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"A characteristically enjoyable development of his recent journalistic commentary (Berlusconi as Kung Fu Panda), which digs joyfully into the ideological cracks of the financial crisis so as to enlarge them, and declares confidently that 'The future will thus be communist ... or socialist'." Steven Poole, Guardian "Electrifying - Revel in the way he can zero in on the absurdities and contradictions of the modern world." - Nick Lezard, Guardian, "A typically trenchant account of the farce of capitalism and future of communism, which in Zizek's hands is a flaming red banner confronting and affronting the deadly grey of capitalist conformity, confirming him as one of our most daring and unsparing contemporary thinkers." Times Higher Education Supplement "Zizek, a Marxist, writes with passion and an aphoristic energy that is spellbinding - a great provocateur and an immensely suggestive and even dashing writer." LA Times
Product Description
In this bravura analysis of the current global crisis - following on from his bestselling "Welcome to the Desert of the Real" - Slavoj Zizek argues that the liberal idea of the end of history, declared by Francis Fukuyama during the 1990s, has had to die twice. After the collapse of the liberal-democratic political utopia, on the morning of 9/11, came the collapse of the economic utopia of global market capitalism at the end of 2008. Marx argued that history repeats itself-occurring first as tragedy, the second time as farce - and Zizek, following Herbert Marcuse, notes here that the repetition as farce can be even more terrifying than the original tragedy. The financial meltdown signals that the fantasy of globalization is over and as millions are put out of work it has become impossible to ignore the irrationality of global capitalism. Just a few months before the crash, the world's priorities seemed to be global warming, AIDS, and access to medicine, food and water- tasks labelled as urgent, but with any real action repeatedly postponed. Now, after the financial implosion, the urgent need to act seems to have become unconditional - with the result that undreamt of quantities of cash were immediately found and then poured into the financial sector without any regard for the old priorities. Do we need further proof, Zizek asks, that Capital is the Real of our lives: the Real whose demands are more absolute than even the most pressing problems of our natural and social world?
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Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Zizek at His Most Accessible,
By
This review is from: First As Tragedy Then As Farce (Paperback)
If you have never read a book by Zizek then this is definitely the best place to start, especially considering the emphasis of the book. If you have read Zizek before then consider this is a great little pamphlet. Zizek focuses his analyses on the two most politically relevant topics of the past decade: 1) the current global economic crisis, and 2) the changing world post 9-11. Zizek breaks the book down into two separate parts that are primarily based on the analysis of ideology and the burgeoning communist hypothesis. The usual characters come along for the ride: Marx, Hegel, Lacan, and Freud = historical materialism, dialectics, and psychoanalysis (get used to these ideas if you have never read Zizek).The analyses are always grounded in philosophy and history and of course Zizek does not utilize the over-abused drivel of the mainstream media (and when he does, he abolishes it), rather he creates highly critical arguments that are not presented in our mainstream; which is why we need Zizek. As with all other books by Zizek, the language can be difficult to understand at times but Zizek expects his audience to examine his ideas carefully; too often we are given ready-made answers to our most pressing questions (which is where ideology comes into play) and Zizek obliterates these all too easy answers. But there is good news, if you are too busy to fumble around with difficult language (most of us are these days) then there is hope to be found in Zizek: the other half of Zizek is always filled with profound analyses in beautifully written and accessible language and these passages will entertain and enlighten. And it is in these accessible areas that the amazing clarity of Zizek's critiques will shine through. As always, Zizek utilizes humour, film, Hollywood, art, literature, pop-culture, and good old ideology to get his points across. Here is the great news: the book is only 157 pages long and it directs its attentions on two ideas. So, it is very easy to re-read the book if you happen to get lost along the way (it happens to us all). Welcome yourself to the amazing head-space known as Zizek and get ready to challenge yourself and your ideas about stuff (yes I said it, stuff!).
6 of 11 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Insights marred by obtuse language,
By
This review is from: First As Tragedy Then As Farce (Paperback)
Some fantastic insights, but much like Chomsky, these guys need a good editor. Pearls have to be tweezed out of the most tortuous language. The publisher needs to be brave enough to say "OK Slavoj, that's an impressive 400 words sentence with 30 references, but what the hell are you trying to say?". Unfortunately that's the curse of the intellectual left, great that they are out there, but unfortunately they are out there... unconnected and eventually ineffectual.
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3.6 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews) 23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Blistering attack on the Left.,
By M. C. Davis - Published on Amazon.com
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This review is from: First As Tragedy Then As Farce (Paperback)
As a reader of Zizek most of this is covered in other books. In Defense of Lost Causes immediately comes to mind. But if you don't want to slough through a 500 page tome but want to look at the latest political reflections by Slavoj Zizek then this book is a good introduction.Also of note, this may be one of the few books criticizing today's political Left that's by a Leftist(although albeit radical Marxist one)and as such is a better and more well rounded critique concerning the path of the Left. Zizek's style is for experienced readers, one cannot just simply walk into one of Zizek's books and expect the dry pedantic style that plagues much of contemporary academic reading. It takes some skill to recognize what Zizek is arguing, but once you find that hidden gem, you gain an insight into why the system crashed. 59 of 75 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Timely Intervention,
By Nin Chan "Nin Chan" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: First As Tragedy Then As Farce (Paperback)
This might very well be the best place to start if you're interested in the politics of this singular Slovenian philosopher. The prose here is as trenchant and as pellucid as it gets- it is clear that Zizek regards this polemic as a conjunctural intervention, and its topicality (much of the text deals with the current financial meltdown) is unparalleled in his oeuvre. Perhaps the closest parallel that one can draw is to Zizek's text on the Iraq War, Welcome to the Desert of the Real. This does mean, however, that one should not approach the text expecting to find a cursory sketch of Zizek's philosophy. Consider this to be an hors d'oeuvre of sorts. If you survive the naked forthrightness of Zizek's approach- his greatest challenge to our postmodern sensibilities lies in his uninhibited resolve to say what he means with a naïveté that is unprecedented since Nietzsche and Marx- you are already on the way to engaging with one of today's great provocateurs. The crucial point of the text lies in Zizek's classically Marxist assertion that, contrary to its (ideological) self-image as the embodiment of `objective reality' (capitalism as a pragmatic, time-tested formula that works in the `real world'), capitalism is, in fact, driven by a utopian fantasy of its own, the truth of which is revealed in crashes and meltdowns. The `crisis of the Left' lies in its incapacity to formulate a viable alternative, a crisis that must be overcome through commitment (allegiance to what Badiou has called the `communist hypothesis') and concerted hegemonic struggle.
23 of 29 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is It.,
By noeton - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: First As Tragedy Then As Farce (Paperback)
This powerful little tract is Zizek at his best and without much of the adulteration many of his more popular books have with regard to the jokes and pop-culture anecdotes. Yet it is as engrossing as anything he's written. The gauntlet is cast. Recent events have only brought to the surface the potential for capitalism to run aground and the remarkable unity of the otherwise bickering elite when it comes to keeping the profit flowing. Zizek discusses these events and maps how ideology, ideology, ideology, is everywhere in this moment where purportedly all ideology (including Alan Greenspan's), seems to have been shaken to rubble, and the only thing in front of us is to take the "pragmatic" but painful steps necessary to restore the markets and restart the engines so everyone can get back to business as usual (remarkable how much cash is suddenly available when the banks can't balance their own checkbooks, as opposed to when people are starving en masse in Africa). In page after page the case for communism becomes terrifyingly reasonable. Whether you are "with him or against him," you can no longer ignore Zizek after taking a serious look at this really magnificently composed work that condenses his whole political perspective without quarter. Personally, I have long been on the fence about embracing all that Zizek represents and all the consequences of his position. But I cannot see how this one can be the butt of jokes except for those so ideologically mystified that they'd chuckle themselves to tears if they were to really sit down with open eyes. Verso cleverly printed at the top of the cover a quote from a New Republic article on Zizek. It simply states, "The most dangerous philosopher in the West." This says it all, except, I wonder, who the heck is not in the west (today) that is a dangerous philosopher? CAN you be truly dangerous (to the western dominated global capitalist order) if you are in the "east?" Hence the geographic qualification means nothing but its mere inclusion implies racist sentiment. And does placing him in the west make him more or less dangerous than whoever in the non-west might be lurking in the jungle, as it were? Is the only possible reference Osama bin Laden? Thus HE is a "philosopher"? (a foolish idea, so indeed best not to state directly - takes cultural relativism to awfully absurd limits, no?), but then by logical substitution must not Zizek be a terrorist? Put the kettle on the burner and crack the celestial seasonings hemlock anti-occident tea, Meletus is back in town.
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