Die Furie der Zerstörung: Slavoj Žižek’s Reinvention of Revolutionary Terror
In this video we analyze Slavoj Žižek’s proposition to reinvent the “divine violence” of “classical” revolutionary, laid out in his essay on Robespierre. We point out Slavoj’s rhetorical tricks by which he obfuscates his, rather blatant, appropriation of the thesis that Revolution (a.k.a. “Event”) without terror is “decaffeinated”, i.e. not really revolutionary at all. Also, we lay out Žižek’s proposal of “revolutionary subject” as an essentially “inhuman human” – a virtual being brought into existence by depersonalization – the proverbial “individuum” which, for some reason, pops up every now and then into our focus when we analyze ideas of postmodern totalitarians. We conclude by demonstrating how Žižek’s clown like demeanour and rhetorical tricks hide quite, if only potentially, dangerous man.
(The German phrase from the title translates: “Fury of Desolation” and is taken from Hegel’s “Philosophy of Right in Outline”, §5. It denotes both revolutionary terror and religious fanatism)
Branko Malić
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That essay by Zizek reminded me why I turned away from the postmodern deconstructionist critical theory crowd. Everything we studied at college had to be analysed through the lens of various Marxist or Freudian theorists. Its just the orthodox approach in academia now. Once you penetrate the jargon and the references its just the same old nihilistic corrosion of social order. These people are poisonous mentally. Imagine allowing them to influence impressionable young minds.
They’re influencing them. Although Žižek style revolutionaries are toothless without criminal elements to implement their ideas, as was the case with revolutions of Modernity. It’s all talk now, mostly.