“The True Blasphemy”: Slavoj Žižek on Pussy Riot
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
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