Stalinists and Maoist were out in force, selling their newspapers as always - with the latest pearls of wisdom from Chairman Bob Avakian - and so forth. So, pearls before swine, lipstick or not, I refrained from asking Zizek his position on the end of metaphysics; the arc of Western Philsophy from its beginnings in Plato, through the Cartesian subject, to its end in Heidegger's ontological questioning. My impression is that Zizek is fighting a rear-guard action to keep metaphysics around for ideological purposes. The twin pillars of his texts are the Hegelian absolute and the Lacanian subject, and he won't abandon either because they prop up his way of thinking. Today's philosophers need to strap the bungee cords to their feet, jump into the abyss, and report back. To do otherwise is merely to indulge in nostalgia for metaphysics.
Oh, and the linked to article gets the movie Zizek's "small degenerate son" made him watch five times wrong. It was Kung-Fu Panda. ¶ 8:49 AM
