Slavoj Žižek - A Left that Dares to Speak Its Name

1 Cover

2 Front Matter A Left that Dares to Speak Its Name Untimely Interventions Slavoj Žižek polity

3 Introduction: From the Communist Standpoint Notes

4 The Global Mess 1 200 Years After: Is Marx Alive, Dead, or a Living Dead? Notes 2 Why Secondary Contradictions Matter: A Maoist View 3 Nomadic Proletarians Notes 4 Should the Left’s Answer to Rightist Populism Really Be a “Me Too”? Notes 5 When Unfreedom Itself Is Experienced as Freedom Notes 6 Only Autistic Children Can Save Us! Notes 7 They Are Both Worse! Notes 8 A Desperate Call for (T)Reason Notes

5 The West … 9 Democratic Socialism and Its Discontents Notes 10 Is Donald Trump a Frog Embracing a Bottle of Beer? Notes 11 Better Dead than Red! Notes 12 “There Is Disorder Under Heaven, the Situation Is Excellent” 13 Soyons Réalistes, Demandons l’Impossible! Notes 14 Catalonia and the End of Europe 15 Which Idea of Europe Is Worth Defending? Notes 16 The Right to Tell the Public Bad News

6 … And the Rest 17 It’s the Same Struggle, Dummy! Notes 18 The Real Anti-Semites and Their Zionist Friends Notes 19 Yes, Racism Is Alive and Well! Notes 20 What Is To Be Done When Our Cupola Is Leaking? Notes 21 Is China Communist or Capitalist? Notes 22 Venezuela and the Need for New Clichés Notes 23 Welcome to the True New World Order! 24 A True Miracle in Bosnia

7 Ideology 25 For Active Solidarity, Against Guilt and Self-Reproach Notes 26 Sherbsky Institute, APA Notes 27 Welcome to the Brave New World of Consenticorns! Notes 28 Do Sexbots Have Rights? Notes 29 Nipples, Penis, Vulva … and Maybe Shit Notes 30 Cuaron’s Roma: The Trap of Goodness 31 Happiness? No, Thanks! Notes 32 Assange Has Only Us to Help Him! Notes

8 Appendix 33 Is Avital Ronell Really Toxic?Yes, it’s really about power! Two general concluding remarks on the Ronell case 34 Jordan Peterson as a Symptom … of What?The art of lying with truth A reply to my critics A concluding note on my debate with Peterson Notes

9 End User License Agreement

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To Alain Badiou, my absolute friend.

Slavoj Žižek

polity

Copyright © Slavoj Žižek 2020

The right of Slavoj Žižek to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2020 by Polity Press

Polity Press

65 Bridge Street

Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press

101 Station Landing

Suite 300

Medford, MA 02155, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4119-5

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Žižek, Slavoj, author.

Title: A left that dares to speak its name : 34 untimely interventions / Slavoj Žižek.

Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: “With irrepressible humour Slavoj Žižek dissects our current political and social climate, discussing everything from Jordan Peterson and sex ‘unicorns’ to Greta Thunberg and Chairman Mao. This is Žižek’s attempt to elucidate the major political issues of the day from a truly radical left position”-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019027646 (print) | LCCN 2019027647 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509541171 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509541188 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509541195 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Right and left (Political science) | Communism. | Social history--21st century. | World politics--21st century.