Product Description

Zizek argues that the physical violence we see is often generated by the systemic violence that sustains our political and economic systems. With the help of eminent philosophers like Marx, Engel and Lacan, as well as frequent references to popular culture, he examines the real causes of violent outbreaks like those seen in Israel and Palestine and in terrorist acts around the world. Ultimately, he warns, doing nothing is often the most violent course of action we can take.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14773 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
"* 'Since the deaths of Jacques Derrida in 2004 and Jean Baudrillard in 2007... Zizek has quickly cemented his position as the world's prominent philosopher and cultural theorist.' Matthew Taunton, New Statesman * 'A thinker whose views are worth paying attention to.' The New Yorker 'A startling critic of great daring, who doesn't watch his back or observe the pieties as he swerves and swoops through the age of globalised images and fabricated realities.' Times Literary Supplement 'Zizek is... the most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in Europe for some decades.' Terry Eagleton, University of Oxford '[Zizek] stares out, dishevelled, from the page and dares the reader to disagree.' The Guardian"

From the Back Cover
‘The Elvis of Cultural Theory’ Chronicle of Higher Education ‘A thinker whose views are worth paying attention to’ New Yorker Does the advent of capitalism and, indeed, civilization cause more violence than it prevents? Is there violence in the simple idea of "the neighbour"? And could the appropriate form of action against violence today simply be to contemplate, to think? In this passionate plea for awareness, Zizek turns his unflinching gaze on the capitalist democracies we live in. He explores the bloody totalitarian regimes of the last century and that violence which is named ‘divine’. Drawing on high and low culture, Kant, Lacan, jokes and contemporary cinema, this celebrated academic turned philosophical icon discusses the inherent violence of globalization, capitalism, fundamentalism, and language, in a work that will confirm his standing as one of our most erudite and incendiary modern thinkers. This is a book poised to set a new agenda for our thinking about violence.

About the Author
Slavoj Zizek is a Slovenian sociologist, postmodern philosopher and cultural critic. In 1990 he ran for Presidency of the Republic of Slovenia and is currently the international director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at Birkbeck.

Customer Reviews

Missed Opportunity
There is a lot of recycled material in this book and a lot that is off the point altogether. So a typical Zizek book. The one idea I found interesting is his explanation of street protests that turn violent, as well as the kind of thing that went on in Paris in 2005, as 'phatic' violence. That is to say, it serves the sole purpose of saying 'I'm here' and 'we're talking'. But Zizek doesn't take it far enough because in fact the phatic requires two interlocutors and its purpose is to keep open the lines of communication. So the obvious point he missed is that the police response is also phatic. By brutalising the protestors, they too are saying 'I'm here' and 'we're talking'. Moreover, if this in fact the case, then this type of protest action will not bring change because it is a routine exchange.

Good, but not a stand-alone source on the subject.
I have never felt that Zizek is a particularly good writer, as good writers go: he doesn't have Lacan's gymnastics, Derrida's self-reflexive argument-as-content wizardry, Foucault's strategic reemployment of established words, and so on, and yet neither does his prose flow with the clear coherency and well rounded arguments of other marxist writers, like Jameson or Eagleton. And certainly this book does not break him out of that status.

That having been said, a number of his 'look at things from a different direction' insights are genuinely interesting, and one thing you can always, ALWAYS count on Zizek for is this: he has balls. Though his argument to get to the point is highly warbling and not particularly neat or convincing, when he states that emancipatory violence exists within the realm of love, you have to imagine Che Guevara smiling a bit in revolutionary heaven (it's not as well furnished as normal heaven, but there's more camaraderie). He will run, hell, he will CHARGE at your preconceptions, and he will show no quarter.

I would recommend reading this as part of a range of works on the subject of global violence and terrorism. It is too messy and rambling to give any coherent picture by itself, but together with his other work 'Welcome to the Desert of the Real', and such works as 'Philosophy in a Time of Terror' with Habermas and Derrida, 'Ground Zero' and 'Desert Screen' by Virilio, and such Baudrillard essays as 'The Violence of the Global' and 'The Spirit of Terrorism', it can give a good, interesting, and even (!) semi-coherent view of the world's more virulent mechanics.

polemic, insightful but without the foundation
as ever Zizek twists and manipulates everything in his grasps....provactive, challenging and purposely against our common (mis)conceptions.

However without the deeper links to his Lacanian and Hegelian structuralism sometimes his arguments here feel a little unrooted. I would certainly recommend reading the last section of the parallax view first as this is very much an updated version of his arguments on violence there.

Probably the most refreshing thing in the structure of this book is the epilogue which is a rather nice summary which joins the dots of the wide range of ideas thrown at us within the hundred or so pages which is rather unusual for Zizek.

Only possible reservation of buying this would be that 'lost causes' comes out soon and i can only imagine much of what is here will also be there but in a rather more advanced/theoretical form.