Slavoj Žižek Quotes About Today

Quotes about: Today

• Think about the strangeness of today's situation. Thirty, forty years ago, we were still debating about what the future will be: communist, fascist, capitalist, whatever. Today, nobody even debates these issues. We all silently accept global capitalism is here to stay. On the other hand, we are obsessed with cosmic catastrophes: the whole life on earth disintegrating, because of some virus, because of an asteroid hitting the earth, and so on. So the paradox is, that it's much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Thinking, Hands, Years

  "Mapping Ideology" by Slavoj Žižek, p.1, 1994.

• The threat today is not passivity, but pseudo-activity, the urge to "be active", to "participate", to mask the Nothingness of what goes on.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Pseudo, Goes On, Today

  Slavoj Žižek (2014). “Trouble in Paradise: From the End of History to the End of Capitalism”, p.170, Penguin UK

• Why are so many problems today perceived as problems of intolerance, rather than as problems of inequality, exploitation, or injustice? Why is the proposed remedy tolerance, rather than emancipation, political struggle, or even armed struggle?

  Slavoj Žižek

  Struggle, Political, Tolerance

  Slavoj Žižek, Slavoj Zizek (2011). “Living in the End Times”, p.5, Verso

• Ideology today is unfreedom which you sincerely personally experience as freedom.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Today, Ideology, Sincerely

• Who dares to strike today, when having the security of a permanent job is itself becoming a privilege?

  Slavoj Žižek

  Jobs, Becoming, Privilege

• Liberal democracy - as you know, in the old days, we were saying we want socialism with a human face. Today's left effectively offers global capitalism with a human face, more tolerance, more rights and so on. So the question is, is this enough or not? Here I remain a Marxist: I think not.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Thinking, Rights, Tolerance

• There is a contradiction between market liberalism and political liberalism. The market liberals (e.g., social conservatives) of today want family values, less government, and maintain the traditions of society (at least in America's case). However, we must face the cultural contradiction of capitalism: the progress of capitalism, which necessitates a consumer culture, undermines the values which render capitalism possible

  Slavoj Žižek

  Government, America, Political

• [T]aking the Third into account does not bring us into the position of pragmatic consideration, of comparing different Others; the task is rather to learn to distinguish between false conflicts and the true conflict. For example, today's conflict between Western liberalism and religious fundamentalism is a false one, since it is based on the exclusion of the third term which is its truth: the Leftist emancipatory position.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Religious, Example, Doe

• In the electoral campaign, President Bush named as the most important person in his life Jesus . Now he has a unique chance to prove that he meant it seriously: for him, as for all Americans today, "Love thy neighbor!" means "Love the Muslims!" OR IT MEANS NOTHING AT ALL.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Jesus, Mean, Unique

  "Reflections on WTC: Third Version" by Slavoj Žižek, October 7, 2001.

• We need useless theory more than ever today.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Needs, Useless, Today

• Obama has already demonstrated an extraordinary ability to change the limits of what one can say publicly. His greatest achievement up to now is that, in his refined non-provocative way, he has introduced into public speech topics which had hitherto been de facto unsayable: the continuing importance of race in politics, the positive role of atheists in public life, the necessity to talk with "enemies" like Iran or Hamas, and so on. This is just what US politics needs today more than anything, if it is to break out of its gridlock: new words which will change the way we think and act.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Atheist, Thinking, Race

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