Living In The End Times [Hardcover]

If I had to recommend one contemporary philosopher for everybody to read, it would definitely be the great Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek. Oblivious of what his prissy colleagues in the academia might think, he gives equal space in his analysis to Husserl, Hegel, Hollywood and Heroes (an American TV series). I tend do disagree with many things that this passionate Marxist and devoted follower of Lacan says but his writing is so brilliant that each new book by him makes me jump for joy right in the bookstore. At over 400 pages long, Living in the End Times is Zizek's most important political statement so far in his fruitful intellectual career.

Zizek is the kind of philosopher who never stoops to triviality. He challenges every preconceived notion we might have. This is the reason why he mocks the concept of tolerance that enraptures liberals, ridicules the practice of recycling, criticizes Mahatma Gandhi as somebody whose struggle to protect the rights of the Untouchables ended up perpetuating the caste society, and ridicules the familiar trope that "globalization thratens local traditions and . . . flattens differences." Those who acquire an ironic distance from ideology and laugh at its tenets are - according to Zizek - most fully under the control of ideology. It is precisely Zizek's willingness to analyze critically every concept that others tend to hold as holy that has led him to be vituperated by pretty much every political group imaginable. If you want a book that will tell you things you already believe, Living in the End Times is not the kind of reading you will enjoy. If, however, you want to be forced to question and to think, Zizek is the philosopher for you. If anger motivates your analytical capacities, then rest easy: Zizek is guaranteed to shock you out of an intellectual aporia.

According to Zizek, we are living through a moment of crisis that our global capitalist system is undergoing. Zizek uses the well-known scheme of the five stages of grief in order to address our collective responses to the crisis. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance give name to the chapters in Zizek's book. There is a certain sense of discontent with the way the system in question functions, says Zizek. There is a danger that this discontent will be appropriated by nationalist populists. The Slovenian philosopher believes that the main task of the progressives is to avoid this and find a way to articulate this discontent in progressive terms.

Zizek's criticism of "today's ethical-legal conservatives" is convincing and incisive, as usual. Their struggle is futile because what they are trying to recreate simply did not exist in the first place: "In wanting to recreate the lost order. . . they will sooner or later be forced to admit not that it is impossible to restore. . . the old traditional mores to life, but that the corruption they are fighting in the modern permissive, secular, egotistic, etc. society was present from the very beginning." Try analyzing pretty much any aspect of the moralistic agenda of the Conservatives and you will see how they are trying desperately to "preserve" a system that - unlike what they would have us believe - isn't time-hallowed in the least.

Zizek points out that in spite of their internal contradictions the conservatives are pretty successful at channeling the growing popular discontent with the current state of affairs to their own ends. He calls the progressives to stop being afraid of radical change. Nobody can guarantee that the revolution will "work", he says. And we'd be wrong to ask for such a guarantee. But we are nearing the apocalyptic moment of a complete disintegration of the current global order. Zizek insists that the only responsible thing for today's progressives to do is to be ready to provide a viable and radically different alternative. We have to come out of our state of denial and recognize that trying to modify the existing system so that it would be somehow "better", "fairer" or "more just" is a completely useful enterprise.

Whether you agree with Zizek's agenda or not, the questions he raises in this book definitely merit to be asked.

Despite being a fan of capitalism, I have also been a fan of Zizek, a very creative thinker indeed. Before reading this latest book of his, I would have meant only positive connotations with the word 'creative'. Now, however, I am beginning to think of his creativity as that of someone who looks at passing clouds and points out interesting shapes that you did not see there before. Yes, it is cool, yes it is ticklish, to be shown the contours of yet another ideological element. Show Zizek a Barney episode, and he will tell you how the dinosaur's colorful costume is meant to instill in children a blind celebration of capitalism, etc. But this shtick is bound to eventually get old. And it seems that with this book, that tide is starting. At some point, you expect the critic of a system to offer an alternative, or else just shut up and get on with it. Zizek, like all other rambunctious detractors of capitalism, does no such thing: neither telling us what he wants, nor shutting up. True, scattered throughout his books are some intimations of the idea that he wants us to create public spaces within but still outside capitalism. But he never develops this idea further, and quickly relapses into mining popular movies for fancy cloud shapes that reinforce the Freud-Lacan-Marxist preconceptions.

And a word on the title. It is misleading. There is very very little in the book about the implications of the latest economic crisis for capitalism as a system. Of course, it is a ripe topic, but strangely Zizek barely touches on it. Instead, you get a rehash or recasting of his observations from prior books. There are half a dozen or so cases where he literally repeats previously-served anecdotes and examples, barely paraphrased. But, giving the timing, it was a good business decision to name the book what it is named.

In conclusion, I would still recommend this book ... but only if being tickled is your goal. For a serious and original social critique, look elsewhere. If you have read any of Zizek's recent books, consider that you have already read this one too.

Zizek is an important and resourceful critic of our world and the way we commit politics today.
This marvelous book is firstly about the end of global capitalism but also posing the question: What if democracy is no longer a condition and a motor for the economy but an obstacle to further development of global economy? It turns out that the communism of China seems more fit to provide for the poor of the world than the capitalism of the Western world.

Zizek provides all the unpleasant truths which we have never longed to hear - such as the fact that for the past decade four million people have been killed in Congo as a result of `mafia-mining' financed by foreign companies who need the raw materials for the production of laptops and cell phones.

He also has the impertinence to imply that the motivation that caused Josef Fritzl to rape his daughter and keep her and her kids locked up for years is the same I-am-the-father-of-the-family-gene that drives captain von Trapp from Sound of Music.

Most of his theories are chocking and plausible and one can only envy the capability to elegantly include an amazing number of theorists (Marx, Hegel, Kant, Lacan), the philosophy behind the newest movies, politics and literature - and the ability to make it work simultaneously as edutainment and provocation.

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