Slavoj Zizek. Politics between Fear and Terror Atkinson Hall, University of California, San Diego. November 15, 2006.
Here it is! What would be a more AUTHENTIC ACT?
The lie is the form of tragedy itself. The true horror, Gulag, Holocaust is that they are more tragic than tragedy. Tragedy still presupposes a minimum of dignity.
What dies on the cross is God himself. The catastrophe of the Holocaust was a catastrophe for God himself.
What we know, known knowns, there are known unknowns.
How social groups work We never simply have rules. You obey you’re in, you disobey you’re out. No, if you obey rules, sometimes you’re seen as an idiot. Not simply obey the rules, but to know which rules to violate. The first question you ask yourself, “Is it really prohibted, do it but do it discreetly, or is it really prohibited.” Or the opposite, something is secretly a call to do it, but in a certain way: You are allowed, permitted to do it, a freedom of choice on condition you do not do what you are permitted. Japan in workers can use 40 days of holiday, but they are expected not to use the right in its full extent.
The famous Judith Butler anecdote: You Owe Me No Apology! I used vulgar words. So I saw I did something terribly wrong, and called her later to apologize. Our entire ethical substance hangs on these implicit rule, cannot be normalized or canonized. This is one of the problems of political correctness, it tends to legalize what should function as spontaneous set of rules. The moment you have to do it the battle is already lost. It is obscene to say, “I oppose to rape” and then to give arguments. I want to live in a society where the I don’t have to argue for this.