If John Brown and Lenin were
egotists, then I can accept those remarks of Žižek's from his book Violence that
you cited in a recent post. But when I look around me here in the USA
(Unreflective States of Arrogance), I do not see benign egotists who are too
concerned with their own good to cause harm to anyone. What I see are
self-worshiping idiots with large cars and small libraries.
In the Unreflective States of
Arrogance I see thousands of submissive but pompous, hypocritical academics who
have sold their souls for TIAA-CREF, homes in exclusive neighborhoods, perfect
hairstyles, tasteful clothes, and pearly-white, crocodile smiles. They have
privileged access to information and what do they use it for? Vainglorious
self-promotion, posturing, and reckless competition over trifles.
But I also see—here in the USA—thousands
of good-intentioned, working-class people who still believe in democracy. These
are the people who must be converted to the cause before communism can win.
Many of our invisible and forgotten workers also serve in the National Guard or
the Reserves. I am a veteran; but I did not enlist in order to invade other
countries and to steal the natural resources. I did not enlist in order to
preserve the system of privileges as it now stands. I believe a dream is worth
dying for, and the nation I love (the nation I thought I would be serving when
I enlisted) is not the nation we really are, but the nation we might be
someday. Unless we are hypocrites who want revolution without revolution, the
left must re-appropriate from the right notions like duty, honor, and
self-sacrifice. I have a dream of what the USA could be, like our nonviolent
martyr, Martin Luther King jr., who said that "if a man hasn't discovered
something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."
Let the cowardly and vain
American academics pre-judge me to be naive; I do not care. I challenge any one
of these pseudo-leftist intellectuals to explain to me how the left will really
accomplish anything without involving the unemployed and the working poor. The
problem now is that most North American workers still admire people like Bill
Gates instead of people like John Brown, Lenin, and Che. My Žižek is the one
who educates the proletariat.
If "self-love"
involves risking one's reputation (or even better, one's very existence) for
the sake of the millions of slum dwellers and all of the other abject,
disenfranchised human beings—including the future generations whose
inheritance we are currently wasting—then is this really egotism?
If Che was an
"egotist" then okay, I can accept Žižek's remarks that you cited. But
if Che was acting out of "envy," then give me such envy or give me
death. I agree with Plato that the love of luxuries and privileges corrupts the
soul (call it "self-reflexive negativity" or "death drive"
if you prefer). The only reason I care about money is to save enough of it to
someday leave this evil empire. All around me in the Unreflective States of
Arrogance I see swaggering, domineering narcissists who have no concern for
future generations or for the ecology. I see politicians who are puppets
dancing on strings pulled by corporations. And of course I prefer chocolate to
vanilla, but when are we finally going to socialize these corporations? It
looks to me like we will wait do it until it is too late for us: after the
ecology is destroyed and we are a province of China's empire.
Okay, theory matters. But so
does the revolution. And even if he sometimes seems to contradict himself or
waver, I believe that for Žižek theory is not the only thing that
matters. In spite of what he sometimes provocatively blurts out, people matter
to him also; this is precisely why he wants communism to win: he has
said as much in other texts and in interviews.
Give me the Žižek who (like
Badiou) loves Western movies, admires courage, and puts a guillotine on the
dust jacket of In Defense of Lost Causes. I have no use at all for a cute
and lovable, overgrown teddy bear. Dirty jokes bore me; and I cannot find
inspiration in a narcissistic, pure theoretician. Some of us simply cannot bury
our heads in ontology and metapsychology. You have your Žižek and I have mine.
Maybe he's no Lenin, but if my Žižek won't keep speaking out for the
dispossessed, then I'll look into Badiou or elsewhere.
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