Zizek and Polls

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Oct 2 08:17:33 PDT 2000


LeoCasey at aol.com wrote:


>I have been out of the country for a bit, presenting to Russian teachers on
>civic education, so I am a bit behind in responding to Doug's citation of
>Zizek here. But I would still like to say that Zizek's analysis seems to me
>to be an example of the overextension of psychoanalytic approaches to
>politics.

I don't think you need psa to make SZ's point here: that polls measure things within (and by doing so, reinforce) existing parameters of discourse, while real political leaders and movements can change those parameters. Ever get called by a pollster and try to fit yourself into their categories? It feels like intellectual violence.

Doug



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