http://jacobinmag.com/blog/2012/07/slavoj-zizek-responds-to-his-critics/
[…]
Anything whatsoever can be proven with
such superficial pseudo-Marxist homologies—these homologies, together with
Gray’s numerous tendentious distortions, are sad indications of the level of
intellectual debate in today’s media. It is Gray’s work which fits perfectly
our ideological late-capitalist universe: you ignore totally what the book you
are reviewing is about, you renounce any attempt to somehow reconstruct its
line of argumentation; instead, you throw together vague text-book
generalities, crude distortions of the author’s position, vague analogies,
etc.—and, in order to demonstrate your personal engagement, you add to such bric-a-brac of
pseudo-deep provocative one-liners the spice of moral indignation (imagine, the
author seems to advocate a new holocaust!). Truth doesn’t matter here—what
matters is the effect. This is what today’s fast-food intellectual consumers
crave for: simple catchy formulas mixed with moral indignation. It amuses you
and makes you feel morally good. Gray’s review is not even less than nothing,
it is simply a worthless nothing.
***
In a recent review of Less
Than Nothing (Guardian, Saturday 30 June), Jonathan Rée reaches a new
depth in moralistic insinuations:
[Žižek] never discusses poverty,
inequality, war, finance, childcare, intolerance, crime, education, famine,
nationalism, medicine, climate change, or the production of goods and services,
yet he takes himself to be grappling with the most pressing social issues of
our time. He is happy to leave the world to burn while he plays his games of
philosophical toy soldiers.
How can someone write this about an
author who recently produced a whole series of books dedicated to precisely
these topics is beyond my comprehension—even in Less Than Nothing, a book
on Hegel, there is an extensive discussion of socio-political problems in the
books conclusion.
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