We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, April 22, 2013

The dangerous dreams of Slavoj Žižek

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Reflections on a Revolution.

Elements of capitalist indoctrination affect nearly everybody, sadly even those who purport to be on the left. Here the author examines symptoms of authoritarian, elitist type elements that appear in the statements of Žižek. To get it right this time, we must be aware of such reactionary thinking so that we can effectively prevent its insidious influence in our organizing efforts to build a new world.
Žižek’s misplaced tribute to Thatcher and his diatribe against direct democracy reveal the dangerous messianic tendencies of his “radical” philosophy.
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