FW: [Marxism] Zizek: Bush's victory is "good for the entire world"

["Charlie Parks" <jcparks5550@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Speaking of Zizek...The guy has certainly made some dubious political
interventions (such as initially welcoming NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia,
only to express an opposite position in an NLR article) and many of his
political writings, while admirable in their "shock the (academic/liberal)
bourgeoisie" spirit, still seem motivated by the same kind of careerism that
he supposedly criticizes in academia, only his form of careerism is served
not by fashionable theorizing but by simply drawing attention to himself
(hence the constant desire to give offense and deliver shocks).

Nonetheless, I have to admit I derive considerable guitly pleasure in
reading some of his attacks on postmodernism and left-liberal naivete. The
following, from his edition of Lenin's 1917 writings (Revolution at the
Gates) is one of my favorites. It is very much in the spirit of the posts by
Marxmail comrades expressing frustration at the way many
WSF/'antiglobalization' organizers seem to want to start a "revolution
without taking power":

"[R]ecall the series of protests usually listed under the name
"Seattle"[...] Witness the panicky reactions of the mass media, which, from
Time magazine to CNN, started all of a sudden to warn us about the Marxists
manipulating the crowd of 'honest' protesters. The problem now is a strictly
Leninist one: how do we actualize the media's accusations? How do we invent
the organizational structure which will confer on this unrest the form of
the universal political demand?[...] In short, without the form of the
Party, the movement remains caught in the vicious cycle of 'resistance,' one
of the big catchwords of 'postmodern' politics, which likes to oppose 'good'
resistance to power to a 'bad' revolutionary takeover of power--the last
thing we want is the domestication of anti-globalization into just another
'site of resistance' against capitalism."

Amen.
CP



_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism