Fascism!

[nomadthethird]

^^Rational choice

They'll never let you back in now, Josef.

Back into what?

That evil cabal of Leninists in a smoky room who are secretly ruling not only the media but the world behind the scenes (with Zizek at the helm)?

[What's interesting or well-written and what academia celebrates are two different things.]

 

[vimothy]

So perhaps Zizek is really "laying bare the device" in precisely the opposite sense to the common understanding of his work.

 

[josef k.]

The device according to which he achieved his prominence? How to succeed as an intellectual under capitalism?

 

[vimothy]

Maybe the device according to which a particular brand of academic "radicalism" is shown up to be a bit of a sham.

 

[josef k.]

But does he trail more politically productive thinking in his wake, or not? This is the vital question...

 

[vimothy]

Sorry, having trouble... "trail"?

 

[josef k.]

Once the sham of his explicit "radical" statements drop away, what is the remainder, and what does it do?

 

[vimothy]

I don't know.

It organises a community of "believers" who like engage in similarly arch-serious, literary, er, waffle?

 

[nomadthethird]

Why does every decent thread have to get hijacked by this nonsense?

 

[...]

What's interesting or well-written and what academia celebrates are two different things.

This is precise. I feel like I conned a first class batchelor's and a distinguished master's degree from two predigree Universties by parading theory my tutors and examiners would eat up and be dazzled by. It was fucking easy. It left me feeling like English Literature and Philosophy weren't, actually, legitimate academic subjects. At least, not ones worth paying for.

 

[nomadthethird]

This is precise. I feel like I conned a first class batchelor's and a distinguished master's degree from two predigree Universties by parading theory my tutors and examiners would eat up and be dazzled by. It was fucking easy. It left me feeling like English Literature and Philosophy weren't, actually, legitimate academic subjects. At least, not ones worth paying for.

Perhaps the problem was institutional rather than literary or philosophical.

 

[...]

Yes it is. Which is actually a very large discussion worthy of a whole thread, I think. What makes me madder than my own miseducation is the crap that comes out of art schools. The whole system is stupid and damaged.

 

[...]

I think philosophy is, still. Not sure about literature.

 

[vimothy]

Why does every decent thread have to get hijacked by this nonsense?

Eh? We've been totally on-topic so far, IIRC.

 

[nomadthethird]

Bored.

[No one could be a "real" intellectual and seriously think that communism would be preferable to capitalism. Those dang liberal feminazi commie bastards saying things just to get "famous" and adored the world over by the legions of bolshie anti-Americans in their snooty members only clubs they call colleges...]

 

[nomadthethird]

Once the sham of his explicit "radical" statements drop away, what is the remainder, and what does it do?

Why, exactly, are these statements a "sham"? Because you don't agree with them? Because they're unpopular? Or wait, I thought you said Zizek was only saying them because they were so popular among his colleagues and would therefore make him all kinds of money?

 

[josef k.]

I'm not sure I'm clear what you're asking me.

 

[vimothy]

EDIT: Ha -- maybe not after reading the comments.

 

[josef k.]

[No one could be a "real" intellectual and seriously think that communism would be preferable to capitalism.

But this isn't a real choice. There is no subject that exists - or which could ever exist - which could decide in favor of either the one or another. There is no space to decide this from. There has never been such a space. There will never be such a space. This is one of the reasons why I think that the relentless focus on capitalism, construed as an object to be smashed, is misplaced. Capitalism does not exist in this way. Where it exists - to the extent that it does - in a series of institutions, milieus, discourses, habits, supports. Some of these, professed anti-capitalists feed.

 

[nomadthethird]

but this isn't a real choice. There is no subject that exists - or which could ever exist - which could decide in favor of either the one or another. There is no space to decide this from. There has never been such a space. There will never be such a space. This is one of the reasons why i think that the relentless focus on capitalism, construed as an object to be smashed, is misplaced. capitalism does not exist in this way. where it exists - to the extent that it does - in a series of institutions, milieus, discourses, habits, supports. Some of these, professed anti-capitalists feed.

lol.

This is a joke, right?

Nope, there have never been communist republics. In fact, the major world economic power at the moment, China, isn't a communist republic.

Zizek readily admits that academia or certain strains of anti-capitalism in fact only reinforce/reify capitalism.

In fact, his entire body of work, the central point of everything he writes, is that capitalism is extremely difficult to resist for all sorts of reasons.