Zizek

[Finlayson A.]

Hello, 

OK, Finally delurking after two or three weeks. I've met some of you before
on other lists so if you remember, hello again. I resisted mailing in on
Marxist Sociology and Neo-Kantianism (though I was bugged by the fact that
the debaters seemed to have forgotten about, er, Europe which did and does
contain a fair few pockets of neo-Kantian Marxism and where lots of people
know about Kant and there are stacks of marxist sociologists). 

But I am increasingly of the view that the split between the US and Europe
(culturally, politically, economically and intellectually) is becoming more
important than their alignment and I'm afraid the division caused by the
parochialism of the US is all over parts of this list. And Zizek is a case
in point. I'm not really a fan of the man but he was right about Chomsky who
is such a product of the very ideology and culture he intends to denounce.
Like the author of the anti-Zizek piece reposted here I used to think that
Americans were unfortunate duped souls whose evil mass media and oil rich
establishment kept them alienated and oppressed. 

But Zizek is on to something when he realises that people could find out all
the facts if they wanted to and the question is why it makes no difference.
The US has much greater freedom of information and speech than the UK where
I am and US people are much more used to using these freedoms. But it
doesn't make any difference in the end. The US state doesn't stomp all over
the rest of the world satisfying the self-interest of its leading classes
DESPITE the citizens of the republic it does it BECAUSE of them, to keep
them happy, clappy and sated, to give them what they want. They like it.
Lots of goodies and toys and fun but also some nasty all evil enemies to
feel satisfyingly threatened by and then superior to. And that is what the
wars on latin and south america gave them, the war on terrorism AND the
paranoid fantasies about world government that feed the militiamen AND the
arguments of Chomsky and the 'anarchist' left. It is all a very satisfying
and very American and even (though it may sound odd with reference to
Chomsky) Protestant eschatological manichean and individualist fantasy. On
this list, the long and unnecessary discussion about whether the US is
fascist or not was part of the same thing. 

Isn't this clear now? Isn't this obvious since September? How else can it be
that so many in the US want to see policies that will NOT defeat terrorism
and will NOT make the world a safer place? Why else does the US go about the
world winding people up (as the CNN Poll data posted here suggested) and
then make films fantasising about all the people that want to hurt America? 

It srikes me now that the US is the LEAST 'globalised' country in the world.
It is the least exposed to the culture, values, goods and experiences of
other places. It is the least buffeted by other people's economic and social
actions. This is its triumph and its tragedy. Even when people from the US
visit other places they seem not to actually leave it but bring the US with
them and seek out aspects of the US in places they go to. 

And so we get someone who calls themselves a Marxist attacking Zizek for not
being Marxist enough  as a defence of Chomsky who we are meant to presume is
a Marxist? Please. Still, such sectarianism is dull. I am in fact a US
citizen if not so acculturated. But I think it is starting to show. I shall
return to studying Kelley's fuck machines. 

Cheers