Slavoj Žižek

cinema pervert art desire

“Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn't give you what you desire - it tells you how to desire.”

― Slavoj Žižek

feel free lack language unfreedom

“We feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.”

― Slavoj Žižek

starving children africa politize money cause poverty

“When we are shown scenes of starving children in Africa, with a call for us to do something to help them, the underlying ideological message is something like: "Don't think, don't politicize, forget about the true causes of their poverty, just act, contribute money, so that you will not have to think!”

― Slavoj Žižek

humanity 99% boring idiots

“Humanity is OK, but 99% of people are boring idiots.”

― Slavoj Žižek

horror communism stalinism bad people things good great

“Because the horror of Communism, Stalinism, is not that bad people do bad things — they always do. It's that good people do horrible things thinking they are doing something great."

― Slavoj Žižek

cloud volcano eruption Iceland aerial traffic standstill

“The fact that a cloud from a minor volcanic eruption in Iceland—a small disturbance in the complex mechanism of life on the Earth—can bring to a standstill the aerial traffic over an entire continent is a reminder of how, with all its power to transform nature, humankind remains just another species on the planet Earth.”

― Slavoj Žižek

fiction illusion reality

“as soon as we renounce fiction and illusion, we lose reality itself; the moment we subtract fictions from reality, reality itself loses its discursive-logical consistency.”

― Slavoj Žižek

attitude corruption Main Street Wall Street system

“Do not blame people and their attitudes: the problem is not corruption or greed, the problem is the system that pushes you to be corrupt. The solution is not, "Main Street, not Wall Street," but to change the system where Main Street cannot function without Wall Street.”

― Slavoj Žižek

boredom creativity authenticity stupidity

“I think boredom is the beginning of every authentic act. (...) Boredom opens up the space, for new engagements. Without boredom, no creativity. If you are not bored, you just stupidly enjoy the situation in which you are.”

― Slavoj Žižek

philosophy answer problem perception

“I think that the task of philosophy is not to provide answers, but to show how the way we perceive a problem can be itself part of a problem.”

― Slavoj Žižek

dreamer nightmare watch system destroy itself

“We’re not dreamers. We’re awaking from a dream turning into a nightmare. We’re not destroying anything. We’re watching the system destroy itself.”

― Slavoj Žižek

socialism joke primitivism slavery domination exploitation

“There is an old joke about socialism as the synthesis of the highest achievements of the whole human history to date: from prehistoric societies it took primitivism; from the Ancient world it took slavery; from medieval society brutal domination; from capitalism exploitation; and from socialism the name..”

― Slavoj Žižek

contrast 1945 US World

“In contrast to the situation in 1945, the world does not need the US; it is the US that needs the rest of the world”

― Slavoj Žižek

ripe circumstances revolution political struggle

“One does not wait for the "ripe" objective circumstances to make a revolution, circumstances become "ripe" through the political struggle itself.”

― Slavoj Žižek

experts servant power think

“Experts are by definition the servants of those in power: they don't really THINK, they just apply their knowledge to problems defined by the powerful.”

― Slavoj Žižek

threat passivity pseudo activity busyness notingness

"The threat today is not passivity, but pseudo-activity, the urge to "be active", to "participate", to mask the Nothingness of what goes on."

― Slavoj Žižek

eat trash ideology

"I already am eating from the trash can all the time. The name of this trash can is ideology. The material force of ideology makes me not see what I am effectively eating."

― Slavoj Žižek

prisoner system dream better

"Often, the worst way to become prisoner of a system is to have a dream that things may turn better, there is always the possibility of change. Because it is precisely this secret dream that keeps you enslaved to the system."

― Slavoj Žižek

thinking ask difficult questions

"Thinking begins when you ask really difficult questions."

― Slavoj Žižek

problem intolerance inequality exploitation injustice struggle

"Why are so many problems today perceived as problems of intolerance, rather than as problems of inequality, exploitation, or injustice? Why is the proposed remedy tolerance, rather than emancipation, political struggle, or even armed struggle?"

― Slavoj Žižek

useless theory today

"We need useless theory more than ever today."

― Slavoj Žižek

human history society personal behavior strongly regulated

"Probably never in human history did we live in a society in which, at the microlevel of personal behavior, our lives were so strongly regulated."

― Slavoj Žižek

liberal democracy socialism human face capitalism marxist

"Liberal democracy - as you know, in the old days, we were saying we want socialism with a human face. Today's left effectively offers global capitalism with a human face, more tolerance, more rights and so on. So the question is, is this enough or not? Here I remain a Marxist: I think not."

― Slavoj Žižek

controlled bad worse

"It's bad if we are controlled, but if we're not, it can be even worse."

― Slavoj Žižek

fear act nothing active cover up

"My big fear is that if I act the way I am, people will notice that there is nothing to see. So I have to be active all the time, covering up."

― Slavoj Žižek

Schwarzenegger governor politician actor

"The problem for me is not that Schwarzenegger is governor, but the extent to which even politicians who are not actors are functioning like actors."

― Slavoj Žižek