A good article on this the different way this effects people (from green activists to consumer addictions etc.), although a few years old now, is Rosemary Randall's 'A new climate for psychotherapy'. You can find it to download. We certainly need more complex psychoanalytic thinking on this topic as we are all caught up in it in different ways. Zizek and Morton's 'ecology without nature' is important in helping us to stop and think rather than get caught up in immediate unreflective action.
Of course social practices affect (and exploit, I'm not being naive about this) and are affected by such dynamics, and the three ecologies (mental, social, natural) of Guattari co-effect each other in complex nonlinear ways. Zizek sometimes comes across as identifying 'the common view' on a problem, then arguing the exact opposite. This is an effective didactic tool, making us rethink something in a new way, but once this opening is made it doesnt always help to engage with its true complexity.
I agree. Both co-exist, each plays off the other. In Kleinian psychoanalysis, they relate to the two basic psychological positions from the first year of life. The anxiety of the Paranoid-Schizoid position relates to the more apocalyptic threat of destruction, extinction, annihilation, dissolution in climate change. The Depressive position relates to feelings of guilt, mourning, and loss in ecology. We oscillate between them, PS - D, using a range of defences, from primitive to sophisticated.
I think Zizek is wrong in the fundamental claim that we prefer to be guilty than acknowledge we are helpless. On the contrary, many more people are willing to agree 'we're fucked' (which Mary-Jayne Rust has called yet another defense), than to take responsibility. If its all over we dont have to worry about flying, driving, etc. Both defences (pseudo-activity and 'we're fucked') coexist. These are important issues I explore in detail in my book 'Psychoanalysis and Ecology at the Edge of Chaos'.
@ecopsychoanalysis On the contrary, I think Zizek would agree that people do in fact state that, and possibly believe it, but that isn't the truth. Underneath their belief in their own helplessness, and the illusion of helplessness, lies a real responsibility where guilt lies. And this abstract guilt is what drives the "green" push. Think about it like this, companies aren't doing this for nothing. It appeals to people. They make money from it. If what you say is true, why?
in general i like the was Zizek thinks but i think he is bracking different things: (over)consumerism is (over)consumerism, no matter if you buy ecological or non-ecological, it harms the environment. but if more and more are conscious about their consume (also when they use e.g. electricity, water), it does make at least a little difference.to make a greater one, forces have unit in order to pressure politicians. however, the revolution wave in 2011 begun with 1 person setting himself on fire.
#2 Buying organic apples shows that some people are ready to do, what is said to be useful. Give them concepts, tell them whats useful and there you go. That's pretty much all you can expect as hard as it sounds.
One might not forget that the time needed for buying an organic apple is very little. So it comforts our life with its social parts and professional obligations. But going to work, leading a more or less meaningful social life AND changing one's personality and the whole (understanding of the) world needs a lot of time and a concept, too. That the commercialisation of green-thinking is in any ways misleading and wrong needn't be said.
yes, i think slavoj has a point in that some or most of "green" things you can do are simply painted green. but i think slavoj, as i believe he has said before does not like philanthropy, and i think that saying that because most actions are greenwashed, does not mean that a green capitalist system could not be made. but we shall see i guess :P
A: Green capitalism is the cynical exploitation of our guilt at being unquestioning consumers.
B: We will never stop being unquestioning consumers, not because of social ideology, but because of our natural small-mindedness and laziness.
BUT: some so-called green capitalists are genuinely concerned about the environment, do good work, and need to be supported and not be associated with the same kind of green capitalism as Starbucks.
This guy is smart. He knows how people think. There "has to be" some sort of crisis caused by someone, and people think that they are making a difference by doing something that is meaningless.
i don't know much about ecology,really,and i can see how our guilt for "ruining" nature can be taken advantage of,but i think he is going too far about recycling.if eveybody saved energy and recycled,of course you would make some difference.I think he feels more comfortable in giving up,in having NO RESPOSIBILITY.As Kant says:"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law."
i don't know much about ecology,really,and i can see how our guilt for "ruining" nature can be taken advantage of,but i think he is going too far abour recycling.if eveybody saved energy and recycled,of course you would make some difference.I think he feels more comfortable in giving up,in having NO RESPOSIBILITY.As Kant says:"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law."
@lemivinx Well, we all working together to make a difference wont be possible if we stick to he model. It means that while you save water, Coca Cola stills spending so much in the most unnecesarry products. So, i agree about a possibilty f working as ants and stop global warking, but we must be conscious of the real context we live in. ( I speak spanish, so sorry for the grammar mistakes)
Wars generally lead to inflation, the destruction of money. We don’t honor the biblical principles of honest money. We invite this idea that we can spend endlessly and we can print the money, and literally it undermines the family and undermines the economic system. When you lose a job, it’s harder to keep the family together. - Ron Paul
what this hardline scientist seems to discard completelly are the discoveries of quantum theory which suggestc that we could influence the close and distant matter and energy by our thoughts, emotions and prayer if you like. I like his humor and razor sharp critical mind, though.
I also don't believe people buy organic food simply because they want to do their part in terms of avoiding enviromental degradation, etc. Most people eat organic food for much more self-centered reasons-e.g., keep healthy.
@Praxis71 Their mistake is believing organic is actually healthier or higher in quality. Organic is really now just a branding for the purposes of marketing. Like how Black Angus beef is trendy now, its the same cow, just with a different colour fur.
@Praxis71 Their mistake is believing organic is actually healthier or higher in quality. Organic is really now just a branding for the purposes of marketing. Like how Black Angus beef is trendy now, its the same cow, just with a different colour fur.
I do beleive that organic food is healthier, as it doesn't contain the toxins found in food grown with the use of pesticides, herbacides, etc.. Thus, his question about "who really believes organic food is healthy" has no basis--most people I know understand organic food is healthier.. .
@Praxis71 I understand your point, but are you sure that it doesn't contain toxins? Really no. So Zizek has a point here. In the other hand, some people buy organic because they don't want pesticides infected the environment or populations near production fields. No harmful pesticide is encountered in an apple when you buy it in the supermarket, If you found it, make a complain to get the authorities to remove them from sale.
@Kratzification Please read deeper into what qualifies as organic. Chemicals are allowed on organics to an extent, as long as they come from natural sources. You can spray apples with copper sulfate and sell them as organic, just as long as you got the copper from the right place. It's really BS.
Typical internet idiocy does not belong in the discussion area for a video like this. Agree, disagree, whatever, but I am quite surprised to see how stupid some of the comments are.
Zizek- "pleez Mays I has extra fakes butter ons me popcorn while I enjoy crappy Hollywood films. I am a radical communist enjoying all the benefits of zee capitalism I claim to protest by using franfurt methods of double speak. Vatch me sveat out all the gmo's I consumes while I ramble on about using Less from my expensive hotel. Yes."
@asubjectiveopinion he did a disclaimer beforehand that this was a work in progress, and an extensive Q&A with the live audience afterwards. He does quite a lot of extemporaneous and unread speeches otherwise. I don't think anyone here felt cheated. His ideas, however, are highly assailable.
Anything more advanced than stone age-level development is hyper-consumptive. That said, neither I nor anyone I have ever met really wants to live that way. I think we humans are hard-wired to satisfy our curiosity, to avoid hardship and pain through technology/civilization- no matter the consequences. One intervention against discomfort begets another and we are encountering the inescapable consequences of every maneuver away from that discomfort. We can run, but we can't hide. Oh well.
Using the word "organic" is asinine as well. My shit is organic. Oil is "organic." We need to move away from the buzzwords and talk thrown around the liberal echo chamber and just talk real facts on how we can change the infrastructure here in the USA to make better use of our MASSIVE expanses of arable land, without handing them over to monopolistic companies with a track record of ecological damage and economic bullying. There are less farms in America today than there were in the 1920s....
nice to talk about, but we both know that avoiding that handover is not realistically possible. it's part of the way capitalism functions, as Zizek would say.
not to mention that the organic produce that i have access to is of equal or greater quality (not rotting and old and disgusting like Zizek suggests) than the GMO, pesticide-sprayed stuff.
An insightful and astute look at 'ethical consumerism' and why its a load of BS. Lots of angry comments here though, presumably from people who are butthurt at the suggestion that buying fare-trade-organic-locally-sourced-soil-association-gm-free-100%-recycled groceries wont actually save the planet. Don't buy green, just buy less.
it won't. my reason for buying organic food is mostly self-interested, to be honest. the fact is that i think that pesticides may be extremely harmful and at least in part responsible for a wide range of human health problems. there's some evidence for this already, and i don't see the reason to take the risk. the ecological issue is secondary for me, although i do have some appreciation for it. but i know very well that buying organic food is not going to save the planet.
But the fact that you a are content to pay more for what you are rightfully entitled to anyway (wholesome food that doesn't artificially poison you), proves that you can be pacified sufficiently by this option and not by the removal such foods that poison humans. purchasing organic food without protesting non-organic doesn't make non-organic go away. In fact, it enables it to persistently exist to a point.
@Askancey Indeed. People miss the point entirely that the basis of the actual coherent green movement is infrastructure change (think of post-soviet Cuba and how they turned every square inch of the island that was arable into food production) , a reduction in consumption, and more international cooperation.
intellectual bullshit. no mention of monsanto and others with there poison seeds and pesticides. I'm making a statement? I don't want to be a poisoned asshole.
even if the non organic shit has the same nutrients (which i doubt- being that its more than likely grown in depleted soil) the main plus for organic is being pesticide free. I'd rather not get cancer along with my vitamins. BTW a pill may contain the same amount of nutrients as a piece of fruit, but that doesn't mean your body absorbs it the same way.
@justindr660 "I find the anti-organic food criticism to be heartless "pop" philosophy."
o_O "Heartless"? You know, I'd be really worried if debates about how to solve the problem of feeding humanity were driven by feelings and not rational argument. Not that I have anything in particular against attempting to reduce pesticide use, but there's a reason why "organic"(an idiotic label) food is more expensive. It comes at the cost of lower yields and more work.
i worked on a certified organic farm for four years. if they could make massive amounts of vegetables without chemicals why can't the rest of the world. the only 'chemical' we used was Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil-dwelling bacterium commonly used as a biological alternative to a pesticide.
@cx420ns actually the nutritional value claim was what was the issue and was being debated before. tell me, if organic farming is so efficient why is it so much more expensive than other farming practices? if there is no difference in the yields then why would farmers 'waste' money on pesticides when you claim to be producing food just as effectively as them? oh and where do you get all your fertilisers and manure from?
Mr.Zizek nails the national psyche when it come to guilt and even ballances his argument between the desire to influence everything and doing nothing when it comes to making a political statement through something as simple as shopping. Bravo.
Actually I'm a retired 67 year old hamburger-chugging Pabst Blue Ribbon-swilling fatass cunt; just like the one that tried to raise you and failed..!..
It sounds like you don't even know what intelligence is if you think this shit-for-brains moron is an intellectual! He is simply a social progressive elitist and a slob. Did you enjoy your Kool Aid?
He is making a scientific claim, but the idea of backing up what he is saying with EVIDENCE doesn't even occur to him.
If most people reduced their meat consumption and "went green" it would actually help. It does make a difference. Pile this idiot's garbage in the tired worn out everything-is-an-illusion trash heap. This "philosophical" shtick is really getting old.
I agree with this guy, that attempts to change consumer behavior is no real solution to environmental issues. Until/ unless costs of resource depletion and environmental hazard is internalized for a business, they will be ignored.
also organic food is usually grown locally and breaking down the large industrial farms to more local concentrations eliminating many middle men and their waste. They should also do this with electrical power. Break it down to neighborhood sizes rather than millions of people. I guess decentralization is what i am going for
Although there are many myths surounding organic food it isn't meeningless, at least not in Europe, and it's not so much a fasion statement either. When plants are grown organicly they are planted with other plants that for instance atract ladybirds that eat the greenfly so no pestecide is needed. Pestecideds are dangerous to local inviroments like rivers and often are made from non renuable resurces so are not a long term solution.
This guy should have taken a shower before appearing in front of the audience. I could smell his sweat all the way here so those people in the audience must have been really nauseated. Secondly his neighbors should start dumping their garbage into his backyard, may be that would change his idea about recycling. Hell if I lived next to him, I would start right now. And thirdly, I don’t understand why he is against stuff like fair-trad. All in all go fuck yourself fat guy
When considering inorganic chemistry and life, it is useful to recall that many species in nature are not compounds per se, but are ions. Sodium, chloride, and phosphate ions are essential for life, as are some inorganic molecules such as carbonic acid, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water and oxygen. Aside from these simple ions and molecules, virtually all compounds covered by bioinorganic chemistry contain carbon and can be considered organic or organometallic.
bio food is just the regular food, if you ask me, but the bio sign makes it possible to sell for more money. If there is not bio on it there might be some thing in it that was made in the laboratory. buy a small piece of land for your own garden, save the seeds and you'll be eating bio all the time.
Amusing that after he suggests organic produce is no less healthy than conventional produce he coughs, sneezes, wipes his runny nose several times. I can't buy that argument from such an obviously unhealthy person. Otherwise I like his logic about the kind of symbolic but futile penance involved in green capitalism/consumerism. But he just sounds ignorant suggesting an organic apple is no more healthy than a conventionaly grown apple. Think permaculture vs depleated soil etc.
@AussiePolitics There's often just an absence of some other preservatives. There're also different hidden costs, often including the environmental, economic, and legal externalities.
@Sardonac well the studies I have seen showed no difference at all between the two products where the only variable was whether they were organically grown.
its all very well to talk about it being nice to grow food organically for the environment but if we did so billions of people would starve.
@AussiePolitics Billions of people are already fed by organically grown produce. There's a fair argument to be made that massive American monocultural production is one of the essential causes of the demand for many pesticides/herbicides, as is the non-organic meat industry. As for those studies you mentioned it depends on the product. Many pesticides/preservatives have little to no harmful effect on the body but have a significant environmental effect.
@Sardonac the amount of food able to be produced per hectare has been vastly increased since the days when all farming was done organically. notice I am talking per hectare so it is the direct result of this type of farming not just the machinery which lets you cultivate enormous areas. the earth's population has grown to great to be supplied by organic food anymore. if you forced everyone to farm organically tomorrow then billions would starve.
@AussiePolitics "organic farming" does not mean farming in the manner done a thousand years ago, it means using few-to-no chemical pesticides/herbicides and a more minimalistic approach towards modifying the surrounding environment. These methods have been demonstrated, many times over, to produce higher yields than monoculture. The difference is generally just the amount of direct labour involved. Another consideration is how much arable land would be needed if people ate less meat.
@Sardonac I never said it was done in that manner. note how I emphasised per hectare how much food production has gone up? all things being equal an organic farm will always produce less produce than one using conventional farming methods and from a scientific point of view there is no difference between the nutritional worth of either product.
@AussiePolitics it's not the nutritional worth that's the issue, it's the degradation of the land by using excessive chemicals and not using crop rotation.
I don't think he was actually against it, it was observing what is going on.
There is a good point in there though, you're better off not buying the coffee and donating the whole $5 to a charity rather than 1 cent over 500 coffees. Probably not exactly his point but its worth thinking about.
@alvincay100 Yeah but it'll last a while and it has helped people be more environmental. Think about it like this, does it matter if a celebrity donates to a wildlife preserve for publicity as long as there was a donation made? In my opinion the ends justify the means.
@alvincay100 It is actually quite a bit worse than that. Going green leads to granting more authoritarian power to the govt in the vain hope that it will improve the environment. The more govt power, the worse the environment is defiled. The more extreme socialistic govts have the worst environmental protection. The wealthy, free market nations have the best environmental protection. Why? Because we can afford it. Poor nations are too busy surviving. Green leads to authoritarianism.
@freesk8 That's not true. Sweden, for example, has far better environmental protection than Canada or USA. Environmental protection is a problem of collective action, and thus a fit enterprise for government.
@Sardonac According to the conservative Heritage Foundation, Sweden is the 22nd most free-market nation of the 180 nations it measured. On the spectrum of government control, it is towards the "small government" end of the spectrum, compared to the nations with the worst environmental records like Brazil #113, China #135 and Russia #143 which are near the "big govt" end. Now, to me, the bigger the govt, the more completely implemented the socialism.
@freesk8 That's an inaccurate conception of government. The larger the government the more control it exerts, not the more socialized. China, for example, has an enormous government bureaucracy which works primarily to secure resources internationally, craft cultural messages domestically, and oversee the military. Sweden, on the other hand, has a very pervasive government influence in most walks of life but provides subsidy, healthcare, and tiered bureaucracy to the entire country.
Organic food isn't real, you understand what organic food is, right? A different, healthier method of farming if not.
Every time you choosing anything at the market is the equivalent your vote for the election except IT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD. On some minute level it is influenced because they have more money. If you're gonna take anything away from this, it should be the fact that capitalism ISN'T in favor of environmental sustainability.
@Valoric0 Well, thats good you feel that way. But, in my opinion, capitalism, is really the driving force, in the World today. It's got you and everyone, in there pocket. And if you think you can change that, by what you buy, good luck with that. Let me know how that is working out for you.Tell, me that the next time you put Oil or gas in your Car, or pay your High Heating Bill. Or buy a Banana, that was .$ 015 a Pound, and now $0.70 a Pound. Now tell me again about, environmental stainability.
Then you've thrown in the towel and are holding hands with the murderers. Capitalism is INCOMPLETE, it does not account for corruptibility nor would anyone say that since talking ill of it is taboo...
I know you're using whats within your scope but know this, people around the world are saying NO to fossil fuels when they get their chance by changing to solar heating/power. People want change & saying its not worth fighting for is BULL! SHIT! You want a starvation extinction?
It's interesting that both top comments are self important rants.
kokopelli314 1 week ago
@kokopelli314 Get the fuck out of here.
jenius124 6 days ago
this guy is a communist moron!
halflifeproductionz 2 weeks ago
A good article on this the different way this effects people (from green activists to consumer addictions etc.), although a few years old now, is Rosemary Randall's 'A new climate for psychotherapy'. You can find it to download. We certainly need more complex psychoanalytic thinking on this topic as we are all caught up in it in different ways. Zizek and Morton's 'ecology without nature' is important in helping us to stop and think rather than get caught up in immediate unreflective action.
ecopsychoanalysis 1 month ago
Of course social practices affect (and exploit, I'm not being naive about this) and are affected by such dynamics, and the three ecologies (mental, social, natural) of Guattari co-effect each other in complex nonlinear ways. Zizek sometimes comes across as identifying 'the common view' on a problem, then arguing the exact opposite. This is an effective didactic tool, making us rethink something in a new way, but once this opening is made it doesnt always help to engage with its true complexity.
ecopsychoanalysis 1 month ago
I agree. Both co-exist, each plays off the other. In Kleinian psychoanalysis, they relate to the two basic psychological positions from the first year of life. The anxiety of the Paranoid-Schizoid position relates to the more apocalyptic threat of destruction, extinction, annihilation, dissolution in climate change. The Depressive position relates to feelings of guilt, mourning, and loss in ecology. We oscillate between them, PS - D, using a range of defences, from primitive to sophisticated.
ecopsychoanalysis 1 month ago
I think Zizek is wrong in the fundamental claim that we prefer to be guilty than acknowledge we are helpless. On the contrary, many more people are willing to agree 'we're fucked' (which Mary-Jayne Rust has called yet another defense), than to take responsibility. If its all over we dont have to worry about flying, driving, etc. Both defences (pseudo-activity and 'we're fucked') coexist. These are important issues I explore in detail in my book 'Psychoanalysis and Ecology at the Edge of Chaos'.
ecopsychoanalysis 1 month ago
@ecopsychoanalysis On the contrary, I think Zizek would agree that people do in fact state that, and possibly believe it, but that isn't the truth. Underneath their belief in their own helplessness, and the illusion of helplessness, lies a real responsibility where guilt lies. And this abstract guilt is what drives the "green" push. Think about it like this, companies aren't doing this for nothing. It appeals to people. They make money from it. If what you say is true, why?
dezmodium 1 month ago
in general i like the was Zizek thinks but i think he is bracking different things: (over)consumerism is (over)consumerism, no matter if you buy ecological or non-ecological, it harms the environment. but if more and more are conscious about their consume (also when they use e.g. electricity, water), it does make at least a little difference.to make a greater one, forces have unit in order to pressure politicians. however, the revolution wave in 2011 begun with 1 person setting himself on fire.
sideroredis 1 month ago
#2 Buying organic apples shows that some people are ready to do, what is said to be useful. Give them concepts, tell them whats useful and there you go. That's pretty much all you can expect as hard as it sounds.
shimunism 1 month ago
One might not forget that the time needed for buying an organic apple is very little. So it comforts our life with its social parts and professional obligations. But going to work, leading a more or less meaningful social life AND changing one's personality and the whole (understanding of the) world needs a lot of time and a concept, too. That the commercialisation of green-thinking is in any ways misleading and wrong needn't be said.
shimunism 1 month ago
yes, i think slavoj has a point in that some or most of "green" things you can do are simply painted green. but i think slavoj, as i believe he has said before does not like philanthropy, and i think that saying that because most actions are greenwashed, does not mean that a green capitalist system could not be made. but we shall see i guess :P
equalityrules33 2 months ago 2
A: Green capitalism is the cynical exploitation of our guilt at being unquestioning consumers.
B: We will never stop being unquestioning consumers, not because of social ideology, but because of our natural small-mindedness and laziness.
BUT: some so-called green capitalists are genuinely concerned about the environment, do good work, and need to be supported and not be associated with the same kind of green capitalism as Starbucks.
darwinsfinches 2 months ago
This guy is smart. He knows how people think. There "has to be" some sort of crisis caused by someone, and people think that they are making a difference by doing something that is meaningless.
pnorris117 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
i don't know much about ecology,really,and i can see how our guilt for "ruining" nature can be taken advantage of,but i think he is going too far about recycling.if eveybody saved energy and recycled,of course you would make some difference.I think he feels more comfortable in giving up,in having NO RESPOSIBILITY.As Kant says:"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law."
lemivinx 3 months ago
i don't know much about ecology,really,and i can see how our guilt for "ruining" nature can be taken advantage of,but i think he is going too far abour recycling.if eveybody saved energy and recycled,of course you would make some difference.I think he feels more comfortable in giving up,in having NO RESPOSIBILITY.As Kant says:"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law."
lemivinx 3 months ago 3
@lemivinx Well, we all working together to make a difference wont be possible if we stick to he model. It means that while you save water, Coca Cola stills spending so much in the most unnecesarry products. So, i agree about a possibilty f working as ants and stop global warking, but we must be conscious of the real context we live in. ( I speak spanish, so sorry for the grammar mistakes)
syvargasv 2 months ago
What irony, this video was preceded by a commercial for a small "green" car from Mitsubishi.
banjopanther 3 months ago 3
"Organized Crime in Charge of EU Carbon Trade, Europol Says" - EUXTV
/watch?v=oL-e33oaI94&feature=channel_video_title
CRAPCANNONS 3 months ago
He touched his nose 25 times xD , enyway i think he has the point.
xtremebikeryder 4 months ago
Comment removed
xtremebikeryder 4 months ago
Wars generally lead to inflation, the destruction of money. We don’t honor the biblical principles of honest money. We invite this idea that we can spend endlessly and we can print the money, and literally it undermines the family and undermines the economic system. When you lose a job, it’s harder to keep the family together. - Ron Paul
econogate 4 months ago
what this hardline scientist seems to discard completelly are the discoveries of quantum theory which suggestc that we could influence the close and distant matter and energy by our thoughts, emotions and prayer if you like. I like his humor and razor sharp critical mind, though.
nangpala 4 months ago
we are reducing our guild when we buy natural food.
smallpotatoes989 5 months ago
I also don't believe people buy organic food simply because they want to do their part in terms of avoiding enviromental degradation, etc. Most people eat organic food for much more self-centered reasons-e.g., keep healthy.
Praxis71 6 months ago
@Praxis71 Their mistake is believing organic is actually healthier or higher in quality. Organic is really now just a branding for the purposes of marketing. Like how Black Angus beef is trendy now, its the same cow, just with a different colour fur.
tom360 5 months ago
@Praxis71 Their mistake is believing organic is actually healthier or higher in quality. Organic is really now just a branding for the purposes of marketing. Like how Black Angus beef is trendy now, its the same cow, just with a different colour fur.
tom360 5 months ago
I do beleive that organic food is healthier, as it doesn't contain the toxins found in food grown with the use of pesticides, herbacides, etc.. Thus, his question about "who really believes organic food is healthy" has no basis--most people I know understand organic food is healthier.. .
Praxis71 6 months ago
@Praxis71 I understand your point, but are you sure that it doesn't contain toxins? Really no. So Zizek has a point here. In the other hand, some people buy organic because they don't want pesticides infected the environment or populations near production fields. No harmful pesticide is encountered in an apple when you buy it in the supermarket, If you found it, make a complain to get the authorities to remove them from sale.
quierover1234 5 months ago
maybe he should try to eat an organic apple.. or just eat a normal one for once?
What he sais is so true..
Organic / Biological foods are 100% watched over here by the EU,
there are no chemicals and stuff to grow it faster / bigger..
so yeah..
its healthier!
and we dont poison the waters
so yeah, its nor for the earth.. but just for my own body.
its more tasteful :)
Kratzification 6 months ago
@Kratzification I forgot the BUT after "what he sais is so true"
Kratzification 6 months ago
@Kratzification Please read deeper into what qualifies as organic. Chemicals are allowed on organics to an extent, as long as they come from natural sources. You can spray apples with copper sulfate and sell them as organic, just as long as you got the copper from the right place. It's really BS.
tom360 5 months ago
Typical internet idiocy does not belong in the discussion area for a video like this. Agree, disagree, whatever, but I am quite surprised to see how stupid some of the comments are.
LudicLorenzo 6 months ago 13
This has been flagged as spam show
@LudicLorenzo
I am offereing 1.000.000 of my CAPITALISTIC euros to whoeevr is able to explain how Marxist/communist ideas can be realised
WITHOUT ending in
1) TERROR, DICTATORSHIP, UN-FREEDOM, but in FREEDOM
2) POVERTY; FAMINES; IN-EFFICIENCY, but in PROSPERITY.
I wopuld even pay another 100.000, if anybody were able to point out to ONE example of where communism/leftist agenda ever worked.
joaquinveyron 2 months ago
Lot's of people are really butthurt.
skankingrhythmics 7 months ago
Christian atheist. Haha!
Reminded me of Vattimo.
PurpleWarlock 7 months ago
not the best public speaker
trevorbrak3 7 months ago
I got nothing out of this entire speech.
45means45 7 months ago
@45means45 I got nothing out of your comment.
SolusNimbus 7 months ago
Zizek- "pleez Mays I has extra fakes butter ons me popcorn while I enjoy crappy Hollywood films. I am a radical communist enjoying all the benefits of zee capitalism I claim to protest by using franfurt methods of double speak. Vatch me sveat out all the gmo's I consumes while I ramble on about using Less from my expensive hotel. Yes."
ApocalypticDevotee 7 months ago
@ApocalypticDevotee It's difficult to imagine a more facile and depressingly retarded comment.
Tfrne 7 months ago
@Tfrne
Don't bother responding, he will probably just claim your a JEEEWWW!!!!!
56kagogo 6 months ago
@ApocalypticDevotee
Watch me bitch about the jews, tv, and modernism via the latest conduit of popular culture.
56kagogo 6 months ago
Zizek is a fucking delusional marxist.
Those who listen to him are ignorant irrational idiots.
BrettDunbar 7 months ago
@BrettDunbar
so why are you listening to him then...you ignorant irrational swig of pig bile?
novaflo339 7 months ago
@BrettDunbar So tell me, what have you done to contribute our world? Making stupid comments on YouTube doesn't count.
SolusNimbus 7 months ago
When I watch him,I'm always afraid,he has a heart attack.And he's restless arms,wet T-shirts...
beabica1 7 months ago
danm i love listening to stuff like this
daxxx6 7 months ago
glede na svojo izobrazbo bi lahko malo boljše govoril angleško
miropasco 7 months ago
@miropasco Jaz nisem zapazil kakšnih posebnih slovničih napak, naglas pa nima nikakršne veze z 'izobrazbo'.
TheSpiritOfTheTimes 7 months ago
Brilliant just Brilliant...
jcptexas9 7 months ago
His ideas are great, but his hands really should to be duck-taped to the podium.
zmcg 7 months ago
@zmcg lol haha.
lajungesombre 7 months ago
@zmcg your face should be duct-taped to my dick.
novaflo339 7 months ago 3
@Beicon55
Obviously?
asubjectiveopinion 7 months ago
This is such an amazing point.
fusEldar 7 months ago
its a nervous tick you fucking morons- you dont deserve to hear him speak if you can be so deaf to his wisdom.
svenso777 8 months ago 62
@svenso777 that's stupid you make us Zizek lovers look like a sect.
sqccccccccc 1 month ago
What is the point of appearing live only to read from a piece of paper and not engage with the audience.
This is not discourse, it is a performance.
asubjectiveopinion 8 months ago
@asubjectiveopinion he did a disclaimer beforehand that this was a work in progress, and an extensive Q&A with the live audience afterwards. He does quite a lot of extemporaneous and unread speeches otherwise. I don't think anyone here felt cheated. His ideas, however, are highly assailable.
SPKaa 8 months ago
@asubjectiveopinion
this is an academic speech.
fbaraglia 7 months ago
@fbaraglia
It is an exercise in intellectual and social vanity.
asubjectiveopinion 7 months ago
when does he shut up and start playing that piano?
freakyfadge 8 months ago
lol at 2:31
agents1986 9 months ago
Anything more advanced than stone age-level development is hyper-consumptive. That said, neither I nor anyone I have ever met really wants to live that way. I think we humans are hard-wired to satisfy our curiosity, to avoid hardship and pain through technology/civilization- no matter the consequences. One intervention against discomfort begets another and we are encountering the inescapable consequences of every maneuver away from that discomfort. We can run, but we can't hide. Oh well.
dontpanicjack 9 months ago
Using the word "organic" is asinine as well. My shit is organic. Oil is "organic." We need to move away from the buzzwords and talk thrown around the liberal echo chamber and just talk real facts on how we can change the infrastructure here in the USA to make better use of our MASSIVE expanses of arable land, without handing them over to monopolistic companies with a track record of ecological damage and economic bullying. There are less farms in America today than there were in the 1920s....
halalbackgirl 9 months ago
@halalbackgirl
nice to talk about, but we both know that avoiding that handover is not realistically possible. it's part of the way capitalism functions, as Zizek would say.
pazomblez 9 months ago
@halalbackgirl - Well said.
dink65 8 months ago
not to mention that the organic produce that i have access to is of equal or greater quality (not rotting and old and disgusting like Zizek suggests) than the GMO, pesticide-sprayed stuff.
pazomblez 9 months ago
This video was preceded by a McDonalds advert encouraging people to find an 'extra dollar' so they can buy a two dollar cheeseburger. So appropriate.
foxoftrot 9 months ago
An insightful and astute look at 'ethical consumerism' and why its a load of BS. Lots of angry comments here though, presumably from people who are butthurt at the suggestion that buying fare-trade-organic-locally-sourced-soil-association-gm-free-100%-recycled groceries wont actually save the planet. Don't buy green, just buy less.
Askancey 9 months ago
@Askancey
it won't. my reason for buying organic food is mostly self-interested, to be honest. the fact is that i think that pesticides may be extremely harmful and at least in part responsible for a wide range of human health problems. there's some evidence for this already, and i don't see the reason to take the risk. the ecological issue is secondary for me, although i do have some appreciation for it. but i know very well that buying organic food is not going to save the planet.
pazomblez 9 months ago 2
Comment removed
Trickee360 9 months ago
@pazomblez
But the fact that you a are content to pay more for what you are rightfully entitled to anyway (wholesome food that doesn't artificially poison you), proves that you can be pacified sufficiently by this option and not by the removal such foods that poison humans. purchasing organic food without protesting non-organic doesn't make non-organic go away. In fact, it enables it to persistently exist to a point.
Trickee360 9 months ago
@Trickee360
uh huh... who said anything about not resisting?
pazomblez 9 months ago
@Askancey Indeed. People miss the point entirely that the basis of the actual coherent green movement is infrastructure change (think of post-soviet Cuba and how they turned every square inch of the island that was arable into food production) , a reduction in consumption, and more international cooperation.
halalbackgirl 9 months ago
intellectual bullshit. no mention of monsanto and others with there poison seeds and pesticides. I'm making a statement? I don't want to be a poisoned asshole.
mrautograt 9 months ago
even if the non organic shit has the same nutrients (which i doubt- being that its more than likely grown in depleted soil) the main plus for organic is being pesticide free. I'd rather not get cancer along with my vitamins. BTW a pill may contain the same amount of nutrients as a piece of fruit, but that doesn't mean your body absorbs it the same way.
paranoidjones 10 months ago
i know i feel terrible about my ethical choices when i buy local, grass-fed meats and non-gmo vegetables.
i've seen the light! i'll be sure to listen to fat, unhealthy eastern europeans more often.
Moonstruckwtf 10 months ago
My my!
richardnsalvador 10 months ago
I find the anti-organic food criticism to be heartless "pop" philosophy.
justindr660 10 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@justindr660 "I find the anti-organic food criticism to be heartless "pop" philosophy."
o_O "Heartless"? You know, I'd be really worried if debates about how to solve the problem of feeding humanity were driven by feelings and not rational argument. Not that I have anything in particular against attempting to reduce pesticide use, but there's a reason why "organic"(an idiotic label) food is more expensive. It comes at the cost of lower yields and more work.
Gnomefro 9 months ago
Every time I hear him speak I wonder how much coke he does.
frankbass1 10 months ago 4
@frankbass1
It doesnt help that he's going for his nose like every 7 to 10 seconds either LMAO
nmybox 9 months ago
@frankbass1 - That's why the video is only 4 minutes. He was probably doing blow immediately before and after. LOL!
dink65 8 months ago
@frankbass1 none, trust me, I know him. He is just completely he in his selfness!
nothke 8 months ago 3
This guy is clearly a paragon of human heath and wellbeing.
ArcaneKarma 10 months ago 14
@ArcaneKarma lol.
wildreams 10 months ago
@ArcaneKarma a paragon... bah no, no hes a slovenian
svord000 6 months ago 2
@ArcaneKarma Thats sort of his point, you don't need to be
HToothrot 4 months ago
i worked on a certified organic farm for four years. if they could make massive amounts of vegetables without chemicals why can't the rest of the world. the only 'chemical' we used was Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil-dwelling bacterium commonly used as a biological alternative to a pesticide.
cx420ns 10 months ago
@cx420ns actually the nutritional value claim was what was the issue and was being debated before. tell me, if organic farming is so efficient why is it so much more expensive than other farming practices? if there is no difference in the yields then why would farmers 'waste' money on pesticides when you claim to be producing food just as effectively as them? oh and where do you get all your fertilisers and manure from?
AussiePolitics 10 months ago
Oxymoron of the day: Consumer activism.
PLOttawa 10 months ago
i just wanna give this man a big handshake
Junitaco 10 months ago
"The Zeitgeist Movement"
QuantumGh0st 10 months ago 4
Reminds me of George Carlin when he talks about "saving the planet".
blackiron60 10 months ago
TVP
AgeOfScience 10 months ago
It's all fashion, fad, and futile. We either have a government that works--ecologically, or we are fucked.
Hence, we are fucked.
JejuLee 10 months ago
A man with some sense.....Finally
hqlion 10 months ago
Mr.Zizek nails the national psyche when it come to guilt and even ballances his argument between the desire to influence everything and doing nothing when it comes to making a political statement through something as simple as shopping. Bravo.
GOPsithlord 10 months ago
someone give this poor man a hankerchief!
frankroto 10 months ago
Zizek for the win!
pulsatingremedy 10 months ago
2:32 "Frantic obsessive activities" alright...
tabber87 10 months ago 2
Give the man some Kleenex and a bath!
MsWanderer1 10 months ago 3
@MsWanderer1
Give yourself a tampon.
GnomesAmok 10 months ago
@GnomesAmok
I take it this guy is your type!
MsWanderer1 10 months ago
@MsWanderer1
I take it your a hamburger-chugging Pabst Blue Ribbon-swilling fatass cunt.
GnomesAmok 10 months ago
@GnomesAmok
DO I KNOW YOU? :-)
Actually I'm a retired 67 year old hamburger-chugging Pabst Blue Ribbon-swilling fatass cunt; just like the one that tried to raise you and failed..!..
MsWanderer1 10 months ago
@MsWanderer1
It sounds like you are intellectually unable to keep up with Zizek!
pulsatingremedy 10 months ago
@pulsatingremedy
It sounds like you don't even know what intelligence is if you think this shit-for-brains moron is an intellectual! He is simply a social progressive elitist and a slob. Did you enjoy your Kool Aid?
MsWanderer1 10 months ago
@MsWanderer1
Oh you're just a troll. NVM.
pulsatingremedy 10 months ago
@MsWanderer1
Hahaha, the senile Glen Beckian is calling Zizek a "shit for brains". Oh what a world.
GnomesAmok 10 months ago 3
"frantic obsessive activities" -- good observation
nothingnesswithouten 10 months ago
Why do ppl still take commies seriously?
TheProgressistViewer 10 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@TheProgressistViewer
Same reason nobody takes you seriously
GnomesAmok 10 months ago
2:30 Likes cocaine?
specialmike140 10 months ago
He is making a scientific claim, but the idea of backing up what he is saying with EVIDENCE doesn't even occur to him.
If most people reduced their meat consumption and "went green" it would actually help. It does make a difference. Pile this idiot's garbage in the tired worn out everything-is-an-illusion trash heap. This "philosophical" shtick is really getting old.
mathforphysics 10 months ago
I agree with this guy, that attempts to change consumer behavior is no real solution to environmental issues. Until/ unless costs of resource depletion and environmental hazard is internalized for a business, they will be ignored.
etzel33 10 months ago
i think that bio food is what hes aiming for. food is organic, but the bio bullshit is, well, bullshit.
myndwork 10 months ago
also organic food is usually grown locally and breaking down the large industrial farms to more local concentrations eliminating many middle men and their waste. They should also do this with electrical power. Break it down to neighborhood sizes rather than millions of people. I guess decentralization is what i am going for
cmsalvagio 10 months ago
Although there are many myths surounding organic food it isn't meeningless, at least not in Europe, and it's not so much a fasion statement either. When plants are grown organicly they are planted with other plants that for instance atract ladybirds that eat the greenfly so no pestecide is needed. Pestecideds are dangerous to local inviroments like rivers and often are made from non renuable resurces so are not a long term solution.
Steinerrite 10 months ago
thuffering thuca-tash!!!
FOBmzunguREPTILICUS 10 months ago
This guy should have taken a shower before appearing in front of the audience. I could smell his sweat all the way here so those people in the audience must have been really nauseated. Secondly his neighbors should start dumping their garbage into his backyard, may be that would change his idea about recycling. Hell if I lived next to him, I would start right now. And thirdly, I don’t understand why he is against stuff like fair-trad. All in all go fuck yourself fat guy
Vrchni 10 months ago
@Vrchni classy
androydnyc 10 months ago
When considering inorganic chemistry and life, it is useful to recall that many species in nature are not compounds per se, but are ions. Sodium, chloride, and phosphate ions are essential for life, as are some inorganic molecules such as carbonic acid, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water and oxygen. Aside from these simple ions and molecules, virtually all compounds covered by bioinorganic chemistry contain carbon and can be considered organic or organometallic.
slowmopoke 10 months ago
I just wasted 4:06 seconds of my life watching this professional bullshit artist.
mathforphysics 10 months ago
@mathforphysics Still, there's something oddly amusing about his coke-fueled bullshit.
r22k10 10 months ago
Agree
melrobRTF 10 months ago
LOL his thumbs are fake and he's snorting cocaine from them at 2:33
Sadochrist 10 months ago 3
...Was kind of hoping that this guy was at least an economist, not just a theorist-philosopher. -_-
whoo689 10 months ago
@whoo689 There are many times when an economist speaks and I wish he was more than merely an economist, like a philosopher or a critical theorist.
eydos 10 months ago
youtube didnt' use to have so many ads.....
pratsha45 10 months ago
bio food is just the regular food, if you ask me, but the bio sign makes it possible to sell for more money. If there is not bio on it there might be some thing in it that was made in the laboratory. buy a small piece of land for your own garden, save the seeds and you'll be eating bio all the time.
aandreya 10 months ago
OMJ i love this cat! i just watched one of his documentaries!
DBrownofdc 10 months ago
"Organized Crime in Charge of EU Carbon Trade, Europol Says"
/watch?v=oL-e33oaI94&feature=channel_video_title
CRAPCANNONS 10 months ago
I'm pretty sure Zizek has some kind of problem with cocaine or a very bad allergic disease.
AlchemyFC 10 months ago
@AlchemyFC he is european.....
greenghost2008 10 months ago
@greenghost2008 That explain everything, jajajajajaj. Saludos.
AlchemyFC 10 months ago
lol Zizek is the best, he always hilariously cuts to the truth; always amazing social commentary
oihhow 10 months ago
Zizek is a marxist. It is therefore not surprising he hates anything to do with capitalism.
BTinHD 10 months ago
Blah, blah... Goes the guy with two plastic bottles of water on the table
eugimon 10 months ago
GIVE HIM A HANDKERCHIEF
welkinator 10 months ago 3
@welkinator He's using his phlegm as an environmentally correct hair mousse.
freesk8 10 months ago 4
Amusing that after he suggests organic produce is no less healthy than conventional produce he coughs, sneezes, wipes his runny nose several times. I can't buy that argument from such an obviously unhealthy person. Otherwise I like his logic about the kind of symbolic but futile penance involved in green capitalism/consumerism. But he just sounds ignorant suggesting an organic apple is no more healthy than a conventionaly grown apple. Think permaculture vs depleated soil etc.
knsummers 10 months ago
@knsummers well technically he's completely correct. there is no more nutrition in an organic apple than in normal ones.
AussiePolitics 10 months ago
@AussiePolitics There's often just an absence of some other preservatives. There're also different hidden costs, often including the environmental, economic, and legal externalities.
Sardonac 10 months ago
@Sardonac well the studies I have seen showed no difference at all between the two products where the only variable was whether they were organically grown.
its all very well to talk about it being nice to grow food organically for the environment but if we did so billions of people would starve.
AussiePolitics 10 months ago
@AussiePolitics Billions of people are already fed by organically grown produce. There's a fair argument to be made that massive American monocultural production is one of the essential causes of the demand for many pesticides/herbicides, as is the non-organic meat industry. As for those studies you mentioned it depends on the product. Many pesticides/preservatives have little to no harmful effect on the body but have a significant environmental effect.
Sardonac 10 months ago
@Sardonac the amount of food able to be produced per hectare has been vastly increased since the days when all farming was done organically. notice I am talking per hectare so it is the direct result of this type of farming not just the machinery which lets you cultivate enormous areas. the earth's population has grown to great to be supplied by organic food anymore. if you forced everyone to farm organically tomorrow then billions would starve.
AussiePolitics 10 months ago
@AussiePolitics "organic farming" does not mean farming in the manner done a thousand years ago, it means using few-to-no chemical pesticides/herbicides and a more minimalistic approach towards modifying the surrounding environment. These methods have been demonstrated, many times over, to produce higher yields than monoculture. The difference is generally just the amount of direct labour involved. Another consideration is how much arable land would be needed if people ate less meat.
Sardonac 10 months ago
@Sardonac I never said it was done in that manner. note how I emphasised per hectare how much food production has gone up? all things being equal an organic farm will always produce less produce than one using conventional farming methods and from a scientific point of view there is no difference between the nutritional worth of either product.
AussiePolitics 10 months ago
@AussiePolitics it's not the nutritional worth that's the issue, it's the degradation of the land by using excessive chemicals and not using crop rotation.
cx420ns 10 months ago
@Sardonac
Yeah, but what kind of crazed psychopath woild want to eat less meat?
WarVideo 10 months ago
I don't think he was actually against it, it was observing what is going on.
There is a good point in there though, you're better off not buying the coffee and donating the whole $5 to a charity rather than 1 cent over 500 coffees. Probably not exactly his point but its worth thinking about.
Philosification 10 months ago
Going green is mostly a fashion statement at this point.
alvincay100 10 months ago 33
@alvincay100 Yeah but it'll last a while and it has helped people be more environmental. Think about it like this, does it matter if a celebrity donates to a wildlife preserve for publicity as long as there was a donation made? In my opinion the ends justify the means.
SirFakeName 10 months ago
@alvincay100 It is actually quite a bit worse than that. Going green leads to granting more authoritarian power to the govt in the vain hope that it will improve the environment. The more govt power, the worse the environment is defiled. The more extreme socialistic govts have the worst environmental protection. The wealthy, free market nations have the best environmental protection. Why? Because we can afford it. Poor nations are too busy surviving. Green leads to authoritarianism.
freesk8 10 months ago
@freesk8 That's not true. Sweden, for example, has far better environmental protection than Canada or USA. Environmental protection is a problem of collective action, and thus a fit enterprise for government.
Sardonac 10 months ago
@Sardonac According to the conservative Heritage Foundation, Sweden is the 22nd most free-market nation of the 180 nations it measured. On the spectrum of government control, it is towards the "small government" end of the spectrum, compared to the nations with the worst environmental records like Brazil #113, China #135 and Russia #143 which are near the "big govt" end. Now, to me, the bigger the govt, the more completely implemented the socialism.
freesk8 10 months ago
@freesk8 That's an inaccurate conception of government. The larger the government the more control it exerts, not the more socialized. China, for example, has an enormous government bureaucracy which works primarily to secure resources internationally, craft cultural messages domestically, and oversee the military. Sweden, on the other hand, has a very pervasive government influence in most walks of life but provides subsidy, healthcare, and tiered bureaucracy to the entire country.
Sardonac 10 months ago
Maybe if I was high, I could see the logic hidden in this snot fest of a video.
LibertyDownUnder 10 months ago 3
He seems to be implying that it is futile. I don't agree. It isn't astoundingly effective, but it isn't pointless.
LicoriceLain 10 months ago
I wonder where he gets the organinc cocain from...
slonamu 10 months ago 5
he seems to like the cocaine
nomrrc 10 months ago
Organic Food, no such thing. Just like god..
gettingolder2 10 months ago 25
@gettingolder2
Organic food isn't real, you understand what organic food is, right? A different, healthier method of farming if not.
Every time you choosing anything at the market is the equivalent your vote for the election except IT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD. On some minute level it is influenced because they have more money. If you're gonna take anything away from this, it should be the fact that capitalism ISN'T in favor of environmental sustainability.
Valoric0 10 months ago
@Valoric0 Well, thats good you feel that way. But, in my opinion, capitalism, is really the driving force, in the World today. It's got you and everyone, in there pocket. And if you think you can change that, by what you buy, good luck with that. Let me know how that is working out for you.Tell, me that the next time you put Oil or gas in your Car, or pay your High Heating Bill. Or buy a Banana, that was .$ 015 a Pound, and now $0.70 a Pound. Now tell me again about, environmental stainability.
gettingolder2 10 months ago
@gettingolder2
Then you've thrown in the towel and are holding hands with the murderers. Capitalism is INCOMPLETE, it does not account for corruptibility nor would anyone say that since talking ill of it is taboo...
I know you're using whats within your scope but know this, people around the world are saying NO to fossil fuels when they get their chance by changing to solar heating/power. People want change & saying its not worth fighting for is BULL! SHIT! You want a starvation extinction?
Valoric0 10 months ago