Great Minds: Slavoj Žižek

I've had a feeling for so long why my intellectual peers are wrong in so many points of their world view, but I couldn't point it out, thus wasn't taken seriously. Now Zizek points it out clearly, what's wrong with them. He even goes beyond and shows even me new perspectives. Kudos to this man.

I cant tell if his open-endedness is a compliment, in that he assumes we are all intelligent enough to fill in the blanks, or if he is just so dishevelled that its a naturally product of his brain activity. Either way, love him!

I think this is the best, most consistent talk I have seen of him here on YT. And I have seen a lot of them.

Sometimes I think Zizek's greatness lies in his ability, not to invent new material or produce original thought, but rather in finding pop cultural pearls.

You know he’s a great mind when this is still relevant today.

This man has VERY original observations. Ideology is still alive and thriving, for better and worst.

I think this is the best talk on ideology i have ever listend to.

I am Zizekian! Long live Zizek!
Superb!!!!

It's good thing Slavoj is still around. One of the few Marxist intellectuals left in academia these days. He really challenges the main stream ideas common in so many social an political science curricula.

By far the clearest presentation of Slavoj's i've heard, or perhaps i'm now getting the gist of it!?

Absolutely brilliant! Remarkable presentation!

The Charing Philosopher. I could listen to him for hours

An ideology cannot be WITHOUT villains.There's always the bad guy somewhere.

Good insight on the change occurring within universities...Here in Australia we have our own version of the private use of reasoning: Its called the Melbourne Model...streamlined education to get you to become a unit of capital asap..Not to mention the proliferation of so-called long distance courses, higher education "institutions", etc etc...

Even the first minute was a genius statement. Love that punch.

I've watched a lot of zizek this year and last night I met zizek in my dream. We looked at museums where I work and I tried to be smart and give big explanations but he I got the notion that it was insignificant to him until he asked me what church was the most beautiful in Tyrol where I am from and I told him the court church but it was more like a museum to me. Either way, we went around Innsbruck and we made some pictures. It was a nice dream. Miss you slavoi

People don't act on what they believe because society has invested a lot of money into making us all feel insecure and not sure of what we see and know. We are all in a constant state of insecurity 24/7. Even if you think your not, YOU ARE!

This is an excellent lecture, I am still in a state of misunderstanding wether or not the " knowing of a fact" that has the potential to lead to a catastrophic outcome and not acting on that fact in some preventive manner is in it's self an ideology? Or is that the problem with ideologies of modernity, the past and or the future?

Zizek is right - we seriously need to think our way out of this mess. This means challenging the very core assumptions of our thought. I've started a discussion of these issues - just search material indeterminism on google.

i love slavoj, you know? hes good and so on and so on

Does anyone else think that because we did not come up with Ancient Greek Philosophy, but have attempted to apply it, that we might be able to avoid a “fall of Rome,” but more dealing with of things “falling into place.”

No ideology comes without it's problems, or it's villains. Comparing them is all you can do.

Why don't people in the audience just ask simple questions, succinct and clear? There is always someone who tells about his own life, makes statements, tells jokes, tries to outwit the speakers, tries to propose a whole counterargument, drops some names, elaborates more facts... crazy.

Not my disciple but you are doing it right and sometimes funny.

The worst use of "I'll try to keep this brief" at the end (by an audience member). :)
Awesome lecture.

However, this is the charm of a debate! The counterarguments, dropping names, elaborating more and more facts, this is what society needs. Would you like to have just one way look on all things in the world? Of course not, however people hate to be challenged in what they believe is the only truth, they are even stupid enough to feel offended by such action. But there does not exist such a thing as "the only truth" because the truth never fails only because it never stands just on one side.

I loved this and so on.

this man has the word i never had to my ideas and thought i have and ideas to thought i never had manly the latter

Thanks. This was a wonderful call to critical thinkers and intellectuals

yeah but the thing is he's not talking about the "point" of the movie, he's actually talking about what the movie is not 'saying' but implying. That's his point on ideology today, it is so strong that we're not even aware of all our own beliefs because we are not aware of their implications; so that's the point, the king finally becomes enough of an 'idiot' to take himself seriously; that's ideology, we become stupid enough to take it seriously

zajebisty akcent

He makes a point about your opinion on the idea that politics is hopeless; but he says that the odd thing is that people who dismiss the whole political establishment still demand, as if to someone else, change; they never say, we the people will take over this responsibility, it's always about an external solution

I'm perpetually amazed how does he jump form genial insights into notions which make me want to crie. :)

exactly, what i think we're going back now is this more radical, polarised way of thinking and that plays into the hands of extreme left and extreme right parties, everywhere in europe especially the extreme right is getting stronger again and many leftists are so extreme that you could almost call them nazis.i believe in the notion that there is a constant exchange from structure to chaos back to structure happening in society, ideological systems kind of repeat themselves over and over.

It's sad, but true what this European thinker states is the case. He is not quaint in rendering the ideological pressures on modern life. No, he in fact confirms the presence of ideology even in popular culture and in acts of purchasing Starbucks coffee. His work is crucial to understanding the cynical functioning of ideology today. "It is ideological cynicism which obscures the religious core of capitalist beliefs."

here in europe most intelligent beings arent very loud either, actually from what i saw they get more media coverage in the US but probably not many people watch it. most people i met where really just parroting somebody else but immediately fail to actually pose sensible arguments, mostly retreating to name calling or ad hominem "arguments". i try to still believe in humanity a little though, if that wasnt the case i would mostly be a hedonist too i suppose

Is there a transcript of this anywhere? It would be of some use for some of the things he refers to.

you can also reject it, but if you do it without understanding it then you are prejudicially rejecting it

I don't agree with his reading of Black Swan but I am currently reading The Parallax View and it is very good.

Well, if he seriously thinks that the best way to fix the computer is to stick enough bobby pins through the ventilator and goes on to present his approach seriously to an auditorium full of people, then yeah, you're probably better off disregarding whatever he has to say, no matter the topic.

That's exactly how Kant's name is correctly pronounced in German. It's funny how some people, Americans in particular, desperately mispronounce his name as "Can't" or "Kaaaant".

must say, those communist/soviet jokes are gold.

is there any possibility to obtain a text of his talk here?

An optimist and a pessimist are standing at the edge of a cliff. The pessimist looks down and says depressingly:"If i jump, I will die. "The optimist responds: Well, walk then."

Interesting conversation.

30:00 (Kant) - 37:20 is fookin' brilliant ! Go, Slavoj GO !

Around 30:00 he talks about universities producing experts, who will then figure out how to exercise soft power and spin in order to avoid public criticism and gatherings, e.g. I think he refers to protest and crowd control, media spin and by the use of mass media maintain an ever present narrative that leaves no room for dissidence or criticism. I think he refers to some kind of "economism", that can always point to a buttom line for justification. If so I think he's right, it's happening.

Žižek⭐

one is not necessary antisemitic to criticize Israel, but there is a necessity to point out that you are not antisemitic if you are actually criticizing Israel.

Great contemporary thinker - On ideology

@boracay234 But of course there can be something better. Internet is an amazing tool for developing ideas. They should not be negated so easily as rubbish. All systems must be under constant pressure to point out better solutions and dispose bad ones. If it is constructive is always welcome. Free thinking society is a necessary step for better future. I acknowledge your arguments as you do mine and I praise constructive dialog. Not many dialog's on the internet are so constructive. Sadly.

Everytime Zizek speaks he is grabbing either his nose or shirt, therefore, a thumbnail of him grabbing his nose is a pretty accurate representation of any video Zizek speaks in.

at last some1 pointed out the attack on the public use of reason

OK, I'll give it a shot, but I just want to say that my first comment was not about his bluntness, but rather about how can I trust this mans opinion about anything if he has so blatantly missed the point of the two movies?
His commentary on them is so practical-reductionist that you might as well go around thinking that sex is simply the exchange of bodily fluids, and wonder why I might be inclined to say that you're missing out on something in life.

@Vier5501 It's not stated in the film. It's given as one of the many problems that could have caused it.

Zizek did not gain his platform by assembling armies and invading sovereign states; my point was that to dismiss his ideas as nonsense betrays more about he who makes the judgement rather than Zizek himself. The same could be said about he who regards his rhetoric as obfuscatory.

I have no idea what he's talking about, but it's fascinating

"The movie with Ewan McGregor before he became a Jedi..." hahaha

Perfect comedic timing

Nothing says, ‘Pro’ quite like starting off with, ‘I hope this works’.

@TheRacistsMustDie So long as you avoid falling into the trap of trying to model social behavior on the level of the individual, the relevant forces make themselves clear and can be easily mapped. The result is fuzzy, due to the high level of uncertainty (which makes it look a lot like quantum mechanics), but a social theory shouldn't aim for too much detail anyhow.
It is only the overemphasis on the expectation of rational behavior that leads to inconclusive theory. Humans ain't that rational

@TheRacistsMustDie Its not so hard to grasp as you may think. There's a bit of a trap that can get you stuck in an infinite loop but since its basically just a fractal its pretty easy to work out the essence of the pattern.
Its a shame most people can't see it but human perception is pretty limited. People on the autism scale tend to get caught up in calculating incalculable relations. The numbers and functions keep changing.
Once you figure out whats fuzzy and whats emergent, its easy.

Who is right, Zizeck? Yes, I agree.

@astroboomboy Which is itself one of the two major flaws in Marxism - it ignores fundamental aspects of human nature; so that even if the controlled collapse and resolution of the dialectic can be achieved (and it cannot, this being the other fundamental flaw), the resulting social order cannot be maintained as certain fundamental drives are left unchecked.

Remarkable man

don't take him so literally. he has often stated that, yes he does view himself as marxist, but he absolutely does not want a system like the soviet union to return. he is, like marx, a philosopher. and like marx's work his thoughts are being used by many ignorant people. i am an anti-communist since my family had to suffer many times under the oppression of a communist government but i still love listening to zizek, because he accepts no taboos when it comes to thinking

Zizek should introduce cable TV news with a joke.

@mltorley Well I was talking more about the concept of overdetermination which states that no theory about the social world can ever be fully conclusive which if I think Althusser was the the first one to come up with, but afterwards it has become a commonly accepted fact in the social sciences (which I study, thus my outrage). It is btw not a concept grounded in Marxism so criticizing that wont really bring overdetermination into discredit. Why he didn't believe me? Because he thought I was

I know what you are describing. Unfortunately however you will never know unless you actually understand it :)
Many of his points presuppose some familiarity with some philosophical notions, so if you really want to get it, you should probably read up on the big philosophers, and at the very least some Descartes, Hegel and maybe some psychoanalysis, many of his references both obvious and subtle are rooted there.

and, this is very dangerous, because if we are demanding it, someone may come and respond to those demands, but if it comes from outside the political establishment, who knows what kind of fanatical leaders may take the place of politics

There's a handy way to see if he has anything sensible to say. It mostly revolves around watching the rest of it.

I'm sure Zizek (and many famous intellectuals) gets that a lot. There's a doc where a young fan tried making an impression on him (which failed) and was very awkward to watch.

@Zhiloreznik haha cheers mate i definitely agree. you should read umair haque if you do not already. talks about redefining economic thinking for the 21st century

Two words: Psychotic brilliance.

English subtitles,please

"Hit him in his Hamster", love it.

@Lucas ' in a true communist society only the essential material things are necessary' bit of a 'no true scotsman move there, but aside from that, Baudrillard pretty much exposed the division between real needs and false needs as capitalist ideology itself, presupposing an order of needs which naturalises utilitarian need and weakens so called 'unessential needs'. In common sense terms we can sort of identify what we think are the important needs, but it's ideological too

"She's dead. She died and so on." hahahah

So basically his answer to subconsciously believing our ideology is to challenge the natural rules of the system?
Doesn't that mean that we have to be outside of it, to get the perspective? To capture what is not said?

"Don't know what you did to this microphone Slavoj..." "I did NOTHING."

this guy always convinces me i need therapy

Zizek .s is A true Crusader +++ i could picture him with his helmet⛑️ of Combat and body Armor

Please add Subtitle

@Vier5501 The other explinations, both explicit and implicit are the pressure of being king, the favouritism of his father, his domineering older brother etc. Then there's all the underlying tensions and you could probably crack out some Frued on this bad-boy.

Don't trust the dislike counter; I accidentally clicked that button. I don't actually dislike this at all.

"Hit him at his hamster point !"
Very nice idea to ultimately call the others bluff.
However 'hamster', as we've seen in Zizeks example, became clear only RETROACTIVELY !
In a hot discourse, hamster is a very well hidden, mysterious agent, I claim !
Sorry, I don't chave time now to develop dezz further ~

Very interesting discussion. While I don't agree with him, he's obviously a very intelligent man. It's a pity he hasn't been able to wean himself off eating his own snot (36:13), as it erodes his credibility somewhat.

Thx Iqsquared Couldnt buy get or acquire Perverts Guide to Ideology over here in Holy Catholic Ireland this is the closest Ill get I spose

This has aged like wine.

Extraordinary

philosophical questions today are like the Palestinian conflict.
before one starts making his point, one has to start with:
i'm not antisemite, but...
i'm not islamophobe, but...
what is the palestine question in it deepest core?
the question of identity within geographic borders.
the whole conflict is unsolvable today because
the Zeitgeist prohibits the plane and simple answer:
there should be a vague identity shared between citizens of a country.

Where does Zizek speak of this Hegel book? I some how missed it.

So true

He take culture SO SERIOUSLY: he's so attached to the world and its structures, so he fights against them so desperately. Therefore, he's original. However, he has no distance--no space for reflection. That's why he's so hysterical. He seems to feel that he's responsible forthe world.

@mltorley Moreover, this came just to my mind after posting, I once I told this classmate I had autism, and he didn't believe me!

What a fascinating man. Extremely, extremely perceptive guy, I think. I think he seems as if his communication is slightly awkward and difficult at times, but that's because the things he's perceived are the most elusive elements of the human condition. His metaphors alone are a worth a million apiece. And anyone who can make an idea of Lacan's accessible has a lot of talent!

actually, more precisely, capitalism, not communism, thrives on the rules of scarcity

@TheRacistsMustDie Gödel could tell you that much, its a simple consistency/completion issue. So long as you allow for inconsistency you can sidestep the compound causation issues that Althusser called overdetermination. I am aware of the over-acceptance of this notion of which you speak in the social sciences (which I also study) and have long argued against this as it is patently false.

This is brilliant

...think alike ❤