Photo Gallery The Peripatetic Philosopher
Slavoj Zizek talks like a jackhammer, sweats when he thinks and writes 700-page treatises on Hegel while on the airplane. He is also the darling of the newly revived left.
He compares modern liberal democracy to the button in an elevator meant to close the doors: He has discovered that they are placebos. The doors don't close a second faster when a person presses the button, but they offer the illusion of influence. Western democracy functions the same way, says Zizek. Here, Soviet troops parading in Kiev in 1935.
Foto: Hulton Archive/ Getty Images
But his work toward a new "communist hypothesis" isn't practical: It avoids the nighmares of Communisms past by remaining theoretical. Stalin, the Red Army, and gulags are just material for Zizek's patter. "The most impressive films about the Holocaust are comedies," he says. Pictured: Red Army cadets training near the Volga.
Foto: Finikov/ Getty Images
Dieser Beitrag stammt aus dem SPIEGEL-Archiv. Warum ist das wichtig?
