[lbo-talk] hey Zizek fans

Mike Beggs mikejbeggs at gmail.com
Mon May 3 17:40:16 PDT 2010


I don't quite subscribe to the conspiracy theory that Zizek is in the employ of the CIA with a brief to further discredit communism, because, why would they need to bother? But, Zizek fans, do you think this kind of thing is helpful? It starts out okay, but then...

http://www.newstatesman.com/environment/2010/05/essay-nature-catastrophe

[...]

"What is demanded, first, is strict egalitarian justice: worldwide norms of per capita energy consumption should be imposed, stopping developed nations from poisoning the environment at the present rate while blaming developing countries, from Brazil to China, for ruining our shared environment.

"Second, terror: the ruthless punishment of all those who violate the imposed protective measures, including severe limitations of liberal "freedoms" and the technological control of prospective lawbreakers. Third, voluntarism: the only way to confront the threat of ecological catastrophe is by means of collective decision-making that will arrest the "spontaneous" logic of capitalist development (Walter Benjamin, in his essay "On the Concept of History", pointed out that the task of a revolution is to "stop the train" of history that runs towards the precipice of global catastrophe - an insight that has gained new weight with the prospect of ecological catastrophe).

"Last but not least, trust in the people: the wager that the large majority of the people support these severe measures, see them as their own and are ready to participate in their enforcement. We should not be afraid to encourage, as a combination of terror and trust in the people, the resurgence of an important figure in all egalitarian-revolutionary terror - the "informer" who denounces culprits to the authorities. (In the case of the Enron scandal, Time magazine was right to celebrate the insiders who tipped off the financial authorities as true public heroes.)

"Once upon a time, we called this communism."



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list