It all being about power/money/sex is, of course, totally different than it all being about the mode of production.
--- On Sun, 11/16/08, ken hanly <northsunm at yahoo.com> wrote:
> From: ken hanly <northsunm at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Zizek on Obama
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 12:28 PM
> To me it sounds as if Zizek is a bit touched but then I
> have always found him a hi falutin windbag. Get this:
>
> http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4039/why_cynics_are_wrong/
>
>
> The position of the cynic is that he alone holds some piece
> of terrible, unvarnished wisdom. The paradigmatic cynic
> tells you privately, in a confidential low-key voice: “But
> don’t you get it that it is all really about
> (money/power/sex), that all high principles and values are
> just empty phrases which count for nothing?” What the
> cynics don’t see is their own naivety, the naivety of
> their cynical wisdom that ignores the power of illusions.
>
> Why is the cynic a "he" and why need a critic of
> Obama be a cynic at all. I guess I am a naive Marxist who
> thinks that principles and values are dialectically related
> to the mode of production. Obama is capitalist through and
> through and it is Zizek who ignores the power of illusions.
> Obamas support among otherwise intelligent leftists is good
> evidence of this. THere is nothing cynical about all this in
> my opinion. It is fact and the basis for any realistic
> assessment of the situation.
>
> cheers k hanly
>
> Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html
> Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html
>
>
> --- On Sat, 11/15/08, Doug Henwood
> <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> > From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> > Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Zizek on Obama
> > To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> > Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008, 9:12 PM
> > On Nov 15, 2008, at 6:46 PM, John E. Norem wrote:
> >
> > > Why Cynics Are Wrong
> > >
> > >
> > > The sublime shock of Obama’s victory
> > >
> > >
> > > By SLAVOJ ZIZEK
> >
> <http://www.inthesetimes.com/community/profile/70>
> > >
> > > Obama’s victory is a sign in which the long
> past
> > of slavery and the
> > > struggle for its abolition reverberates.
> > >
> > > Days before the election, Noam Chomsky told
> > progressives that they should vote for Obama, but
> without
> > illusions. I fully share Chomsky’s doubts about the
> real
> > consequences of Obama’s victory: From a
> > pragmatic-realistic perspective, it is quite possible
> that
> > Obama will just do some minor face-lifting
> improvements,
> > turning out to be “Bush with a human face.” He
> will
> > pursue the same basic politics in a more attractive
> mode and
> > thus effectively even strengthen U.S. hegemony, which
> has
> > been severely damaged by the catastrophe of the Bush
> years.
> > >
> >
> http://voidmanufacturing.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/zizek-on-the-obama-victory/
> >
> > Touching. Really. I mean that.
> >
> > Doug
> > ___________________________________
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>
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