>Zizek's analysis may make sense as is when it is applied to Euro contexts,
>but with regard to the USA, it seems odd to say that fundamentalists are
>the ruling Spinozism's inherent other. Aren't fundamentalists (esp. of
>Christian, survivalist kinds) nothing but Spinozist Subjects that Zizek
>describes? The logical (if extreme) extension of liberal
>individualism---what may be called subindividualism, in pursuit of the
>elusive It, which in America may be defined as Innocence--perfectly
>comfortable with the idea of a Beloved Community (or God and Country).
He's not talking about our fundies there, but the demonized others that Robert Kaplan worries about in The Atlantic. But many of our fundies are those excluded by the cybertopian world that Wired celebrates - they're not comfortable with all that atomism and disorder, with the slipperiness of roles and proliferation of identities. So they long for the beloved community of the church or race. I'll concede, though, that that stuff cuts less deep in the U.S. than in Europe, because of our libertarian/individualist strain; instead of clinging to nation or race, Americans read self-help books.
Doug