Žižek on Intellectuals Left & Right
2009 June 16
Ol’ Slavoj doesn’t really exempt anyone from his scorn, does he? From The Plague of Fantasies:
“In short, the right-wing intellectual is a knave, a conformist who refers to the mere existence of the given order as an argument for it, and mocks the Left on account of its ‘utopian’ plans, which necessarily lead to catastrophe; while the left-wing intellectual is a fool, a court jester who publicly displays the lie of the existing order, but in a way which suspends the performative efficiency of his speech.”
You can almost envision any number of talking heads from television instantiating these roles.
I wonder who it is that Zizek is criticizing (names), and where he places himself in that scheme, a knave or a fool? A court jester or a conformist?
I’m guessing he might place himself on the fool/court jester end of the spectrum given his political leanings – he’s actually building off of a quote from Jacques Lacan and does not name any specific figures in the intelligentsia or the media.
I was wondering if Zizek thought himself above the fray.
From what I’ve read of him elsewhere, I do not believe he exempts himself from his analysis of things. He’s been very critical of some components of the “Left” in the past as well, so while he does have ideological positions, he almost never acts as an apologist for his political fellow-travelers.
Right now I’m reading Thomas Sowell’s “The Housing Crisis” and I’m definitely seeing some utopian plans that have led to disaster.
Way to go Barney Frank.
So Brooks, is Sowell “a knave, a conformist who refers to the mere existence of the given order as an argument for it”?
Guess so!