[OPE] Žižek's lunch

Lunch with the FT: Slavoj Žižek
By John Thornhill
Published: March 6 2009 17:07 | Last updated: March 6 2009 17:07

(...) “If you asked me at gunpoint what I really like, I would say to read
German idealism, Hegel. What I like most, what I love the best, is this
objectivity of belief,” he says. Although people may claim not to believe in
the political system, their inert cynicism only validates that system. This
is all explained, according to Žižek, by Marx’s theory of “commodity
fetishism”, the idea that the way we behave in society is determined by
objective market forces rather than subjective beliefs. “The importance is
in what you do, not in what you think. I love this dialectical reversal.”

Žižek then segues into a riff about obscene military marching songs, which
he came to relish during his time in the Yugoslavian army. He sings one from
the film Full Metal Jacket (1987), temporarily silencing all other
conversation in the restaurant. “I don’t know but I’ve been told/ Eskimo
pussy is mighty cold.” He continues regardless: “What I learned from my own
military service was that all these obscene jokes, these apparent forms of
rebellion, are exactly what the power needs to reproduce itself. There is
nothing subversive about it.” (...)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/06b42e32-09dd-11de-add8-0000779fd2ac.html

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Received on Sat Mar 7 09:36:19 2009