Yläkuva: A poster promoting the start date of the occupation, September 17 [Constitution Day]. Alakuva: Slavoj Zizek tekemässä politiikkaa Occupy Wall Street-liikkeen joukoissa.
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On Sunday 9th October, Slovenian philosopher
Slavoj Žižek held a speech on Wall Street and expressed support of the protests, criticized the
capitalist system and the corporations saying that, "
They tell you we are dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are. We are not dreamers. We are awakening from a dream which is turning into a nightmare. We are not destroying anything. We are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself", but also warned that they must not forget why they're there or else the protest might lose its meaning - [wiki]
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Occupy Wall Street ei ole mikään satunnainen hippi-movement vaan USA:n turhautuneen keskiluokan ääni.
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Slavoj Zizek Joins Occupy Wall Street
Zizek also advised the people to see the Tea Party as a sister movement -- 'They may be stupid, but don’t look at them as the enemy,' he said.
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Occupy Wall Street got some Slovenian philosopher star power on Sunday, as Marxist academic Slavoj Zizek joined the movement.
Using the "Human Microphone" system, where protestors repeat back the words of the speaker so that others can hear, Zizek spoke for over an hour to the enthusiastic crowd, who whooped and cheered as he went on.
While in China, entertainment programming that depicts alternate reality and time travel has been banned, in the U.S., we have a different problem, according to Zizek.
"Here we don't think of prohibition, because the ruling system has even oppressed our capacity to dream, " he said. "Look at the movies that we see all the time -- It's easy to imagine the end of the world, an asteroid destroying a whole life, but you cannot imagine the end of capitalism. So what are we doing here?"
Zizek also advised the people to see the Tea Party as a sister movement -- "They may be stupid, but don’t look at them as the enemy," he said.
But he warned the protestors against succumbing to the excitement of the immediate events instead of keeping their eye on the prize: True social change.
Carnvials come cheap," he admonished. "What matters is the day after, when we will have to return to normal life. Will there be any changes then? I don't want you to remember these days, you know like, 'Oh, we were young, it was beautiful.' Remember that our basic message is: We are allowed to think about alternatives. The rule is broken. We do not live in the best possible way. But there is a long road ahead. There are truly difficult questions that confront us. We know what we do not want. But what do we want?"
Zizek is just the latest of the prominent figures who have come to lend their voice in Zuccotti Park, alongside activists like Michael Moore, writer Naomi Klein as well as actors including Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, and Roseanne Barr.
Watch Zizek speak at Occupy Wall Street below:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=slavoj+Zizek+wall+street&aq=f
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/10/slavoj-zizek-occupy-wall-street_n_1003566.html
II
Slavoj Žižek Speaks to Occupy Wall Street
Zizek teered the discussion away from the Cold War debate between communism and capitalism, noting that former communists, particularly in China, 'are today the most efficient, brutal capitalists.' - - The communist revolution “failed absolutely,” he said, suggesting that 'the only way we are communist is that we care about the commons,' citing the environment as an example.
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In answer to one question, he suggested that Organize Wall Street embrace the Tea Party rather than be seen as its opposite. “The tragedy is that many of the Tea Party people should be on our side,” he said. “That’s where we should work. They may be stupid, but don’t look at them as the enemy.”
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The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek turned up at Zuccotti Park to address the Occupy Wall Street demonstration on Sunday, offering up a seminar on Radicalism 101 for an appreciative crowd.
Despite some difficulty with the Human Microphone—the sometimes unwieldy but strangely appealing system the protesters have adopted of repeating a speaker’s words, phrase by phrase, for the benefit of the crowd—he held the floor for the better part of an hour.
Standing above the assembly in a red T-shirt, the heavily bearded dissident–turned–academic superstar at first spoke from prepared notes, hitting on many themes that will be familiar to fans. Several riffs were recycled almost word-for-word from earlier talks included in the 2005 documentary Žižek!, but to be fair, they killed at the time and are perhaps even more relevant today.
He told, for instance, an old Eastern Bloc joke (borrowed from the introduction to 2002′s Welcome to the Desert of the Real) about a dissident who’s about to be sent to a work camp in Siberia. Since he knows his letters will be censored, he tells his friends he’ll write to them using a simple code: Blue ink for the truth, red ink for lies. His first letter arrives, and it’s a glowing report of life in the camp—a lovely apartment, great food, beautiful women. Then he concludes, “The only thing we can’t get is red ink.”
Occupy Wall Street, he explained told the crowd, is pointing out the lies that underlie American capitalist society. “You’re the red ink,” he said.
Mr. Žižek also offered some practical advice. Noting the festive atmosphere in the park, he warned, “Don’t fall in love with yourselves. Carnivals come cheap.” The meaningful work will be what comes afterwards.
He steered the discussion away from the Cold War debate between communism and capitalism, noting that former communists, particularly in China, “are today the most efficient, brutal capitalists.”
The communist revolution “failed absolutely,” he said, suggesting that “the only way we are communist is that we care about the commons,” citing the environment as an example.
Mr. Žižek suggested that the left “abandon certain taboos,” including hard work, discipline and following orders, if they support the agreed-upon goals. And he advocated reclaiming certain notions that had been adopted by the right wing, including family values.
Somewhat controversially, he described organic food as a “pseudo-activity,” designed to make consumers feel they are having a positive impact on the world and thereby absolving them from looking at the more destructive systemic issues.
Noting that he supports George Soros, he compared the lefty billionaire financier to a chocolate laxative. Since chocolate is said to be constipating, he explained—a controversial point—Mr. Soros is similarly exhibiting an internal contradiction. “First they take billions from you, then they give back half,” he said. “And that makes them the world’s greatest humanitarians.” Take the money, sure, he advised, but don’t stop fighting to overturn a system that makes it necessary.
In answer to one question, he suggested that Organize Wall Street embrace the Tea Party rather than be seen as its opposite. “The tragedy is that many of the Tea Party people should be on our side,” he said. “That’s where we should work. They may be stupid, but don’t look at them as the enemy.”
The most interesting bit of advice may have been a little hard to parse for some, but given that this quickly spreading movement seems still to be in its infancy and unsure about how to proceed, it seemed especially worth pondering: “People often desire something but don’t really want it,” Mr. Žižek told the crowd. “Don’t be afraid to want what you desire.”
http://www.observer.com/2011/10/slavoj-zizek-speaks-to-occupy-wall-street/
III
Slavoj Zizek Delivers Wrong Message at Occupy Wall Street
'You want to raise taxes a little bit for the rich, they tell you it’s impossible, we lose competitivitiy. You want more money for health care, they tell you impossible, this means a totalitarian state. There is something wrong in the world where you are promised to be immortal but cannot spend a little bit more for health care.' - [tämäkö on se väärä viesti?].
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On Sunday, controversial Slovenian philosopher and critical theorist Slavoj Zizek called for the overthrow of capitalism before an audience of approximately 200 protesters at an Occupy Wall Street (OWS) rally in lower Manhattan. Standing before a captivated audience who repeated his words in unison in call-and-response fashion, Zizek asked the audience to ponder, “What social organization can replace capitalism? What type of new leaders do we want?”
But, Zizek struggled to define that new system. Although he pronounced that the OWS’s basic message is, “We do not live in the best possible world,” Zizek did not offer a clear vision for what system could replace capitalism. Even he admitted, “We know what we do not want. But what do we want?”
Zizek, recognized as one of the foremost intellectuals of the radical left, served as the headline speaker and delivered a rousing address during an otherwise quiet day at OWS. He serves as a returning visiting professor at NYU.
Zizek’s struggle to devise an alternative to capitalism mirrors the challenges that OWS protesters face. Until now, protesters have been unable to define a target of their demonstrations and establish clear, actionable goals. And frankly, if the end-goal for protesters is Zizek’s aim to overthrow capitalism, I believe they will have a tough time attracting a wider audience and entering into the mainstream.
In some ways, however, Zizek did help to clarify why protesters are angry and what they oppose. He told protesters, “They tell you we are dreamers. … We are not dreamers. We are awakening from a dream which is turning into a nightmare. … This is what we are doing here. We are telling the guys there on Wall Street — Hey, look down!”
He launched out against capitalism for allowing a select few to profit at the expense of the majority of Americans. He said, “You want to raise taxes a little bit for the rich, they tell you it’s impossible, we lose competitivitiy. You want more money for health care, they tell you impossible, this means a totalitarian state. There is something wrong in the world where you are promised to be immortal but cannot spend a little bit more for health care.”
Perhaps surprisingly, however, Zizek did not call for communism to replace capitalism. By contrast, he argued, “The only sense in which we are communists is that we care for the commons … Communism failed absolutely. But the problems of the commons are here.”
What became clear from watching Zizek is that the OWS movement has yet to find the core rallying message that will give protesters broad appeal beyond the far left. Rather than castigating and seeking to overthrow the entire capitalist system — an unachievable outcome that is destined to fail — the OWS protesters’ challenge will be to devise proposals to reform the current system.
In my opinion, the OWS movement needs more speakers like Elizabeth Warren, the creator of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and less like Zizek, in order to succeed.
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http://www.policymic.com/articles/1956/slavoj-zizek-delivers-wrong-message-at-occupy-wall-street
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http://www.google.fi/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4PCTA_enFI299FI299&q=Slavoj+Zizek+Joins+Occupy+Wall+Street
http://www.google.fi/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=0&oq=slavoj+zizek+wall+street&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4PCTA_enFI299FI299&q=slavoj+zizek+wall+street
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavoj_%C5%BDi%C5%BEek
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavoj_%C5%BDi%C5%BEek
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement
