Žižek at Occupy Wall Street, part 1/3

Slavoj Žižek speaks in Liberty Square, 10/9/11. No mics are allowed; full transcript: http://carlygsdrafts.wordpress.com/20... Rough transcript of part 1 follows.

"[...They are saying] we are all losers, but the true losers are down there on Wall Street. They were bailed out by billions of our money. We are called socialists, but here there is already socialism -- for the rich. They say we don't respect private property. But in the 2008 financial crash-down more hard-earned private property was destroyed than if all of us here were to be destroying it night and day for weeks. They tell you we are dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are. We are not dreamers; we are awakening from the dream that is turning into a nightmare. We are not destroying anything; we are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself. We all know [inaudible] from cartoons. The cat reaches a precipice, but it goes on walking, ignoring the fact that there is nothing beneath its ground. Only when it looks down and notices it he falls down. This is what we are doing here. We are telling the guys there on Wall Street, 'Hey! Look down!' [inaudible] ... In 2011, the Chinese government prohibited on TV, film, and in novels all stories that [inaudible -- something about not being able to portray "alternate realities or time travel"]. This is a good sign for China; it means people still dream about alternatives, so attacked and prohibited is dreaming. Here we don't think of prohibition because [inaudible -- "history"?] has even oppressed our capacity to dream. Look at the movies that we see all the time. It's easy to imagine the end of the world -- an asteroid destroying all of life, and so on -- but we cannot imagine the end of capitalism. So what are we doing here? Let me tell you a wonderful old joke from Communist times. A guy was sent to work in East Germany from Siberia. He knew his mail would be read by censors, so he told his friends, 'Let's establish a code. If a letter you get from me is written in blue ink, it is true what I say; if it is written in red ink, it is false.' After a month, his friends get a first letter. Everything is in blue. It says, this letter: 'Everything is wonderful here. The stores are full of good food, movie theatres show good films from the West, apartments are large and luxurious. The only thing you cannot find is red ink.' This is how we live. We have all the freedoms we want, but what we are missing is red ink: the language to articulate our non-freedom. The way we are taught to speak about freedom, 'war on terror,' and so on, falsifies freedom. And this is what you are doing here: You are giving all of us red ink. There is a danger: Don't fall in love with yourselves. We have a nice time here. But remember: carnivals come cheap. What matters is the day after when we will have to return to normal life. Will there be any changes then? I don't want you to remember these days, you know, like, 'Oh, we were young, it was beautiful...' Remember that our basic message is, 'We are allowed to think about alternatives.' "

• Category

  News & Politics

[choatican]

Communism Yes!  Do these people know who stupid they look?

[smabiner]

Before you launch into what I suspect will be an incredibly scintillating disquisition on just "who" stupid you think I look... Read the speech. You might not agree with the ideas, but you don't even seem to understand them, based on this reaction. In any case, you're not contributing anything to the discussion aside from knee-jerk "anti-commie" venom and a failed attempt at name-calling. Please refrain from both. Thanks.

[19123Mike]

Zizek for President!

[bboschboi]

No, he is very anti-20th century communism, he says it was worse than Nazism in some ways.

[kRudAres]

Does he support the Russian Bolsheviks and that path to "communism"?

[bboschboi]

He is not a Leninist, don't strawman.

[picofarad2]

do you disagree with marxian economics, specifically that social wealth is generated by labor and not by "marginal utility" etc.?

[picofarad2]

the police had banned amplification. this was a practical solution.

[kRudAres]

The "peoples mic" was/is the most embarrassing aspect of OWS events. Why stop there? The entire 'leftist'/activist culture needs an enema. We need to be less eccentric, stop the identity politics, quit advocating votes for democrats and FOCUS ON WHY WORKERS should run society under the most democratic system as humanly possible. Americans need to understand socialism and at this task the 'left' has failed. Touting a Leninist on stage isnt going to help either.

[4200ccmv8fromgermany]

Stupid motherfucker Scheiß Kommunistenpack Kommunismus gehört genauso verboten wie Rassismus es gibt kein Menschenverachtenderes "System" wie den Kommunismus verbreiten von ungebildeten Leuten die anderen das leben schwer machen wollen weil sie selbst nur Versagen

[abuliberalee]

Really? Creepily repeating what he says like a cultish mantra is a better way of making him heard than just giving him a bullhorn?

[lcsalas]

so silly that you can´t use a mic or megaphone, where is the freedom?

[KamekoBruns]

How is my saying that they were free from govt antagonism bullshit? How was the NYC OWS camp antagonized by the govt in any fucking way? Jesus, what miserable liar you are.

And public roads is not socialism dumbshit. Socialism is an economic system whereby the means of production are owned by the society and not individuals.

And all your "outcomes of the public sector" would be for naught without the work of the private sector.

Dumbass.