Product Description

On September 11, the USA was given the opportunity to realize what kind of a world it was a part of. It might have taken this opportunity - but it did not; instead it opted to reassert its traditional ideological commitments: out with feelings of responsibility and guilt towards the impoverished Third World, we are the victims now! In the months following September 11, mainstream commentators bombarded us with histrionic claims that the event marked 'The End of the Age of Irony' or the conclusion to America's 'holiday from history'. Now, according to these pompous pundits, the time for playing games was over and the hour had struck to take sides in 'The War on Terrorism'. This temptation to choose one's camp is, Zizek argues, exactly the temptation to be resisted. For it is precisely when we are confronted with such apparently clear choices that the real alternatives to the situation are most obscured: in being asked to choose between 'democracy' and 'fundamentalism', is not the real problem one of democracy itself - as if the only alternative to 'fundamentalism' is the political system of liberal democracy? Welcome to the Desert of the Real takes a step back from the hype, hysteria and rhetoric, in order to problematise the options we are being offered. It proposes that global capitalism is fundamentalist and that America was complicit in the rise of Muslim fundamentalism. It points to our dreaming about the catastrophe in numerous disaster movies before it happened, and explores the irony that the tragedy has been used to legitimate torture. Last, but not least, Zizek analyses the fiasco of the predominant leftist response to the events.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27537 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 154 pages

About the Author
Slavoj Zizek is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Social Studies in Ljubljana. His books include The Sublime Object of Ideology, Everything you always wanted to know about Lacan (but were afraid to ask Hitchcock), The Plague of Fantasies, The Ticklish Subject and The Fragile Absolute.

Customer Reviews

At last! Someone who isn't taken in
There's been so much nonsense written about September 11th, it's refreshing to read something on the subject which is not dragged along in the emotional currents unleashed by the US state and its allies. Zizek portrays the attacks as an inadvertent wake-up call for the west to recognise that the world in which we live is awash with atrocities and that we don't live in an isolated sphere, innocent and separated from this world. He emphasises the eerie similarities between the attacks and imagery which has abounded in American cinema for some time, likening the attacks to Morpheus's announcement to Neo when he escapes from the illusory world in the original Matrix film: "welcome to the desert of the real".

A few words of warning are in order, however. Firstly, for all his criticisms, Zizek does not really have much to offer as an alternative to the present world order; he oscillates frustratingly between nihilism and reformism without ever making many serious suggestions about what we should do once we "wake up". Secondly, only a small portion of the book is actually about September 11th - although Zizek sticks to the subject of the book more closely than is usually the case. Thirdly, the Lacanian ontology underpinning his positions is not very tenable, especially when he tries to combine it with revolutionary posturing. If (as Lacan claimed) we're always necessarily in the desert of the Real, the subversive force of this revelation in terms of changing the world is largely lost. In any case, this is a worthwhile read and certainly far better than most of what I've come across about September 11th.

A thoughtful and thought-provoking, and refreshingly original, analysis of the subject
Zizek's analyses and observations are delightfully refreshing and thought-provoking. This is evident from the beginning of this book when he neatly quotes both Kant and Chesterton to highlight the anti-democratic potential of the principle of freedom of thought: only our minds are allowed to be free! One of his basic ideas is that global capitalism is in itself fundamentalist and so-called Islamic "fundamentalism" is actually modernist as it is an Arab response to that same global capitalism. Zizek observes that it is the clash of economic interests which underpins the so-called "clash of civilisations": for or against terrorism being a false choice. One can simultaneously both condemn the WTC attacks and appreciate the socio-political causes of such extremism, and we should have "unconditional solidarity with all victims" irrespective of where in the world they might be. Zizek posits the crucial choice as between global capitalism and its "other", which he identifies with currents like the anti-globalisation movements.
Zizek is also a good critical discourse analyst. One of many examples of this is his critique of Spielberg's "The Land Before Time" in which he points out how the hegemonic liberal multiculturalist ideology is legitimised together with its inherent injustices, inequalities and cruelties. His critique of democracy as a fetish which seeks to disavow fundamental social antagonisms is great, and his comment that "every campaign against corruption ends up being co-opted by the extreme Right" rather interesting in current times! The creation of the "homo sucker" term to refer to our contemporary practice of both ridiculing and following ruling ideology, is wonderfully both irreverent and insightful. And Zizek also offers a perceptive and insightful analysis of the Israel-Palestine conflict and its relationship to the US war on terrorism against Osama bin Laden.
The problem for many potential readers however is that Zizek presupposes a grounding in psychoanalysis, plus acquaintanceship with Lacan, on the reader's part, and also a knowledge of philosophy, Hegel in particular, but also Nietzsche and Habermas, to name but a couple. OK, much of this is justified, as when, for example, he makes interesting observations by taking psychoanalytic theories (usually) applied to individual psychic life and applying them to group behaviours. But there is nonetheless the question of whether, if Zizek's ideal is a "new collectivity", and if he plans to play a role in it, he should not make more effort to be accessible. Be this as it may, I feel that the stimulating nature of his observations and analyses reward the reader's patience in this respect.

Excellent
"A reader's" paraphrase below is wrong, a little bitter and somewhat stupid. This is a very good introduction to the author, full of insight, witticism, analysis, and enjoyable digression. Whilst not necessarily agreeing with all of his conclusions, this has certainly taken to my mind to some new areas.

Highly recommended.