Except for your mode of expression (which I call "my style problem with Woj" - he is sort of the neo-con Spartacist League of this list) I agree with you completely. Unless you want to work through an obsession with Lacan, Hegel, Lenin, and the Roman Catholic church, Zizek is close to unreadable. But as far as I can see is Lakoff is not much different. All of thes guys make a critical fetish of language, essentially reducing an analysis of politics to an analysis of ideology, and an analysis of ideology to their own peculiar misconception of human language.
On 5/5/06, Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
>
> Carrol:
>
> There is an important article by Zizek in the issue of Critical Inquiry_
> that just arrived (Spring 2006). Its take-off point is the rejection by
> France & the Netherlands of the new constitution, but it covers much
> more -- it even has a quite interesting political analysis of the Fourth
> Movement of Beethoven's Ninth. You can see the unedited rough copy of it
> at the following URL:
>
> <
> http://www.uchicago.edu/research/jnl-crit-inq/docs/Against%20the%20Populist
> %20Temptation%20-%20Slavoj%20Zizek.pdf>
>
> [WS:] I got to page 22 and quit. This guy is so full of shit that it is
> not
> even funny. He wasted 27 seven pages of incomprehensible mumbo jumbo to
> say
> exactly what? That political choices today do not exactly fit the old
> conceptual schemes and that there are different variants of populism and
> universalism? BFD! A graduate of a European high school can figure that
> out.
>
> Most of that drivel is really a pissing contest with Laclau and Lakoff. I
> do not know about Laclau, but I think he butchers Lakoff mercilessly.
> Lakoff does not say that framing is everything - he merely says it is
> important, because if poorly chosen, it can shut down the discussion
> before
> one has even a chance to deploy one's substantive argument. I wish Zizek
> took that lesson seriously and abandoned his Lacanian postmodern
> mumbo-jumbo, unreadable drivel that makes sure that no-one but his fellow
> pomo buffoons will read it. If I were to influence the people who take
> part
> in those "no immigrants" votes and marches - I would come with a frame and
> language that speaks to them, not repels them.
>
> To be fair, he makes a valid observation here and there, for example when
> he
> says that a Left ideology must offer a positive alternative (like the
> Third
> Way, for example) in addition to nice framing. And, I may add, instead of
> a
> laundry list of complaints about the actions of the Right and Liberals.
>
> But the bottom line is that I wasted an hour or so of my valuable time to
> learn that he takes issues with Laclau and Lakoff, and that populism may
> or
> may not be a good thing, depending on circumstances, and so does
> universalism. BFD. Wake me up when he says something we do not already
> know.
>
> Wojtek
>
>
>
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
-- Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/
His fiction, poetry, weblog is Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/
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