Violence December 11th, 2009

You probably have heard mention at least somewhere of Slavoj Zizek.  He stands out as one of the most provocative critics of the accepted liberal/post-structuralist norms of contemporary thought, and uses a curious mixture of Lacan, Marx, Hegel, and the apostle Paul to draw some pretty dire conclusions about the permissive global society we live in.  His arguments often seem thoroughly contrarian: he inspires a funny mixture of awe, fear, and ire in rank-and-file “theoretical” leftists, ironically because of his unflinching espousal of the values they purport to hold.  In a nutshell, contemporary Marxists hate him for taking Marx “too seriously”, Christians shudder at his insights because he takes Paul “too seriously”, for contemporary (since Derrida) philosophers he takes philosophy “too seriously” (by way of Hegel), and he blasts psychoanalysis  out of the green pastures of cultural studies and into political/social theory by taking Lacan “too seriously”.  I can’t claim to be cognizant of the effects his ideas will have, and can’t speak to the validity or invalidity of his detractors.  But I can say that Zizek is at the very least a voice in contemporary ideas that is struggling to protect the radical from complete gentrification, and that without a doubt, is a cause worth fighting for.

This post is not really a review, but a recommendation of one of his more accessible and recent works titled Violence.  In it he assesses the role of violence in today’s society, and comes up with some interesting (if refreshingly counter intuitive) appraisals.  One of his least technical, more condensed volumes, it’s an interesting read and provides a good introduction to what his work is all about.

Purchase Violence (Verso Books) from Amazon