On Aug 23, 2012, at 3:51 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote:
> http://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_true_blasphemy_slavoj_zhizhek_on_pussy_riot
>
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> The True Blasphemy: Slavoj Žižek on Pussy Riot
The best thing I've ever seen from Žižek.
>
>
>
> Pussy Riot members accused of blasphemy and hatred of religion? The
> answer is easy: the true blasphemy is the state accusation itself,
> formulating as a crime of religious hatred something which was
> clearly a political act of protest against the ruling clique. Recall
> Brecht’s old quip from his Beggars’ Opera: “What is the robbing of a
> bank compared to the founding of a new bank?” In 2008, Wall Street
> gave us the new version: what is the stealing of a couple of
> thousand of dollars, for which one goes to prison, compared to
> financial speculations that deprive tens of millions of their homes
> and savings, and are then rewarded by state help of sublime
> grandeur? Now, we got another version from Russia, from the power of
> the state: What is a modest Pussy Riot obscene provocation in a
> church compared to the accusation against Pussy Riot, this gigantic
> obscene provocation of the state apparatus which mocks any notion of
> decent law and order?
>
> Was the act of Pussy Riot cynical? There are two kinds of cynicism:
> the bitter cynicism of the oppressed which unmasks the hypocrisy of
> those in power, and the cynicism of the oppressors themselves who
> openly violate their own proclaimed principles. The cynicism of
> Pussy Riot is of the first kind, while the cynicism of those in
> power — why not call their authoritarian brutality a Prick Riot — is
> of the much more ominous second kind.
>
> Back in 1905, Leon Trotsky characterized tsarist Russia as “a
> vicious combination of the Asian knout and the European stock
> market.” Does this designation not hold more and more also for the
> Russia of today? Does it not announce the rise of the new phase of
> capitalism, capitalism with Asian values (which, of course, has
> nothing to do with Asia and everything to do with the anti-
> democratic tendencies in today’s global capitalism). If we
> understand cynicism as ruthless pragmatism of power which secretly
> laughs at its own principles, then Pussy Riot are anti-cynicism
> embodied. Their message is: IDEAS MATTER. They are conceptual
> artists in the noblest sense of the word: artists who embody an
> Idea. This is why they wear balaclavas: masks of de-
> individualization, of liberating anonymity. The message of their
> balaclavas is that it doesn’t matter which of them got arrested —
> they’re not individuals, they’re an Idea. And this is why they are
> such a threat: it is easy to imprison individuals, but try to
> imprison an Idea!
>
> The panic of those in power — displayed by their ridiculously
> excessive brutal reaction — is thus fully justified. The more
> brutally they act, the more important symbol Pussy Riot will become.
> Already now the result of the oppressive measures is that Pussy Riot
> are a household name literally all around the world.
>
> It is the sacred duty of all of us to prevent that the courageous
> individuals who compose Pussy Riot will not pay in their flesh the
> price for their becoming a global symbol.
>
> —Slavoj Žižek
Shane Mage
"L'après-vie, c'est une auberge espagnole. L'on n'y trouve que ce qu'on a apporté."
Bardo Thodol