1. - I'm giving you a choice.
Copy !req
2. Either put on these glasses
or start eating that trashcan.
Copy !req
3. - I already am eating from
the trashcan all the time.
Copy !req
4. The name of this
trashcan is ideology.
Copy !req
5. The material force of ideology
Copy !req
6. makes me not see what
I'm effectively eating.
Copy !req
7. It's not only our reality
which enslaves us.
Copy !req
8. The tragedy of our predicament,
Copy !req
9. when we are within
ideology, is that
Copy !req
10. when we think that we
escape it, into our dreams,
Copy !req
11. at that point, we
are within ideology.
Copy !req
12. - "They Live" from
1988 is definitely
Copy !req
13. one of the forgotten
masterpieces of
the Hollywood Left.
Copy !req
14. It tells the story of John Nada.
Copy !req
15. Nada, of course, in
Spanish means nothing.
Copy !req
16. A pure subject deprived of
all substantial content.
Copy !req
17. A homeless worker in
L.A. who, drifting around
Copy !req
18. one day, enters into
an abandoned church
Copy !req
19. and finds there a strange
box full of sunglasses.
Copy !req
20. And when he put one of them on,
Copy !req
21. walking along the L.A. streets,
Copy !req
22. he discovers something weird,
Copy !req
23. that these glasses function like
Copy !req
24. critique-of-ideology glasses.
Copy !req
25. They allow you to
see the real message
Copy !req
26. beneath all the
propaganda, publicity,
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27. glitz, posters, and so on.
Copy !req
28. You see a large publicity
board telling you,
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29. have your holiday of a lifetime,
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30. and when you put the glasses on,
Copy !req
31. you see just on the white
background a gray inscription.
Copy !req
32. We live, so we are told, in
a post-ideological society.
Copy !req
33. We are interpolated,
that is to say,
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34. addressed by social authority,
Copy !req
35. not as subjects who
should do their duty,
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36. sacrifice themselves, but
subjects of pleasures.
Copy !req
37. Realize your true potential.
Copy !req
38. Be yourself.
Copy !req
39. Lead a satisfying life.
Copy !req
40. When you put the glasses on,
Copy !req
41. you see dictatorship
in democracy.
Copy !req
42. It's the invisible order which
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43. sustains your apparent freedom.
Copy !req
44. The explanation for
the existence of these
Copy !req
45. strange ideology glasses
is the standard story
Copy !req
46. of the "Invasion of
the Body Snatchers."
Copy !req
47. Humanity is already under
the control of aliens.
Copy !req
48. - Hey buddy, you gonna
pay for that or what?
Copy !req
49. Look buddy, I don't
want no hassle today.
Copy !req
50. Either pay for it
or put it back.
Copy !req
51. - According to our common sense,
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52. we think that
ideology is something
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53. blurring, confusing
our straight view.
Copy !req
54. Ideology should be glasses which
Copy !req
55. distort our view,
and the critique of
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56. ideology should be
the opposite like,
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57. you take off the
glasses so that you can
Copy !req
58. finally see the way
things really are.
Copy !req
59. This precisely and
here, the pessimism of
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60. the film, of "They
Live" is well justified.
Copy !req
61. This precisely is the
ultimate illusion.
Copy !req
62. Ideology is not simply
imposed on ourselves.
Copy !req
63. Ideology is our
spontaneous relationship
Copy !req
64. to our social world,
how we perceive
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65. each meaning and
so on and so on.
Copy !req
66. We, in a way,
enjoy our ideology.
Copy !req
67. - Alright.
Copy !req
68. - To step out
of ideology, it hurts.
Copy !req
69. It's a painful experience.
Copy !req
70. You must force
yourself to do it.
Copy !req
71. This is rendered in
a wonderful way with
Copy !req
72. a further scene
in the film where
Copy !req
73. John Nada tries to
force his best friend,
Copy !req
74. John Armitage, to also
put the glasses on.
Copy !req
75. - I don't want to fight you.
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76. - Come on!
Copy !req
77. - I don't want to fight you.
- Come on!
Copy !req
78. - Stop it!
- No!
Copy !req
79. - And it's the
weirdest scene in the film.
Copy !req
80. The fight takes
eight, nine minutes.
Copy !req
81. - Put on the glasses!
Copy !req
82. - It may appear irrational
because why does this guy reject
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83. so violently to
put the glasses on?
Copy !req
84. It is as if he is
well aware that,
Copy !req
85. spontaneously, he
lives in a lie,
Copy !req
86. that the glasses will
make him see the truth,
Copy !req
87. but that this truth
can be painful,
Copy !req
88. can shatter many
of your illusions.
Copy !req
89. This is a paradox
we have to accept.
Copy !req
90. - Put the glasses on!
Copy !req
91. Put 'em on!
Copy !req
92. - The extreme violence
of liberation.
Copy !req
93. You must be forced to be free.
Copy !req
94. If you trust simply your
spontaneous sense of wellbeing
Copy !req
95. or whatever you
will never get free.
Copy !req
96. - Look!
Copy !req
97. - Freedom hurts.
Copy !req
98. The basic insight of
psychoanalysis is to distinguish
Copy !req
99. between enjoyment
and simple pleasures.
Copy !req
100. They are not the same.
Copy !req
101. Enjoyment is
precisely enjoyment in
Copy !req
102. disturbed pleasure,
even enjoyment in pain,
Copy !req
103. and this excessive
factor disturbs
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104. the apparently
simple relationship
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105. between duty and pleasures.
Copy !req
106. This is also a space
where ideology,
Copy !req
107. up to and especially
religious ideology, operates.
Copy !req
108. This brings me to maybe
my favorite example,
Copy !req
109. the great classical Hollywood
film "The Sound of Music."
Copy !req
110. We all know it's the
story of a nun who is
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111. too alive with too much energy,
Copy !req
112. ultimately, sexual energy, to be
Copy !req
113. constrained to
the role of a nun.
Copy !req
114. - Oh, oh Reverend
Mother, I'm so sorry.
Copy !req
115. I just couldn't help myself.
Copy !req
116. The gates were
open and the hills
Copy !req
117. were beckoning and before I—
Copy !req
118. - Maria, I haven't summoned
you here for apologies.
Copy !req
119. - Oh, please mother do let
me ask for forgiveness.
Copy !req
120. One, two, three,
one, two, three,
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121. one, two, three,
step together, now—
Copy !req
122. - So, Mother
Superior sends her to
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123. the von Trapp family where she
takes care of the children.
Copy !req
124. - Hop and under (chuckles)
Kurt, we'll have to practice—
Copy !req
125. - Do allow me will you?
Copy !req
126. - Mm-hmm.
Copy !req
127. - And at the
same time, of course,
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128. falls in love with
the Baron von Trapp.
Copy !req
129. And Maria gets too
disturbed by it,
Copy !req
130. cannot control it,
returns to the convent.
Copy !req
131. - Oh there were times when
we would look at each other.
Copy !req
132. Oh Mother, I could
hardly breathe.
Copy !req
133. - Did you let him
see how you felt?
Copy !req
134. If I did, I didn't know it.
Copy !req
135. That's what's been torturing me.
Copy !req
136. I was there on God's errand.
Copy !req
137. - No wonder that in old
communist Yugoslavia
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138. where I saw this film
for the first time,
Copy !req
139. exactly this scene,
or more precisely,
Copy !req
140. the song which follows this
strange hedonist, if you want,
Copy !req
141. advice from the mother superior,
Copy !req
142. go back, seduce the
guy, follow this path.
Copy !req
143. Do not betray your desire.
Copy !req
144. Namely the song which begins
with, "Climb every mountain."
Copy !req
145. The song which is an
almost embarrassing
Copy !req
146. display and
affirmation of desire.
Copy !req
147. These three minutes
were censored.
Copy !req
148. - I think the sensor
was a very intelligent man.
Copy !req
149. He knew, as probably
an atheist communist,
Copy !req
150. where the power of attraction
of Catholic religion resides.
Copy !req
151. - If
you read intelligent
Copy !req
152. Catholic propagandists,
and if you really try to
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153. discern what deal are
they offering you,
Copy !req
154. it's not to prohibit, in
this case sexual pleasures.
Copy !req
155. It's a much more cynical
contract, as it were,
Copy !req
156. between the church as an
institution and the believer,
Copy !req
157. troubled with, in this
case, sexual desires.
Copy !req
158. It is this hidden obscene
permission that you get.
Copy !req
159. You are covered by
the divine Big Other.
Copy !req
160. You can do what ever
you want, enjoy.
Copy !req
161. - This
obscene contract does not
Copy !req
162. belong to Christianity as such.
Copy !req
163. It belongs to Catholic
Church as an institution.
Copy !req
164. - It is the logic
of institution at its purest.
Copy !req
165. - This
is again a key
Copy !req
166. to the functioning of ideology.
Copy !req
167. - Not only
the explicit message,
Copy !req
168. renounce, suffer and so on,
but the true hidden message.
Copy !req
169. pretend to renounce
and you can get it all.
Copy !req
170. My psychoanalytic friends
are telling me that
Copy !req
171. typically today, patients
who come to the analyst
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172. to resolve their
problems feel guilty,
Copy !req
173. not because of
excessive pleasures,
Copy !req
174. not because they indulge in
pleasures which go against
Copy !req
175. their sense of duty or
morality, or whatsoever.
Copy !req
176. On the contrary, they
feel guilty for not
Copy !req
177. enjoying enough, for
not being able to enjoy.
Copy !req
178. Oh my god, one is thirsty in the
Copy !req
179. desert and what
to drink but Coke.
Copy !req
180. The perfect commodity, why?
Copy !req
181. It was already Marx who long
ago emphasized that a commodity
Copy !req
182. is never just a simple object
that we buy and consume.
Copy !req
183. A commodity is an object full of
Copy !req
184. theological, even
metaphysical niceties.
Copy !req
185. Its presence always reflects
an invisible transcendence,
Copy !req
186. and the classical
publicity for Coke
Copy !req
187. quite openly refers to this
Copy !req
188. absent, invisible quality.
Copy !req
189. Coke is the real thing
or Coke, that's it.
Copy !req
190. What is that it, the real thing?
Copy !req
191. It's not just another
positive property of Coke,
Copy !req
192. something that can be described
Copy !req
193. or pinpointed through
chemical analysis.
Copy !req
194. It's that mysterious
something more.
Copy !req
195. The indescribable
excess which is
Copy !req
196. the object cause of my desire.
Copy !req
197. In our postmodern,
however we call them,
Copy !req
198. societies, we are
obliged to enjoy.
Copy !req
199. Enjoyment becomes a kind
of a weird perverted duty.
Copy !req
200. - The paradox of Coke
is that you are thirsty.
Copy !req
201. You drink it, but
as everyone knows,
Copy !req
202. the more you drink it,
the more thirsty you get.
Copy !req
203. A desire is never simply
Copy !req
204. the desire for a certain thing.
Copy !req
205. It's always also a
desire for desire itself,
Copy !req
206. a desire to continue to desire.
Copy !req
207. Perhaps the ultimate
horror of a desire is
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208. to be fully filled in, met,
Copy !req
209. so that I desire no longer.
Copy !req
210. The ultimate melancholic
experience is the
Copy !req
211. experience of a loss
of desire itself.
Copy !req
212. It's not that in
some return to a
Copy !req
213. previous era of
natural consummation
Copy !req
214. where we got rid of this excess
Copy !req
215. and were only consuming
for actual needs,
Copy !req
216. like you were thirsty, you
drank water, and so on.
Copy !req
217. We cannot return to that.
Copy !req
218. The excess is with us forever.
Copy !req
219. So, let's have a drink of Coke.
Copy !req
220. It's getting warm.
Copy !req
221. It's no longer the real
Coke, and that's the problem,
Copy !req
222. you know, this passage from
Copy !req
223. sublime to
excremental dimension.
Copy !req
224. When it's cold, properly served,
Copy !req
225. it has a certain attraction.
Copy !req
226. All of a sudden, this
can change into shit.
Copy !req
227. It's the elementary
dialectics of commodities.
Copy !req
228. We are not talking
about objective,
Copy !req
229. factual properties
of a commodity.
Copy !req
230. We are talking only here
about that elusive surplus.
Copy !req
231. Kinder Surprise egg, a
quite astonishing commodity.
Copy !req
232. The surprise of the
Kinder Surprise egg
Copy !req
233. is that this excessive object,
Copy !req
234. the cause of your desire is here
Copy !req
235. materialized in the
guise of an object,
Copy !req
236. a plastic toy which fills in the
Copy !req
237. inner void of the chocolate egg.
Copy !req
238. The whole delicate balance is
between these two dimensions,
Copy !req
239. what you bought, the chocolate
egg, and the surplus,
Copy !req
240. probably made in some
Chinese gulag or whatever,
Copy !req
241. the surplus that
you get for free.
Copy !req
242. I don't think that
the chocolate frame
Copy !req
243. is here just to
send you on a deeper
Copy !req
244. voyage towards the
inner treasure,
Copy !req
245. the, what Plato
calls the agalma,
Copy !req
246. which makes you a worthy person,
Copy !req
247. which makes a commodity,
the desirable commodity.
Copy !req
248. I think it's the
other way around.
Copy !req
249. We should aim at
the higher goal,
Copy !req
250. the gold in the
middle of an object,
Copy !req
251. precisely in order to be
able to enjoy the surface.
Copy !req
252. This is what is the
anti-metaphysical
Copy !req
253. lesson, which is
difficult to accept.
Copy !req
254. What does this famous
"Ode to Joy" stand for?
Copy !req
255. It's usually perceived as a
kind of ode to humanity as such
Copy !req
256. to the brotherhood and
freedom of all people.
Copy !req
257. And what strikes
the eye here is the
Copy !req
258. universal adaptability of
this well-known melody.
Copy !req
259. It can be used by
political movements
Copy !req
260. which are totally
opposed to each other.
Copy !req
261. In Nazi Germany,
it was widely used
Copy !req
262. to celebrate great
public events.
Copy !req
263. In Soviet Union,
Beethoven was lionized,
Copy !req
264. and the "Ode to
Joy" was performed
Copy !req
265. almost as a kind of
a communist song.
Copy !req
266. In China, during the time of
the great Cultural Revolution,
Copy !req
267. when almost all western
music was prohibited,
Copy !req
268. the 9th symphony was accepted.
Copy !req
269. It was allowed to play it as a
Copy !req
270. piece of progressive
bourgeois music.
Copy !req
271. At the extreme right
in South Rhodesia,
Copy !req
272. before it became Zimbabwe,
it proclaimed independence
Copy !req
273. to be able to postpone the
abolishment of apartheid.
Copy !req
274. Therefore, those couple
of years of independence,
Copy !req
275. South Rhodesia, again the
melody of the "Ode to Joy"
Copy !req
276. with changed lyrics of course,
Copy !req
277. was the anthem of the country.
Copy !req
278. At the opposite end,
when Abimael Guzman,
Copy !req
279. Presidente Gonzalo,
the leader of
Copy !req
280. Sendero Luminoso,
the Shining Path,
Copy !req
281. the extreme leftist
guerrilla in Peru,
Copy !req
282. when he was asked
by a journalist
Copy !req
283. which piece of music
is his favorite,
Copy !req
284. he claimed, again, Beethoven's
9th symphony, "Ode to Joy."
Copy !req
285. When Germany was still divided,
Copy !req
286. and their team was appearing
together at the Olympics,
Copy !req
287. when one of the Germans
won golden medal,
Copy !req
288. again, "Ode to Joy" was played
Copy !req
289. instead of either East or
West German national anthem.
Copy !req
290. And even now today,
"Ode to Joy" is the
Copy !req
291. unofficial anthem
of European Union.
Copy !req
292. So it's truly that we
can imagine a kind of a
Copy !req
293. perverse scene of
universal fraternity
Copy !req
294. where Osama Bin Laden is
embracing President Bush,
Copy !req
295. Saddam is embracing
Fidel Castro,
Copy !req
296. white racists is
embracing Mao Zedong,
Copy !req
297. and all together, they
sing "Ode to Joy."
Copy !req
298. It works, and this is how
Copy !req
299. every ideology has to work.
Copy !req
300. It's never just meaning.
Copy !req
301. It always has to
also work as an empty
Copy !req
302. container open to all
possible meanings.
Copy !req
303. It's, you know, that
gut feeling that we feel
Copy !req
304. when we experience something
pathetic and we say,
Copy !req
305. oh my God, I am so moved.
Copy !req
306. There is something so deep.
Copy !req
307. But you never know
what this depth is.
Copy !req
308. It's a void.
Copy !req
309. Now, of course, there
is a catch here.
Copy !req
310. The catch is that, of course,
this neutrality of a frame
Copy !req
311. is never as neutral
as it appears.
Copy !req
312. Here, I think the
perspective of Alex from
Copy !req
313. the "Clockwork Orange" enters.
Copy !req
314. - We were
all feeling a bit
Copy !req
315. shagged and fagged and fashed,
Copy !req
316. it having been an
evening of some small
Copy !req
317. energy expenditure,
oh my brothers.
Copy !req
318. So we got rid of
the auto and stopped
Copy !req
319. off at The Korova
for a nightcap.
Copy !req
320. - Why is Alex, this
ultimate cynical delinquent,
Copy !req
321. the hero of "Clockwork Orange"?
Copy !req
322. Why is he so
fascinated, overwhelmed
Copy !req
323. when he sees the lady singing
Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"?
Copy !req
324. - And it
was like for a moment,
Copy !req
325. oh my brothers,
some great bird had
Copy !req
326. flown into the milk bar
and I felt all the malenky
Copy !req
327. little hairs on my
plott standing endwise,
Copy !req
328. and the shivers crawling up
like slow, malenky lizards,
Copy !req
329. and then down again because
I knew what she sang.
Copy !req
330. It was a bit from the
glorious 9th by Ludwig van.
Copy !req
331. - Whenever
an ideological text says,
Copy !req
332. all humanity unite
in brotherhood,
Copy !req
333. joy, and so on, you
should always ask,
Copy !req
334. okay, okay, okay,
but are these all,
Copy !req
335. really all, or is
someone excluded?
Copy !req
336. I think Alex, the delinquent
from "Clockwork Orange,"
Copy !req
337. identifies with this
place of exclusion.
Copy !req
338. And the great genius
of Beethoven is that
Copy !req
339. he literally states
this exclusion.
Copy !req
340. All of a sudden the
whole tone changes into
Copy !req
341. a kind of a
carnivalesque rhythm.
Copy !req
342. It's no longer this
sublime beauty.
Copy !req
343. Excuse me, brother,
Copy !req
344. I ordered this two weeks ago.
Copy !req
345. Can you see if it's
arrived yet, please?
Copy !req
346. - Just a minute.
Copy !req
347. - We hear this
vulgar music precisely when
Copy !req
348. Alex enters a shopping
arcade and we can see from
Copy !req
349. his movements that
now he feels at home.
Copy !req
350. He is like fish in the water.
Copy !req
351. - Pardon me, ladies.
Copy !req
352. - Beethoven
is not a cheap celebrator
Copy !req
353. of the brotherhood of
humanity and so on.
Copy !req
354. We are one big happy
family enjoying
Copy !req
355. freedom, dignity, and so on.
Copy !req
356. - Enjoying that,
are you my darling?
Copy !req
357. - The first part, which is
falsely celebrated today,
Copy !req
358. you hear it in all
official events
Copy !req
359. is clearly identified
with Beethoven
Copy !req
360. as ideology, and then
the second part tells
Copy !req
361. the true story of that which
disturbs the official ideology,
Copy !req
362. and of the failure
of the official
Copy !req
363. ideology to constrain
it, to tame it.
Copy !req
364. This is why Beethoven
was doing something
Copy !req
365. which may appear
difficult to do.
Copy !req
366. He was already in the
purely musical work
Copy !req
367. practicing critique of ideology.
Copy !req
368. If the classical ideology
functioned in the way
Copy !req
369. designated by Marx in his nice
Copy !req
370. formula from,
"Capital Volume I,"
Copy !req
371. "They don't know
what they are doing,"
Copy !req
372. "but they are none
the less doing it."
Copy !req
373. Cynical ideology
functions in the mode of,
Copy !req
374. "I know very well
what I am doing"
Copy !req
375. "but I am still none
the less doing it."
Copy !req
376. This paradoxical constellation
is staged in a beautiful way
Copy !req
377. in the famous song
"Officer Krupke"
Copy !req
378. in Bernstein's and
Sondheim's "West Side Story."
Copy !req
379. - Hey you!
Copy !req
380. - Who me, Officer Krupke?
Copy !req
381. - Yeah, you!
Copy !req
382. Give me one good reason for not
Copy !req
383. dragging you down to the
station house, you punk.
Copy !req
384. - The
delinquent gang enact
Copy !req
385. a whole explanation
as a musical number,
Copy !req
386. of course, of why
they are delinquents.
Copy !req
387. - Addressing
the police officer, Krupke,
Copy !req
388. who is not there but all is
addressed at the police officer.
Copy !req
389. - That's a touchin' good story!
Copy !req
390. - Lemme tell it to the world!
Copy !req
391. - Just tell it to the judge.
Copy !req
392. - So one of them
adopts the position of a judge.
Copy !req
393. - Then, the
psychological explanation.
Copy !req
394. - I am sick!
Copy !req
395. - The paradox here
is how can you
Copy !req
396. know all this and still do it?
Copy !req
397. This is the cynical
functioning of ideology.
Copy !req
398. They're never what they appear
Copy !req
399. to be cynical
brutal delinquents.
Copy !req
400. They always have a
tiny private dream.
Copy !req
401. This dream can be many things.
Copy !req
402. It can even be something
quite ordinary.
Copy !req
403. Let's take the English riots
Copy !req
404. of August 2011.
Copy !req
405. The standard liberal
explanation really sounds like
Copy !req
406. a repetition of
"Officer Krupke" song.
Copy !req
407. We cannot just condemn this riot
Copy !req
408. as delinquent vandalism.
Copy !req
409. You have to see how
these people live in
Copy !req
410. practically ghettos,
isolated communities,
Copy !req
411. no proper family life,
no proper education.
Copy !req
412. They don't even have a prospect
of a regular employment.
Copy !req
413. But this is not enough
because man is not simply
Copy !req
414. a product of objective
circumstances.
Copy !req
415. We all have this
margin of freedom
Copy !req
416. in deciding how we
Copy !req
417. subjectivize these
objective circumstances
Copy !req
418. which, of course, determine us,
Copy !req
419. how we react to them by
Copy !req
420. constructing our own universe.
Copy !req
421. The conservative solution
is we need more police.
Copy !req
422. We need courts which
pass severe judgements.
Copy !req
423. I think this solution
is too simple.
Copy !req
424. If I listen closely to some
of David Cameron's statements,
Copy !req
425. it looked as if okay,
they are beating people,
Copy !req
426. burning houses, but the
truly horrible thing is
Copy !req
427. that they were taking objects
without paying for them,
Copy !req
428. (chuckles) the ultimate
things that we can imagine.
Copy !req
429. In a very limited way,
Cameron was right.
Copy !req
430. There was no ideological
justification.
Copy !req
431. It is the reaction of people
who are totally caught
Copy !req
432. into the predominant
ideology but have no ways
Copy !req
433. to realize what this
ideology demands of them,
Copy !req
434. so it's a kind of a wild
acting out within this
Copy !req
435. ideological space
of consumerism.
Copy !req
436. Even if we are dealing
with apparently
Copy !req
437. totally non-ideological
brutality,
Copy !req
438. I just want to burn
houses, to get objects,
Copy !req
439. it is the result of a
very specific social
Copy !req
440. and ideological constellation
where big ideology,
Copy !req
441. striving for justice, equality,
etcetera, disintegrates.
Copy !req
442. The only functioning
ideology is pure consumerism,
Copy !req
443. and then no wonder what you
get as a form of protest.
Copy !req
444. Every violent acting
out is a sign that
Copy !req
445. there is something you are
not able to put into words.
Copy !req
446. Even the most brutal
violence is the enacting
Copy !req
447. of a certain symbolic deadlock.
Copy !req
448. The great thing about
the "Taxi Driver"
Copy !req
449. is that it brings this
brutal outburst of
Copy !req
450. violence to it's radical,
suicidal dimension.
Copy !req
451. We are not dealing here with
something which simply concerns
Copy !req
452. the fragile psychology
of a distorted
Copy !req
453. person, what Travis
in "Taxi Driver" is.
Copy !req
454. It has something to
do with ideology.
Copy !req
455. - Listen, you
fuckers, you screw-heads.
Copy !req
456. Here is a man who would not take
Copy !req
457. it anymore, who would not let.
Copy !req
458. Listen, you fuckers,
you screw-heads.
Copy !req
459. Here is a man who would
not take it anymore,
Copy !req
460. a man who stood up
against the scum,
Copy !req
461. the cunts, the dogs,
the filth, the shit.
Copy !req
462. Here is someone who stood up.
Copy !req
463. - In the "Taxi
Driver," Travis, the hero,
Copy !req
464. is bothered by the
young prostitute
played by Jody Foster.
Copy !req
465. What bothers him are, of
course, as is always the case,
Copy !req
466. precisely his fantasies,
fantasies of her,
Copy !req
467. victimhood of her
hidden pleasures.
Copy !req
468. And fantasies are not just a
private matter of individuals.
Copy !req
469. Fantasies are the central stuff
Copy !req
470. our ideologies are made of.
Copy !req
471. Don't look at him.
Copy !req
472. - Fantasy is, in
psychoanalytic perspective,
Copy !req
473. fundamentally, a lie,
not a lie in the sense
Copy !req
474. that it's just a fantasy
but not a reality,
Copy !req
475. but a lie in the
sense that fantasy
Copy !req
476. covers up a certain
gap in consistency.
Copy !req
477. When things are blurred,
when we cannot really get
Copy !req
478. to know things, fantasy
provides an easy answer.
Copy !req
479. The usual mode of fantasy
is to construct a scene,
Copy !req
480. not a scene where I
get what I desire,
Copy !req
481. but a scene in which I imagine
Copy !req
482. myself as desired by others.
Copy !req
483. "Taxi Driver" is an
unacknowledged remake of
Copy !req
484. perhaps the greatest of
John Ford's Westerns,
Copy !req
485. his late classic,"'The
Searchers."
Copy !req
486. - I take many...
Copy !req
487. - Scalps.
Copy !req
488. - In both films,
the hero tries to save a young
Copy !req
489. woman who is perceived as
a victim of brutal abuse.
Copy !req
490. In "The Searchers,"
the young Natalie Wood
Copy !req
491. was kidnapped and lived
for a couple of years
Copy !req
492. as the wife of an Indian chief.
Copy !req
493. In "Taxi Driver," the
young Jodie Foster
Copy !req
494. is controlled by
a ruthless pimp.
Copy !req
495. - You walk out with those
fucking creeps and lowlifes
Copy !req
496. and degenerates
out on the street,
Copy !req
497. and you sell your little
pussy for nothing, man?
Copy !req
498. For some low life pimp?
Copy !req
499. Stands in a hall?
Copy !req
500. I'm the, I'm square?
Copy !req
501. You're the one
that's square, man.
Copy !req
502. I don't go screw and
fuck with a bunch of
Copy !req
503. killers and junkies
the way you do.
Copy !req
504. - The task is always
Copy !req
505. to save the perceived victim.
Copy !req
506. But what really drives
this violence of the hero
Copy !req
507. is a deep suspicion that the
victim is not simply a victim.
Copy !req
508. That the victim, effectively,
in a perverted way,
Copy !req
509. enjoys or participates
in what appears as
Copy !req
510. her victimhood, so that,
to put it very simply,
Copy !req
511. she doesn't want to be
redeemed, she resists it.
Copy !req
512. - Let's go home, Debby.
Copy !req
513. - And this is the big problem.
Copy !req
514. If I make an immediate jump
to the political dimension,
Copy !req
515. the big problem of American
military interventions,
Copy !req
516. especially so-called
humanitarian interventions,
Copy !req
517. from Iraq to already Vietnam
Copy !req
518. half a century ago,
Copy !req
519. we try to help them, but what if
Copy !req
520. they really did
not want our help?
Copy !req
521. The result of this
debilitating deadlock
Copy !req
522. can only be an
outburst of violence.
Copy !req
523. We do get, towards
the end of the film,
Copy !req
524. Travis exploding
in a killing spree,
Copy !req
525. killing the pimps, all the
people around the young girl.
Copy !req
526. Violence is never just
abstract violence.
Copy !req
527. It's a kind of brutal
intervention in the real
Copy !req
528. to cover up a certain
impotence concerning
Copy !req
529. what we may call
cognitive mapping.
Copy !req
530. You lack a clear picture of
what's going on, where are we.
Copy !req
531. Exactly the same holds for the
Copy !req
532. terrifying outburst of violence,
Copy !req
533. Anders Behring Breivik's
murderous spree in Oslo,
Copy !req
534. exploding a bomb in front
of the government building
Copy !req
535. and then killing
dozens of young members
Copy !req
536. of the social democratic party
in an island close to Oslo.
Copy !req
537. Many commentators tried
to dismiss this as
Copy !req
538. a clear case of
personal insanity,
Copy !req
539. but I think Breivik's manifesto
is well worth reading.
Copy !req
540. It is palpably clear there how
Copy !req
541. this violence that
Breivik not only
Copy !req
542. theorized about
but also enacted,
Copy !req
543. is a reaction to
the impenetrability
Copy !req
544. and confusion of global capital.
Copy !req
545. It's exactly like
Travis Bickle's
Copy !req
546. killing spree at the end
of the "Taxi Driver."
Copy !req
547. When he is there,
barely alive, he,
Copy !req
548. symbolically with his fingers,
points a gun at his own head.
Copy !req
549. Clear sign that all this
violence was basically suicidal.
Copy !req
550. He was on the right
path, in a way,
Copy !req
551. Travis in the "Taxi Driver."
Copy !req
552. You should have the outburst
of violence, and you should
Copy !req
553. direct it at yourself but
in a very specific way,
Copy !req
554. at what in yourself change you,
Copy !req
555. ties you to the ruling ideology.
Copy !req
556. - Pippin, Pippin, Pippin?
Copy !req
557. - In Steven
Spielberg's "Jaws," a shark
Copy !req
558. starts to attack
people on the beach.
Copy !req
559. What does this attack mean?
Copy !req
560. What does the shark stand for?
Copy !req
561. There were different,
even mutually
Copy !req
562. exclusive, answers
to this question.
Copy !req
563. Did you see that?
Copy !req
564. - Yes.
Copy !req
565. - On the one
hand, some critics claimed
Copy !req
566. that obviously the
shark stands for
Copy !req
567. the foreign threat to
ordinary Americans.
Copy !req
568. The shark is a metaphor for
either natural disaster,
Copy !req
569. storms, or immigrants
threatening
Copy !req
570. United States
citizens and so on.
Copy !req
571. On the other hand, it's
interesting to note that
Copy !req
572. Fidel Castro, who
loves the film,
Copy !req
573. once said that for him,
it was obvious that
Copy !req
574. "Jaws" is kind of a
leftist Marxist film,
Copy !req
575. and that the shark is
a metaphor for brutal
Copy !req
576. big capital exploiting
ordinary Americans.
Copy !req
577. - Alice?
Copy !req
578. - So which is the right answer?
Copy !req
579. I claim none of them and at
the same time all of them.
Copy !req
580. Ordinary Americans,
as ordinary people
Copy !req
581. in all countries, have
a multitude of fears.
Copy !req
582. We fear all kind of things.
Copy !req
583. We fear maybe,
immigrants or people
Copy !req
584. whom we perceive as lower than
Copy !req
585. ourselves attacking
us, robbing us.
Copy !req
586. We fear people
raping our children.
Copy !req
587. We fear natural disasters,
tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis.
Copy !req
588. We fear corrupted politicians.
Copy !req
589. We fear big companies
which can basically
Copy !req
590. do with us whatever they want.
Copy !req
591. The function of the shark
is to unite all these fears
Copy !req
592. so that we can in away trade all
Copy !req
593. these fears for one fear alone.
Copy !req
594. - Smile you son of a—
Copy !req
595. - In this way, our experience
of reality gets much simpler.
Copy !req
596. Why am I mentioning this?
Copy !req
597. Because isn't it
that, for example,
Copy !req
598. the most extreme
case of ideology
Copy !req
599. maybe in the
history of humanity,
Copy !req
600. the Nazi fascist anti-Semitism,
Copy !req
601. work precisely in the same way?
Copy !req
602. Imagine an ordinary
German citizen
Copy !req
603. in the late 20s, early 30s.
Copy !req
604. His situation is,
in an abstract way,
Copy !req
605. the same as that
of a small child.
Copy !req
606. He's totally perplexed.
Copy !req
607. Social authority, symbolic
order is telling him,
Copy !req
608. you are a German worker, banker,
Copy !req
609. whatever, but nothing functions.
Copy !req
610. What does society want from him?
Copy !req
611. Why is everything going wrong?
Copy !req
612. The way he perceives
the situation
Copy !req
613. is that newspapers lie to him.
Copy !req
614. He lost his work
because of inflation.
Copy !req
615. He lost all his,
Copy !req
616. all his money in the bank.
Copy !req
617. He sees moral
degradation and so on,
Copy !req
618. so what's the
meaning of this all?
Copy !req
619. The original fascist dream is to
Copy !req
620. of course, as the dream
of every ideology,
Copy !req
621. to have a cake and to eat it.
Copy !req
622. As it was often pointed
out, fascism is,
Copy !req
623. at it's most elementary,
a conservative revolution.
Copy !req
624. Revolution, economic
development, modern
industry, yes,
Copy !req
625. but a revolution which would
nonetheless maintain or even
Copy !req
626. reassert a traditional
hierarchal society.
Copy !req
627. A society which is
modern, efficient,
Copy !req
628. but at the same
time controlled by
Copy !req
629. hierarchic values with no
class or other antagonisms.
Copy !req
630. Now, they have a problem
here, the fascists, but
Copy !req
631. antagonism, class struggle
and other tangents
Copy !req
632. is something inherent
to capitalism.
Copy !req
633. Modernization,
industrialization,
Copy !req
634. as we know from the
history of capitalism,
Copy !req
635. means disintegration of
old stable relations.
Copy !req
636. It means social conflicts.
Copy !req
637. Instability is the way
capitalism functions.
Copy !req
638. So how to solve this problem?
Copy !req
639. Simple, you need to generate an
Copy !req
640. ideological narrative
which explains
Copy !req
641. how things went
wrong in a society,
Copy !req
642. not as the result of
the inherent tensions
Copy !req
643. in the development
of this society,
Copy !req
644. but as the result of
a foreign intruder.
Copy !req
645. Things were okay 'til Jews
penetrated our social body.
Copy !req
646. The way to restore
the health of our
Copy !req
647. social body is to
eliminate the Jews.
Copy !req
648. It's the same operation as
with the shark in "Jaws."
Copy !req
649. You have a multitude of fears,
Copy !req
650. and this multiplicity
of fears confuses you,
Copy !req
651. like you simply
don't know what's
Copy !req
652. the meaning of all
this confusion.
Copy !req
653. And you replace this
confused multitude
Copy !req
654. with one clear figure, the Jew,
Copy !req
655. and everything becomes clear.
Copy !req
656. - The
search for cuts in the
Copy !req
657. social security
provision to lone-parent
Copy !req
658. families in part
spurred this report.
Copy !req
659. The social security
department fears
Copy !req
660. that the accelerating
budget for single mothers
Copy !req
661. on benefits could reach nearly
Copy !req
662. 5 billion pounds by
the end of the decade.
Copy !req
663. But the issue of the lone parent
Copy !req
664. has increasingly been
seen as the heart
Copy !req
665. of John Major's Back
to Basics crusade.
Copy !req
666. - Remember, I think around
two, three decades ago,
Copy !req
667. when the prime minister of
United Kingdom was John Major,
Copy !req
668. there was a kind of
ideological campaign
Copy !req
669. to return the
morality and so on.
Copy !req
670. And all the evils
of society were
Copy !req
671. embodied in the conservative
narrative, in the figure of
Copy !req
672. unemployed single
mother, like there is
violence in our suburbs,
Copy !req
673. of course, because
single, unemployed mothers
Copy !req
674. cannot take care
of their children,
Copy !req
675. don't properly educate
them and so on.
Copy !req
676. We have a lack in our
budget, not enough money.
Copy !req
677. Of course, because we
have to support unwed,
Copy !req
678. single mothers and
so on and so on.
Copy !req
679. In an ideological
edifice, you need
Copy !req
680. some pseudo-concrete image like
Copy !req
681. this to fixate your imagination,
Copy !req
682. and then this image
can mobilize us.
Copy !req
683. Imagine ideology as
a kind of a filter,
Copy !req
684. a frame, so that if
you look at the same
Copy !req
685. ordinary reality
through that frame,
Copy !req
686. everything changes,
in what sense?
Copy !req
687. It's not that the frame
Copy !req
688. actually adds anything.
Copy !req
689. It's just that the frame
opens the abyss of suspicion.
Copy !req
690. - If we look
at the anti-Semitic image
Copy !req
691. of the Jew, it's
crucial to notice how
Copy !req
692. contradictory this
figure of the Jew is.
Copy !req
693. - Jews are at the
same time extra intellectual,
Copy !req
694. like mathematicians,
whatever, and vulgar.
Copy !req
695. - Not
washing regularly.
Copy !req
696. - Seducing
innocent girls
Copy !req
697. all the time and
so on and so on.
Copy !req
698. - This is typical for racism.
Copy !req
699. You try to imagine
how the other enjoys
Copy !req
700. all the secret orgies or
whatever, because in racism,
Copy !req
701. the other is not
simply an enemy.
Copy !req
702. Usually, it is
also invested with
Copy !req
703. some specific
perverse enjoyment,
Copy !req
704. or in an inverted way,
the other can be someone
Copy !req
705. who tries to steal from
us our enjoyment, our,
Copy !req
706. to disturb, as we usually
put it, our way of life.
Copy !req
707. We should be, here, very precise
Copy !req
708. not to fall into the usual
trap of disqualifying
Copy !req
709. all elements out of which
the Nazi ideological
Copy !req
710. edifice is composed,
to disqualify
Copy !req
711. all them as proto-fascist.
Copy !req
712. We should never forget
that the large majority
Copy !req
713. of these elements which we
today associate with fascism
Copy !req
714. were taken from the
workers' movement.
Copy !req
715. This idea of large numbers
of people marching together,
Copy !req
716. This idea of strict bodily
discipline as our duty,
Copy !req
717. the Nazis directly
took this over
Copy !req
718. from social democracy,
from the left.
Copy !req
719. Let me just take
some other central
Copy !req
720. concepts of the Nazi worldview.
Copy !req
721. The solidarity of
the people, my God,
Copy !req
722. there is nothing bad
in this notion as such.
Copy !req
723. The problem is solidarity
to what kind of people?
Copy !req
724. If by people you mean
Volksgemeinschaft,
Copy !req
725. the organic community of people,
Copy !req
726. where then the enemy
is automatically the
foreign intruder.
Copy !req
727. In this case, we are in Nazism.
Copy !req
728. The crucial thing is
to locate ideology
Copy !req
729. where it belongs.
Copy !req
730. Let's take a clear example,
the well-known song
Copy !req
731. "Tomorrow Belongs To Me"
from the film "Cabaret."
Copy !req
732. - Some of my
friends, after seeing the film,
Copy !req
733. Bob Fosse's "Cabaret,"
thought that
Copy !req
734. after they heard this song,
they finally understood
Copy !req
735. what, at it's deepest as to its
Copy !req
736. emotional impact,
what fascism is.
Copy !req
737. But I think this precisely
is the mistake to be avoided.
Copy !req
738. This song is rather
ordinary, popular song.
Copy !req
739. Incidentally, it was
composed while they were
Copy !req
740. shooting the movie,
by a Jewish couple.
Copy !req
741. Nice irony.
Copy !req
742. If you look not
only at the music,
Copy !req
743. at the way it is sung,
but even at the words,
Copy !req
744. "Awakening of a nation,
tomorrow belongs to me."
Copy !req
745. One can well imagine, with
a slight change of words,
Copy !req
746. radically leftist,
communist song.
Copy !req
747. - The German
hard rock band Rammstein
Copy !req
748. are often accused of
flirting, playing with
Copy !req
749. the Nazi militaristic
iconography.
Copy !req
750. But if one observes
closely their show,
Copy !req
751. one can see very nicely what
they are doing, exemplarily,
Copy !req
752. in one of their best known
songs, "Reise Reise."
Copy !req
753. - The minimal
elements of the Nazi ideology
Copy !req
754. enacted by Rammstein
are something like
Copy !req
755. pure elements of
libidinal investment.
Copy !req
756. - Enjoyment
has to be, as it were,
Copy !req
757. condensed in some
minimal tics, gestures,
Copy !req
758. which do not have any
precise ideological meaning.
Copy !req
759. What Rammstein does
is it liberates
Copy !req
760. these elements from
their Nazi articulations.
Copy !req
761. It allows us to enjoy them in
their pre-ideological state.
Copy !req
762. - The way to fight
Copy !req
763. Nazism is to enjoy
these elements,
Copy !req
764. ridiculous as they may appear,
Copy !req
765. by suspending the Nazi
horizon of meaning.
Copy !req
766. This way, you undermine
Nazism from within.
Copy !req
767. - So how does, nonetheless,
ideology do this?
Copy !req
768. How does it articulate
pre-ideological elements?
Copy !req
769. These elements can also
be seen as a kind of a...
Copy !req
770. bribe.
Copy !req
771. The way ideology pays us to
Copy !req
772. seduce us into its edifice.
Copy !req
773. These bribes can be
purely libidinal bribes,
Copy !req
774. all those tics which
are condensed enjoyment,
Copy !req
775. or they can be
explicit discursive
Copy !req
776. elements like
notions of solidarity
Copy !req
777. of collective
discipline, struggle
Copy !req
778. for one's destiny,
and so on and so on.
Copy !req
779. All these, in itself,
are free-floating
Copy !req
780. elements which open themselves
Copy !req
781. to different ideological fields.
Copy !req
782. Let's turn to the high point
Copy !req
783. of our consumerism.
Copy !req
784. Let me take a drink.
Copy !req
785. Some of it, Starbucks
coffee, I am
Copy !req
786. regularly drinking
it, I must admit it.
Copy !req
787. But are we aware that
when we buy a cappuccino
Copy !req
788. from Starbucks, we also buy
quite a lot of ideology.
Copy !req
789. Which ideology?
Copy !req
790. You know when you enter
a Starbucks store,
Copy !req
791. it's usually always displayed
in some posters there,
Copy !req
792. their message which
is, yes, our cappuccino
Copy !req
793. is more expensive than others,
Copy !req
794. but, and then comes the story,
Copy !req
795. we give 1% of all
our income to some
Copy !req
796. Guatemala children
to keep them healthy,
Copy !req
797. for the water supply
for some Sahara farmers,
Copy !req
798. or to save the forests,
to enable organic
Copy !req
799. growing coffee,
whatever, whatever.
Copy !req
800. Now, I admire the
ingeniousity of this solution.
Copy !req
801. In the old days of pure
simple consumerism,
Copy !req
802. you bought a product
and then you felt bad.
Copy !req
803. My God, I'm just a consumerist
Copy !req
804. while people are
starving in Africa.
Copy !req
805. So the idea was you
had to do something to
Copy !req
806. counteract your pure
distractive consumerism.
Copy !req
807. For example, I don't know, you
Copy !req
808. contribute to charity and so on.
Copy !req
809. What Starbucks
enables you is to be
Copy !req
810. a consumerist and
be a consumerist
Copy !req
811. without any bad
conscience because
Copy !req
812. the price for the
countermeasure,
Copy !req
813. for fighting
consumerism, is already
Copy !req
814. included into the
price of a commodity.
Copy !req
815. Like you pay a little bit
more and you are not just
Copy !req
816. a consumerist but
you do also your duty
Copy !req
817. towards environment,
the poor starving
Copy !req
818. people in Africa,
and so on and so on.
Copy !req
819. It's, I think, the ultimate
form of consumerism.
Copy !req
820. We should not simply
oppose a principal life
Copy !req
821. dedicated to duty
and enjoying our
Copy !req
822. small pleasures.
Copy !req
823. Let's take today's capitalism.
Copy !req
824. We have, on the one hand, the
demands of the circulation
Copy !req
825. of the capital which push
us towards profit making,
Copy !req
826. expansion, exploitation
and destruction of nature,
Copy !req
827. and on the other hand,
ecological demands.
Copy !req
828. Let's think about our posterity
and about our own survival.
Copy !req
829. Let's take care of
nature and so on.
Copy !req
830. In this opposition between
ruthless pursuit of
Copy !req
831. capitalist expansion and
ecological awareness,
Copy !req
832. duty, a strange
perverted duty of course,
Copy !req
833. duty is on the side of
Copy !req
834. capitalism, as many
Copy !req
835. perspicuous analysts noted.
Copy !req
836. Capitalism has a
strange religious
Copy !req
837. structure.
Copy !req
838. It is propelled by
this absolute demand.
Copy !req
839. Capital has to circulate
to reproduce itself
Copy !req
840. to expand, to multiply itself,
Copy !req
841. and for this goal,
anything can be sacrificed,
Copy !req
842. up to our lives, up
to nature, and so on.
Copy !req
843. Here, we have a strange,
unconditional injunction.
Copy !req
844. And a true capitalist
is a miser who is ready
Copy !req
845. to sacrifice everything
for this perverted duty.
Copy !req
846. What we see here
in Mojave Desert,
Copy !req
847. at this resting place
for abandoned planes,
Copy !req
848. is the other side of
capitalist dynamics.
Copy !req
849. Capitalism is all
the time in crisis.
Copy !req
850. This is precisely why it
appears almost indestructible.
Copy !req
851. Crisis is not its obstacle.
Copy !req
852. It is what pushes
it forwards towards
Copy !req
853. permanent,
self-revolutionizing, permanent,
Copy !req
854. extended self-reproduction,
always new products.
Copy !req
855. The other invisible
side of it is
Copy !req
856. waste, tremendous
amount of waste.
Copy !req
857. We shouldn't react to
these heaps of waste
Copy !req
858. by trying to somehow
get rid of it.
Copy !req
859. Maybe, the first thing to
do is to accept this waste,
Copy !req
860. to accept that there are things
Copy !req
861. out there which serve nothing,
Copy !req
862. to break out of this eternal
cycle of functioning.
Copy !req
863. The German philosopher, Walter
Copy !req
864. Benjamin, said
something very deep.
Copy !req
865. He said that we
experience history,
Copy !req
866. what does it mean for us
to be historical beings,
Copy !req
867. not when we are engaged in
things, when things move.
Copy !req
868. Only when we see this,
again, rest waste
Copy !req
869. of culture being half retaken
by nature, at that point,
Copy !req
870. we get an intuition
of what history means.
Copy !req
871. Maybe, this also accounts
for the redemptive value of
Copy !req
872. post-catastrophic movies
like "I Am Legend" and so on.
Copy !req
873. We see the devastated human
environment, half-empty
Copy !req
874. factories, machines falling
apart, half empty stores.
Copy !req
875. What we experience
at this moment,
Copy !req
876. the psychoanalytic
term for it would
Copy !req
877. have been the
inertia of the real,
Copy !req
878. this mute presence
beyond meaning,
Copy !req
879. what moments like
confronting planes here
Copy !req
880. in Mojave Desert bring
to us is maybe a chance
Copy !req
881. for an authentic,
passive experience.
Copy !req
882. Maybe without this
properly artistic moment
Copy !req
883. of authentic passivity,
nothing new can emerge.
Copy !req
884. Maybe something new only
emerges through the failure,
Copy !req
885. the suspension of proper
functioning of the
Copy !req
886. existing network of our
lifework, where we are.
Copy !req
887. Maybe, this is what we
need more than ever today.
Copy !req
888. What does the wreck of
the Titanic stand for?
Copy !req
889. We all know the standard reading
Copy !req
890. of the impact of the
sinking of the Titanic,
Copy !req
891. not only the film but
the real accident.
Copy !req
892. This sinking had such
an impact because it
Copy !req
893. happened in a society,
at that point,
Copy !req
894. still in all its
glitz and glory,
Copy !req
895. unaware of the decay
that awaited it
Copy !req
896. in the near future, the
World Wars and so on.
Copy !req
897. But there is something in excess
Copy !req
898. of this entire field of meanings
Copy !req
899. which is the very
fascinating presence
Copy !req
900. of the ruin of the Titanic
at the bottom of the ocean.
Copy !req
901. When James Cameron organized a
Copy !req
902. trip to the real
wreck of Titanic,
Copy !req
903. he also made a similar remark.
Copy !req
904. When the explorers
approached the wreck,
Copy !req
905. they had this almost
metaphysical experience
Copy !req
906. that they are approaching
a forbidden territory
Copy !req
907. in which the sacred and
the obscene overlap.
Copy !req
908. - Yeah, Roger that,
okay, drop down
Copy !req
909. and go into the first
class gangway door.
Copy !req
910. I want you guys
working the D deck.
Copy !req
911. - Every effective political,
ideological symbol
Copy !req
912. or symptom has to rely on this
Copy !req
913. dimension of
petrified enjoyment,
Copy !req
914. of the frozen grimace of an
excessive pleasure in pain.
Copy !req
915. What am I doing here in
the middle of the ocean,
Copy !req
916. alone in a boat surrounded
by frozen corpses?
Copy !req
917. - Jack?
Copy !req
918. - I
am in a scene from
Copy !req
919. James Cameron's "Titanic."
Copy !req
920. - Jack?
Copy !req
921. - Which is the supreme case
Copy !req
922. of ideology in recent Hollywood.
Copy !req
923. Why?
Copy !req
924. Because of the imminent tension
to the story of the film.
Copy !req
925. - I don't know this dance.
Copy !req
926. - Neither do I, just go
with it, don't think.
Copy !req
927. - We have
at least three levels.
Copy !req
928. First, there is what people
ironically refer to as
Copy !req
929. James Cameron's
Hollywood Marxism,
Copy !req
930. this ridiculous fake
sympathy with lower classes.
Copy !req
931. Up there, first
class passengers,
Copy !req
932. they are mostly evil,
egotistic, cowardly.
Copy !req
933. - You know I don't
like that, Rose.
Copy !req
934. - Embodied in Kate
Copy !req
935. Winslet's fiancé
played by Billy Zane.
Copy !req
936. - She knows.
Copy !req
937. - This whole
narrative is sustained
Copy !req
938. by a much more reactionary myth.
Copy !req
939. - Did you see those guys' faces?
Copy !req
940. - We
should ask what role
Copy !req
941. does the iceberg
hitting the ship
Copy !req
942. play in the development
of the love story?
Copy !req
943. - When the ship docks,
I'm getting off with you.
Copy !req
944. - This is crazy.
Copy !req
945. - (chuckles) I know.
Copy !req
946. - My claim is here a
slightly cynical one.
Copy !req
947. This would have been
the true catastrophe.
Copy !req
948. We can imagine how maybe
after two, three weeks
Copy !req
949. of intense sex in
New York, the love
Copy !req
950. affair would somehow fade away.
Copy !req
951. - As a paying customer, I
expect to get what I want.
Copy !req
952. - Kate Winslet is an
Copy !req
953. upperclass girl in
psychological distress.
Copy !req
954. Confused, her ego
is in shatters.
Copy !req
955. And the function of
Leonardo DiCaprio—
Copy !req
956. - Over on the bed, the couch.
Copy !req
957. - Is simply that he
Copy !req
958. helps her to
reconstitute her ego.
Copy !req
959. - Good, lie down.
Copy !req
960. - Her self image,
literally, he draws her image.
Copy !req
961. - Tell me when it looks right.
Copy !req
962. - Put your arm back
the way it was.
Copy !req
963. - It's really a new
version of one of the
Copy !req
964. old, favorite,
imperialist myths.
Copy !req
965. The idea being that when the
upper class people lose their
Copy !req
966. vitality, they need a
contact with lower classes.
Copy !req
967. Basically, ruthlessly exploiting
them in a vampire-like
Copy !req
968. way as it were sucking
from them the life energy.
Copy !req
969. Revitalized, they can join
their secluded upperclass life.
Copy !req
970. - My heart was pounding
the whole time.
Copy !req
971. It was the most erotic
moment of my life,
Copy !req
972. up until then at least.
Copy !req
973. - The ship hits the iceberg,
not immediately after
Copy !req
974. sex, but when the
couple goes up to
Copy !req
975. the open space and
decide to stay together.
Copy !req
976. - Oh yes,
hey, look at this.
Copy !req
977. - You know, often in
history, the event
Copy !req
978. which may appear
as a catastrophe
Copy !req
979. saves persons or an idea,
elevating it into a myth.
Copy !req
980. Remember the intervention
of the Soviet army
Copy !req
981. and other Warsaw-backed armies
in 1968 in Czechoslovakia
Copy !req
982. to strangle the
so-called Prague Spring.
Copy !req
983. The attempt of the Czech
democratic communists
Copy !req
984. to introduce a more
human-faced socialism.
Copy !req
985. Usually, we perceive
this brutal Soviet
Copy !req
986. intervention as
something that destroyed
Copy !req
987. the brief dream
of Prague Spring.
Copy !req
988. I think it saved the dream.
Copy !req
989. Either Czechoslovakia
would have turned into an
Copy !req
990. ordinary, liberal
capitalist state,
Copy !req
991. or at a certain point, which
was usually the fate of
Copy !req
992. reformist communists,
the communist in power
Copy !req
993. would be obliged to
set a certain limit.
Copy !req
994. Okay, you had your fun,
your freedom, that's enough.
Copy !req
995. Now, we again define the limits.
Copy !req
996. Again, the paradox
is that precisely the
Soviet intervention
Copy !req
997. saved the dream of,
the possibility of
Copy !req
998. another communism
and so on and so on.
Copy !req
999. So, here again—
Copy !req
1000. through the temporal
catastrophe,
Copy !req
1001. we have a love story,
which is at it were,
Copy !req
1002. redeemed in its idea,
saved for eternity.
Copy !req
1003. We can ultimately read
the catastrophe as a
Copy !req
1004. desperate maneuver to save
the illusion of eternal love.
Copy !req
1005. We can see how ideology
works effectively here.
Copy !req
1006. We have two superficial levels,
Copy !req
1007. all the fascination
of the accident,
Copy !req
1008. then the love story, but all
this which is quite acceptable
Copy !req
1009. for our liberal, progressive
minds, all this is just
Copy !req
1010. a trap, something to
lower our attention
Copy !req
1011. threshold, as it
were, to open us up,
Copy !req
1012. to be ready to accept the
true conservative message
Copy !req
1013. of rich people having
the right to revitalize
Copy !req
1014. themselves by
ruthlessly appropriating
Copy !req
1015. the vitality of the poor people.
Copy !req
1016. - There's
nothing there, sir.
Copy !req
1017. - There
is a wonderful
Copy !req
1018. detail which tells everything.
Copy !req
1019. - Come back!
Copy !req
1020. - When Kate
Winslet notices that
Copy !req
1021. Leonardo DiCaprio is dead, she,
of course, starts to shout,
Copy !req
1022. I will never let go,
I will never let go,
Copy !req
1023. while at the same moment—
Copy !req
1024. - I'll never let go, I promise.
Copy !req
1025. - She pushes him off.
Copy !req
1026. He is what we may
call, ironically, a
vanishing mediator.
Copy !req
1027. This logic of the
production of a couple
Copy !req
1028. has a long history in Hollywood.
Copy !req
1029. Whatever the story
is about, it may
Copy !req
1030. be about the end of the world,
Copy !req
1031. an asteroid threatening
the very survival
Copy !req
1032. of humanity, or a
great war, whatever,
Copy !req
1033. as a rule, we always
have a couple whose
Copy !req
1034. link is threatened and
who somehow, through
Copy !req
1035. this ordeal, at the end,
happily gets together.
Copy !req
1036. This logic does not hold
only for Hollywood films.
Copy !req
1037. - In the late 40s,
in Soviet Union,
Copy !req
1038. they produced arguably
one of the most expensive
Copy !req
1039. film of all times,
"The Fall of Berlin,"
Copy !req
1040. the chronicle of
the Second World
Copy !req
1041. War from the Soviet standpoint.
Copy !req
1042. And it's incredible
how closely this film
Copy !req
1043. also follows the logic of
the production of a couple.
Copy !req
1044. The story begins just
before the German attack
Copy !req
1045. on the Soviet Union, when a
model worker who is in love with
Copy !req
1046. a local girl but is too
shy to propose to her,
Copy !req
1047. is called to Moscow to get
a medal from Comrade Stalin.
Copy !req
1048. There, Stalin notices
his confusion,
Copy !req
1049. distress, and Stalin
gives him some advice,
Copy !req
1050. which poetry to quote and so on.
Copy !req
1051. This part,
unfortunately, was lost
Copy !req
1052. because in the background of
this scene there was Beria,
Copy !req
1053. a Soviet politician who
after Stalin's death,
Copy !req
1054. became a non-person,
was shot as a traitor.
Copy !req
1055. But we know from the
screenplay what was there.
Copy !req
1056. If Stalin gives you
love advice, it has to
Copy !req
1057. succeed so the couple embraces.
Copy !req
1058. He tells her probably
to make love.
Copy !req
1059. At that very moment,
there is the triumphant,
Copy !req
1060. violent entrance
of the obstacle.
Copy !req
1061. German planes come,
dropping bombs.
Copy !req
1062. - The girl
is taken prisoner.
Copy !req
1063. - The boy, of course,
joins the Red Army,
Copy !req
1064. and we follow him through
all the great battles.
Copy !req
1065. The idea being that in a
deeper logic of the film,
Copy !req
1066. what these battles
were about was
Copy !req
1067. really to recreate the couple.
Copy !req
1068. The boy has to get his girl.
Copy !req
1069. This is what happens at the end
Copy !req
1070. but in a very strange
way which reconfirms
Copy !req
1071. Stalin's role as the
supreme divine matchmaker.
Copy !req
1072. The scene itself, Stalin
emerging himself into
Copy !req
1073. a crowd of ordinary
people, never happened.
Copy !req
1074. Stalin was totally
paranoid about flying,
Copy !req
1075. about taking planes,
but nonetheless,
Copy !req
1076. when he saw this
scene, he cried.
Copy !req
1077. - Of course, he, himself, as
you know, wrote the lines.
Copy !req
1078. When the couple encounters each
Copy !req
1079. other, the girl
first sees Stalin.
Copy !req
1080. Then, she turns
around and, surprised,
Copy !req
1081. sees her lover for whom she was
Copy !req
1082. waiting all the time of the war.
Copy !req
1083. So it's only through
the presence of Stalin
Copy !req
1084. that the couple gets reunited.
Copy !req
1085. This is how ideology works.
Copy !req
1086. Not the explicit
ideology of the film,
Copy !req
1087. which we hear at the
end Stalin saying,
Copy !req
1088. now, all the free
people will enjoy
Copy !req
1089. peace and so on and
so on, but precisely,
Copy !req
1090. ideology at its
more fundamental.
Copy !req
1091. This apparently totally
subordinated motive,
Copy !req
1092. unimportant in itself,
the story of a couple,
Copy !req
1093. this is what is the key element
Copy !req
1094. which holds the
entire film together,
Copy !req
1095. that small surplus
element which attracts us,
Copy !req
1096. which maintains our attention.
Copy !req
1097. This is how ideology works.
Copy !req
1098. - Nice.
Copy !req
1099. Everything clean, oiled
Copy !req
1100. so that your action
is beautiful.
Copy !req
1101. Smooth, Charlene.
Copy !req
1102. - We usually think that
military discipline
Copy !req
1103. is just a matter of mindlessly
Copy !req
1104. following orders,
obeying the rules.
Copy !req
1105. You don't think, you
do what is your duty.
Copy !req
1106. It's not as simple as that.
Copy !req
1107. If we do this, we
just become machines.
Copy !req
1108. There has to be something more.
Copy !req
1109. This more can have
two basic forms.
Copy !req
1110. The first more benign form
is an ironic distance,
Copy !req
1111. best epitomized
by the well-known
Copy !req
1112. movie and TV series, "M.A.S.H."
Copy !req
1113. - Hawkeye?
Copy !req
1114. - Where the
military doctors are involved in
Copy !req
1115. sexual escapades, make
jokes all the time.
Copy !req
1116. Some people took Robert
Altman's movie "M.A.S.H."
Copy !req
1117. even as a kind of an
anti-militaristic,
Copy !req
1118. satiric product, but it's not.
Copy !req
1119. We should always bear
in mind that these
Copy !req
1120. soldiers with all
their practical jokes,
Copy !req
1121. making fun of their
superiors and so on,
Copy !req
1122. operated perfectly as soldiers.
Copy !req
1123. They did their duty.
Copy !req
1124. - Trapper,
this one's for you, babe.
Copy !req
1125. - Nice.
Copy !req
1126. - Much more ominous
is a kind of obscene
Copy !req
1127. supplement to pure
military discipline.
Copy !req
1128. - The Marine Corps,
one, two, three—
Copy !req
1129. In practically all movies
about the U.S. Marines,
Copy !req
1130. the best-known embodiment
of this obscenity are
Copy !req
1131. marching chants, a
mixture of nonsense—
Copy !req
1132. - And obscenity.
Copy !req
1133. - This
is not undermining,
Copy !req
1134. making fun of
military discipline.
Copy !req
1135. - It is its
inner most constituent.
Copy !req
1136. - You take this
obscene supplement away
Copy !req
1137. and military machine
stops working.
Copy !req
1138. - Well, no shit, what have we
got here, a fucking comedian?
Copy !req
1139. Private Joker, I
admire your honesty.
Copy !req
1140. Hell, I like you.
Copy !req
1141. You can come over to my
house and fuck my sister.
Copy !req
1142. You little scum bag,
I've got your name.
Copy !req
1143. I've got your ass!
Copy !req
1144. You will not laugh,
you will not cry.
Copy !req
1145. You will learn by the numbers.
Copy !req
1146. I will teach you.
Copy !req
1147. Now, get up, get on your feet!
Copy !req
1148. You had best unfuck
yourself or I will unscrew
Copy !req
1149. your head and shit
down your neck.
Copy !req
1150. - Sir, yes, sir!
Copy !req
1151. - Private Joker, why did
you join my beloved corps?
Copy !req
1152. - I think that the
drill sergeant,
Copy !req
1153. the way it is played
in an exemplary way
Copy !req
1154. in Stanley Kubrick's
"Full Metal Jacket,"
Copy !req
1155. that the drill sergeant
is rather a tragic figure.
Copy !req
1156. I always like to imagine
him as the person who
Copy !req
1157. after his work, returns home,
is quite decent, and so on.
Copy !req
1158. - All this
obscene shouting is just
Copy !req
1159. a show put on not
so much to impress
Copy !req
1160. ordinary soldiers
whom he is training,
Copy !req
1161. as to bribe them with
bits of enjoyment.
Copy !req
1162. - It's not just a question
of these obscenities,
Copy !req
1163. which sustains the
military machinery.
Copy !req
1164. It's another more general
rule which holds for
Copy !req
1165. military communities,
but even more
Copy !req
1166. I would say, for all
human communities,
Copy !req
1167. from the largest
nations, ethnic groups,
Copy !req
1168. up to small university
departments and so on.
Copy !req
1169. You don't only have
explicit rules.
Copy !req
1170. You always, in order to
become part of a community,
Copy !req
1171. you need some implicit,
unwritten rules
Copy !req
1172. which are never
publicly recognized
Copy !req
1173. but are absolutely
crucial as the point of
Copy !req
1174. the identification of a group.
Copy !req
1175. In the U.K.,
everyone knows about
Copy !req
1176. the obscene, unwritten rituals,
Copy !req
1177. which regulate life
in public schools.
Copy !req
1178. - That'll be all,
thank you, Finchley.
Copy !req
1179. I want to see all whips
in my study after break.
Copy !req
1180. - Right, sir.
Copy !req
1181. - Oh, how was India, enjoy it?
Copy !req
1182. - Jolly good.
- Bridges!
Copy !req
1183. - Just think about Lindsay
Anderson's classic, "If..."
Copy !req
1184. The public life is democratic.
Copy !req
1185. We have professors who interact
Copy !req
1186. with their pupils,
nice atmosphere,
Copy !req
1187. teaching friendship,
spirit of cooperation,
Copy !req
1188. but then we all know what
happens beneath the surface,
Copy !req
1189. older pupils torturing,
sexually abusing the younger.
Copy !req
1190. This same mixture of obscenity
and sadistic violence.
Copy !req
1191. And again, what
is crucial here is
Copy !req
1192. we should not simply
put all the blame
Copy !req
1193. or all the enjoyment
on the older pupils.
Copy !req
1194. - No, no! (screaming)
Copy !req
1195. - The victims even are part of
Copy !req
1196. this infernal
cycle of obscenity.
Copy !req
1197. It is as if in order to really
be a member of a community
Copy !req
1198. you have to render
your hands dirty.
Copy !req
1199. And I think that even
the Abu Ghraib scandal
Copy !req
1200. of American soldiers torturing
Copy !req
1201. and especially humiliating Iraqi
Copy !req
1202. prisoners is to be
read in this way.
Copy !req
1203. It's not simply we, the arrogant
Copy !req
1204. Americans, are
humiliating others.
Copy !req
1205. What Iraqi soldiers
experienced there
Copy !req
1206. was the staging of
the obscene underside
Copy !req
1207. of the American
military culture.
Copy !req
1208. In "Full Metal Jacket,"
it's the character of
Copy !req
1209. Joker, played by Matthew Modine,
Copy !req
1210. who is close to
what we would call
Copy !req
1211. a normal soldier, a
"M.A.S.H." type of soldier.
Copy !req
1212. He has a proper ironic distance.
Copy !req
1213. He proves at the
end, militarily,
Copy !req
1214. the most efficient soldier.
Copy !req
1215. Returning back to me, why
then will I soon shoot myself?
Copy !req
1216. Something went wrong
there, but what?
Copy !req
1217. - Lock and load!
Copy !req
1218. - I did
not just run amok.
Copy !req
1219. - Order, huh!
Copy !req
1220. This is my rifle!
Copy !req
1221. There are many like it,
but this one is mine!
Copy !req
1222. - But I got
too directly identified
Copy !req
1223. with these obscene rituals.
Copy !req
1224. I lost the distance.
Copy !req
1225. I took them seriously.
Copy !req
1226. - What in the name
of Jesus H. Christ
Copy !req
1227. are you animals
doing in my head?
Copy !req
1228. - If you get too
close to it, if you
Copy !req
1229. over-identify with
it, if you really
Copy !req
1230. immediately become the voice of
Copy !req
1231. this super ego, it's
self destructive.
Copy !req
1232. You kill people around you.
Copy !req
1233. You end up killing yourself.
Copy !req
1234. - No!
Copy !req
1235. - Oh, shh, shh,
shh, so you think
Copy !req
1236. Batman's made Gotham
a better place, hmm?
Copy !req
1237. Look at me, look at me!
Copy !req
1238. You see, this is how crazy
Batman's made Gotham.
Copy !req
1239. You want order in Gotham?
Copy !req
1240. Batman must take off his
mask and turn himself in.
Copy !req
1241. Oh, and every day he doesn't,
Copy !req
1242. people will die,
starting tonight.
Copy !req
1243. I'm a man of my word.
Copy !req
1244. - So who is Joker?
Copy !req
1245. - If we're gonna play games—
Copy !req
1246. - Which is
the lie he is opposing?
Copy !req
1247. - I'm gonna need
a cup of coffee.
Copy !req
1248. - Ah, the good cop, bad
cop routine? (clicks teeth)
Copy !req
1249. - Not exactly.
Copy !req
1250. - The truly disturbing thing
about "The Dark Knight"
Copy !req
1251. is that it elevates lie
Copy !req
1252. into a general social
principal, into the principal
Copy !req
1253. of organization of our
social political life.
Copy !req
1254. As if our societies
can remain stable,
Copy !req
1255. can function, only
if based on a lie.
Copy !req
1256. As if telling the truth,
and this telling the truth
Copy !req
1257. is embodied in Joker,
means distraction,
Copy !req
1258. disintegration of
the social order.
Copy !req
1259. - Never start with the head.
Copy !req
1260. The victim gets all fuzzy.
Copy !req
1261. He can't feel the next—
Copy !req
1262. - Towards the end, it
is as if lie functions
Copy !req
1263. as a hot potato passing from one
Copy !req
1264. person's hand to
another person's hand.
Copy !req
1265. First, there is Harvey Dent.
Copy !req
1266. - So be it, take the
Batman into custody.
Copy !req
1267. - The public
prosecutor who lies.
Copy !req
1268. - I am the Batman.
Copy !req
1269. - Claiming that he
is the real person
Copy !req
1270. behind Batman's mask,
that he is Batman.
Copy !req
1271. Then, we have Gordon,
honest policeman,
Copy !req
1272. Batman's friend, who fakes,
stages his own death.
Copy !req
1273. - I'll see you later!
- Wait, are you going back?
Copy !req
1274. - Five dead, two of them cops,
you can't sweep that off.
Copy !req
1275. - At
the end, Batman,
Copy !req
1276. himself, takes upon himself—
Copy !req
1277. - But the Joker cannot win.
Copy !req
1278. - The
crimes, murders
committed by Harvey Dent,
Copy !req
1279. the public prosecutor
turned criminal.
Copy !req
1280. - Gotham
needs its true hero.
Copy !req
1281. - In order to
maintain the trust of
Copy !req
1282. the public into
the legal system,
Copy !req
1283. the idea is if the ordinary
public were to learn
Copy !req
1284. how corrupt it was or
is, the very core of our
Copy !req
1285. legal system, then everything
would have collapsed,
Copy !req
1286. so we need a lie
to maintain order.
Copy !req
1287. - A hero, not the
hero we deserved,
Copy !req
1288. but the hero we needed,
Copy !req
1289. Nothing less than
a knight, shining.
Copy !req
1290. - There is nothing new in this.
Copy !req
1291. This is an old,
conservative wisdom
Copy !req
1292. asserted long ago by
philosophers from Plato,
Copy !req
1293. but especially, and
then Immanuel Kant,
Copy !req
1294. Edmond Burke, and
so on and so on.
Copy !req
1295. This idea that the
truth is too strong.
Copy !req
1296. That a politician should
be a cynicist who,
Copy !req
1297. although he knows what is true,
Copy !req
1298. tells to ordinary
people what Plato
Copy !req
1299. called a noble fable, a lie.
Copy !req
1300. - The United States
knows that Iraq
Copy !req
1301. has weapons of mass destruction.
Copy !req
1302. The U.K. knows that they have
weapons of mass destruction.
Copy !req
1303. Any country on the
face of the earth
Copy !req
1304. with an active
intelligence program
Copy !req
1305. knows that Iraq has weapons
of mass destruction.
Copy !req
1306. - Which could be activated
within 45 minutes,
Copy !req
1307. including against his
own Shia population.
Copy !req
1308. - The choice is his and
if he does not disarm,
Copy !req
1309. the United States of America
will lead a coalition
Copy !req
1310. and disarm him in
the name of peace.
Copy !req
1311. - Let's be frank,
we can have a state
Copy !req
1312. public system of
power as legitimate
Copy !req
1313. as you want submitted
to critical press,
Copy !req
1314. democratic elections, and so on
Copy !req
1315. and so on, apparently
it just serves us.
Copy !req
1316. But nonetheless, if
you look closely into
Copy !req
1317. how even the most
democratic state power
Copy !req
1318. functions in order for it
to display true authority,
Copy !req
1319. and power needs authority,
there has to be,
Copy !req
1320. as it were between
the lines all the time
Copy !req
1321. this message of,
yeah, yeah, yeah,
Copy !req
1322. we are legalized
through elections,
Copy !req
1323. but basically, we can do
with you whatever we want.
Copy !req
1324. - Because
that's what needs to happen.
Copy !req
1325. Because sometimes,
truth isn't good enough.
Copy !req
1326. Sometimes people deserve more.
Copy !req
1327. Sometimes people deserve to
have their faith rewarded.
Copy !req
1328. - One of the great platitudes,
which are popular today
Copy !req
1329. when we are confronted
with acts of violence,
Copy !req
1330. is to refer to
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's
Copy !req
1331. famous statement from
"Brothers Karamazov,"
Copy !req
1332. "If there is no God, then
everything is permitted."
Copy !req
1333. Well, the first problem
with this statement is that
Copy !req
1334. Dostoyevsky, of
course, never made it.
Copy !req
1335. The first one who
used this phrase,
Copy !req
1336. as allegedly made
by Dostoyevsky,
Copy !req
1337. was Jean-Paul Sartre in '43,
but the main point is that
Copy !req
1338. this statement is simply wrong.
Copy !req
1339. Even a brief look
at our predicament
Copy !req
1340. today clearly tells us this.
Copy !req
1341. It is precisely if there is God,
Copy !req
1342. that everything is permitted to
Copy !req
1343. those who not only
believe in God,
Copy !req
1344. but who perceive
themselves as instruments,
Copy !req
1345. direct instruments,
of the divine will.
Copy !req
1346. If you posit or perceive
or legitimize yourself
Copy !req
1347. as a direct instrument
of the divine will,
Copy !req
1348. then of course
all narrow, petty,
Copy !req
1349. moral considerations disappear.
Copy !req
1350. How can you even think
in such narrow terms
Copy !req
1351. when you are a direct
instrument of God?
Copy !req
1352. This is how so-called religious
Copy !req
1353. fundamentalists work,
but not only them.
Copy !req
1354. Every form of so-called
totalitarianism
Copy !req
1355. works like that even
if it is presented,
Copy !req
1356. or if it presents
itself, as atheist.
Copy !req
1357. Let's take Stalinism.
Copy !req
1358. Officially, Stalinism
was based on
Copy !req
1359. atheist Marxist
theory, but if we look
Copy !req
1360. closely at the
subjective experience
Copy !req
1361. of a Stalinist political agent,
Copy !req
1362. leader, we see that
it's not a position of
Copy !req
1363. an arrogant master who
can do whatever he wants.
Copy !req
1364. It's, on the contrary, the
position of a perfect servant.
Copy !req
1365. In the Stalinist universe,
there definitely is
Copy !req
1366. what in psychoanalytic
theory we call the Big Other.
Copy !req
1367. This Big Other in the Stalinist
universe has many names.
Copy !req
1368. The best known of them are
the necessity of historical
Copy !req
1369. progress towards communism,
or simply history.
Copy !req
1370. History itself is the Big Other,
Copy !req
1371. history as the necessary
succession of historical stages.
Copy !req
1372. A communist experiences
himself as simply
Copy !req
1373. an instrument whose
function is to
Copy !req
1374. actualize a
historical necessity.
Copy !req
1375. The people, the
mythic people whose
Copy !req
1376. instrument that the
totalitarian leader is,
Copy !req
1377. are never simply the
actually existing
Copy !req
1378. individuals, groups
of people and so on.
Copy !req
1379. It's some kind of imagined,
idealized point of reference
Copy !req
1380. which works even
when, for example,
Copy !req
1381. in rebellions against
the communist rule,
Copy !req
1382. like in Hungary '56, when the
large majority of actually
Copy !req
1383. resisting people raises up,
is opposed to the regime.
Copy !req
1384. They can still say, no,
these are just individuals.
Copy !req
1385. They are not the true people.
Copy !req
1386. When you are accused of, my God,
Copy !req
1387. how could you have been doing
all these horrible things,
Copy !req
1388. you could have said, and this is
Copy !req
1389. the standard Stalinist excuse,
Copy !req
1390. of course, my heart bleeds
for all the poor victims.
Copy !req
1391. I am not fully
responsible for it.
Copy !req
1392. I was only acting on
behalf of the Big Other.
Copy !req
1393. As for myself, I like cats,
small children, whatever.
Copy !req
1394. This is always part
of the iconography
Copy !req
1395. of a Stalinist leader.
Copy !req
1396. Lenin, in Stalinism,
is always presented as
Copy !req
1397. someone who likes small
children and cats.
Copy !req
1398. The implication
being Lenin had to
Copy !req
1399. order many killings and so on,
Copy !req
1400. but his heart was not there.
Copy !req
1401. This was his duty
as instrument of
Copy !req
1402. historical progress
and so on and so on.
Copy !req
1403. The way to undermine
Stalinism is not simply
Copy !req
1404. to make fun of the
leader, which can be,
Copy !req
1405. up to a point, even tolerated.
Copy !req
1406. It is to undermine
this very reference,
Copy !req
1407. mythic reference,
which legitimizes
Copy !req
1408. the Stalinist
leader, the people.
Copy !req
1409. This is how I read
the by far best work
Copy !req
1410. of Milos Forman, his
early Czech films,
Copy !req
1411. "Black Peter," the
"Loves of a Blond,"
Copy !req
1412. and "Firemen's
Ball," where he mocks
Copy !req
1413. precisely the ordinary people...
Copy !req
1414. in their daily
conformission, stupidity,
Copy !req
1415. egotistic lust, and
so on and so on.
Copy !req
1416. - It may appear
that this is something
Copy !req
1417. very arrogant, but no, I
think that this is the way to
Copy !req
1418. undermine the entire structure
of the Stalinist universe,
Copy !req
1419. to demonstrate not that
leaders are not leaders.
Copy !req
1420. They are always ready
to say, oh, but we are
Copy !req
1421. just ordinary people like you.
Copy !req
1422. No, that there is
no mythic people
Copy !req
1423. which serves as the
ultimate legitimization.
Copy !req
1424. - So what is the Big
Other, this basic
Copy !req
1425. element of every
ideological edifice?
Copy !req
1426. It has two quite
contradictory aspects.
Copy !req
1427. On the one hand, of
course, the Big Other
Copy !req
1428. is the secret order
of things like
Copy !req
1429. divine reason, fate or whatever,
Copy !req
1430. which is controlling
our destiny.
Copy !req
1431. But it is maybe the
least interesting aspect
Copy !req
1432. of the Big Other as the agents,
Copy !req
1433. which guarantees meaning
of what we are doing.
Copy !req
1434. - Much
more interesting is
Copy !req
1435. the Big Other as the
order of appearances.
Copy !req
1436. Many things which are prohibited
are not simply prohibited,
Copy !req
1437. but they should not
happen for the Big Other.
Copy !req
1438. - A supreme example
of this agency of
Copy !req
1439. the Big Other as the agency of
Copy !req
1440. appearance is the
prattling busybody
Copy !req
1441. in David Lean's masterpiece,
the "Brief Encounter."
Copy !req
1442. At the very beginning
of the film,
Copy !req
1443. the two lovers, Celia
Johnson and Trevor Howard,
Copy !req
1444. arrange for their
last meeting in
Copy !req
1445. a cafeteria of a
small train station.
Copy !req
1446. - Laura, what a lovely surprise.
Copy !req
1447. - Oh, Dolly.
Copy !req
1448. - My dear, I've been
shopping till I'm dropping.
Copy !req
1449. My feet are nearly off,
and my throat's parched.
Copy !req
1450. I thought of having
tea at Spindle's,
Copy !req
1451. but I was terrified of
losing the train, oh, dear.
Copy !req
1452. - Oh, this is Dr. Harvey.
Copy !req
1453. - How do you do?
Copy !req
1454. - Would you be a perfect dear
and get me my cup of tea?
Copy !req
1455. I really don't
think I could drag
Copy !req
1456. my poor old bones
over to the counter.
Copy !req
1457. - Why is this situation
so interesting?
Copy !req
1458. Because on the one hand,
we cannot but experience
Copy !req
1459. this annoying lady
as a brutal intruder.
Copy !req
1460. - There's your train.
- Yes, I know.
Copy !req
1461. - Oh, aren't
you coming with us?
Copy !req
1462. No, I go in the
opposite direction.
Copy !req
1463. - My practice is in Churley.
Copy !req
1464. - Oh, I see.
Copy !req
1465. - I'm a general
practitioner at the moment.
Copy !req
1466. - Dr. Harvey's going
out to Africa next week.
Copy !req
1467. - Oh, how thrilling.
Copy !req
1468. - Instead of the
two lovers being allowed,
Copy !req
1469. at least, their
final moments alone,
Copy !req
1470. they have to maintain
the appearances
Copy !req
1471. that nothing is
happening between them,
Copy !req
1472. that they are just acquaintances
and so on and so on.
Copy !req
1473. - He'll have to run,
or he'll miss it.
Copy !req
1474. He's got to get right over
to the other platform—
Copy !req
1475. - This precisely is
Copy !req
1476. the function of the Big Other.
Copy !req
1477. We need, for our stability,
a figure of Big Other
Copy !req
1478. for whom we maintain
appearances.
Copy !req
1479. - And I arrived at the
station with exactly half
Copy !req
1480. a minute to spare,
my dear, I flew.
Copy !req
1481. - But are things really
as simple as that?
Copy !req
1482. The next scene, the
scene of Celia Johnson,
Copy !req
1483. totally desperate,
she knows that
Copy !req
1484. she will never
again see her lover.
Copy !req
1485. - Yes, he's a nice creature.
Copy !req
1486. - You known him long?
Copy !req
1487. - No, not very long.
Copy !req
1488. I hardly know him
at all, really.
Copy !req
1489. - Well, my
dear, I've always
Copy !req
1490. had a passion for doctors.
Copy !req
1491. - Then, we hear the
Copy !req
1492. line of Celia Johnson's thought.
Copy !req
1493. - I wish
I could trust you.
Copy !req
1494. I wish you were a
wise, kind friend
Copy !req
1495. instead of a gossiping
acquaintance I've known
Copy !req
1496. casually for years and never
particularly cared for.
Copy !req
1497. - What is the nature of this
deadlock of Celia Johnson?
Copy !req
1498. She is split between
the two figures
Copy !req
1499. in the film of the Big Other.
Copy !req
1500. On the one hand, it's her
husband, the ideal listener,
Copy !req
1501. but it's out of question
to confess to him.
Copy !req
1502. - Fred, Fred,
Copy !req
1503. dear Fred, there's so much
that I want to say to you.
Copy !req
1504. You're the only one in
the world with enough
Copy !req
1505. wisdom and gentleness
to understand.
Copy !req
1506. - (chuckles) Wild
horses wouldn't drag
me away from England
Copy !req
1507. and home and all the
things I'm used to.
Copy !req
1508. I mean, one has one's roots
after all, hasn't one?
Copy !req
1509. - Oh, yes, one has one's roots.
Copy !req
1510. - On the other
hand, you have here this stupid
Copy !req
1511. person who is available
as a confessor,
Copy !req
1512. but there is not even
an elementary trust.
Copy !req
1513. - For months and months.
Copy !req
1514. - I wish
you'd stop talking.
Copy !req
1515. I wish you'd stop prying and
trying to find things out.
Copy !req
1516. I wish you were dead.
Copy !req
1517. No, I don't mean that.
Copy !req
1518. That was silly and unkind,
but I wish you'd stop talking.
Copy !req
1519. - My dear,
all her hair came out,
Copy !req
1520. and she said the social life
was quite, quite horrid.
Copy !req
1521. Provincial, you know,
and very nouveau riche.
Copy !req
1522. - Oh, Dolly.
Copy !req
1523. - What's the matter, dear?
Copy !req
1524. Are you feeling ill again?
Copy !req
1525. - So that's the tragedy
of our predicament.
Copy !req
1526. In order to fully
exist as individuals,
Copy !req
1527. we need the fiction
of a Big Other.
Copy !req
1528. There must be an agency which,
Copy !req
1529. as it were, registers
our predicament,
Copy !req
1530. an agency where the
truth of ourselves
Copy !req
1531. will be inscribed, accepted,
Copy !req
1532. an agency to which to confess.
Copy !req
1533. But what if there
is no such agency?
Copy !req
1534. This was the utmost
despair of many
Copy !req
1535. women raped in the post-Yugoslav
Copy !req
1536. war in Bosnia in the early 90s.
Copy !req
1537. They survived their
terrible predicament,
Copy !req
1538. and what kept them
alive was the idea,
Copy !req
1539. I must survive to
tell the truth.
Copy !req
1540. If, when if, they survived,
Copy !req
1541. they made a terrible discovery.
Copy !req
1542. There is no one to
really to listen to them,
Copy !req
1543. either some totally
ignorant bored social worker
Copy !req
1544. or some relative who usually
made obscene insinuations like,
Copy !req
1545. are you sure you were
not even enjoying
Copy !req
1546. a little bit the rape
and so on and so on.
Copy !req
1547. They discovered
the truth of what
Copy !req
1548. Jacques Lacan claims,
there is no Big Other.
Copy !req
1549. There may be a virtual Big Other
to whom you cannot confess.
Copy !req
1550. There may be a Real Other,
Copy !req
1551. but it's never the virtual one.
Copy !req
1552. We are alone.
Copy !req
1553. I think Kafka was
right when he said that
Copy !req
1554. for a modern secular,
non-religious man,
Copy !req
1555. bureaucracy, state bureaucracy
is the only remaining
Copy !req
1556. contact with the
dimension of the divine.
Copy !req
1557. It is in this scene
from "Brazil" that
we see the intimate
Copy !req
1558. link between bureaucracy
and enjoyment.
Copy !req
1559. What the impenetrable
omnipotence of
Copy !req
1560. bureaucracy harbors
is divine enjoyment.
Copy !req
1561. - My name's Lowry,
Mr. Warren, Sam Lowry.
Copy !req
1562. - The
intense rush of
Copy !req
1563. bureaucratic engagement
serves nothing.
Copy !req
1564. - Glad to have you on board.
Copy !req
1565. - It
is the performance
Copy !req
1566. of its very purposelessness—
Copy !req
1567. - You like it up here?
Copy !req
1568. - That generates
an intense enjoyment,
Copy !req
1569. ready to reproduce
itself forever.
Copy !req
1570. - Expecting big things,
too complex to finance.
Copy !req
1571. Ah, don't let
progress see those.
Copy !req
1572. Between you and me,
Lowry, this, no no,
Copy !req
1573. department, tell
records to get stuffed,
Copy !req
1574. is about to be
upgraded and the, ah!
Copy !req
1575. Here we are, your very own
number on your very own door,
Copy !req
1576. and behind that door,
your very own office.
Copy !req
1577. Congratulations, DZ-015,
welcome to the team.
Copy !req
1578. Yes, no, cancel that, send
two copies to finance.
Copy !req
1579. - The adverse
of this is a wonderful scene
Copy !req
1580. more towards the
beginning of the film.
Copy !req
1581. - Harry Tuttle, heating
engineer, at your service.
Copy !req
1582. - The hero who
has a problem in his apartment
Copy !req
1583. with plumbing tries to get
the State agency to fix it.
Copy !req
1584. - Are you from Central Services?
Copy !req
1585. - Of course, two
guys come, they just want
Copy !req
1586. forms to fill in,
they do nothing.
Copy !req
1587. - I called Central Services.
Copy !req
1588. - And
then the ultimate
subversive figure comes,
Copy !req
1589. a kind of clandestine plumber,
played by Robert De Niro.
Copy !req
1590. - Just a minute, what was
that business with the gun?
Copy !req
1591. - Just a precaution,
sir, just a precaution.
Copy !req
1592. - Who tells
him, just tell me what is
Copy !req
1593. the problem and promises
quickly to fix it.
Copy !req
1594. This, of course, is the
ultimate offense to bureaucracy.
Copy !req
1595. - Are you telling me
that this is illegal?
Copy !req
1596. Thanks.
Copy !req
1597. - Listen, kid, we're all
in it together, go on.
Copy !req
1598. - In the ordinary
theological universe,
Copy !req
1599. your duty is imposed
onto you by God
Copy !req
1600. or society, another
higher authority,
Copy !req
1601. and your responsibility
is to do it.
Copy !req
1602. But in a radically
atheist universe,
Copy !req
1603. you are not only responsible for
Copy !req
1604. doing your duty, you
are also responsible
Copy !req
1605. for deciding what is your duty.
Copy !req
1606. There is always in our
subjectivity, in the way we
Copy !req
1607. experience ourselves,
a minimum of hysteria.
Copy !req
1608. Hysteria is what,
hysteria is the way
Copy !req
1609. we question our social,
symbolic identity.
Copy !req
1610. - You're sure it's God?
Copy !req
1611. You're sure it's not the devil?
Copy !req
1612. - I'm not sure, I'm
not sure of anything.
Copy !req
1613. - If it's the devil, the
devil can be cast out.
Copy !req
1614. - But what if it's God?
Copy !req
1615. You can't cast out God, can you?
Copy !req
1616. - What is hysteria
at it's most elementary?
Copy !req
1617. It's a question addressed at the
Copy !req
1618. authority which
defines my identity.
Copy !req
1619. It's why am I what you
are telling me that I am?
Copy !req
1620. In psychoanalytic
theory, hysteria is much
Copy !req
1621. more subversive than perversion.
Copy !req
1622. A pervert has no
uncertainties while again,
Copy !req
1623. the hysterical position
is that of a doubt,
Copy !req
1624. which is an extremely
productive position.
Copy !req
1625. All new inventions come
from hysterical questioning,
Copy !req
1626. and the unique character
of Christianity is that
Copy !req
1627. it transposes this
hysterical questioning
Copy !req
1628. onto God himself as a subject.
Copy !req
1629. - Who's that, who's
following me, is that you?
Copy !req
1630. - This is the ingenious idea of
Copy !req
1631. "The Last Temptation of Christ,"
Copy !req
1632. as in Kazantzakis' novel
and Scorsese's film,
Copy !req
1633. namely the idea that
when Jesus Christ,
Copy !req
1634. in his youth, is told that he is
Copy !req
1635. not only the Son of
God, but basically,
Copy !req
1636. God himself, he doesn't
simply accept it.
Copy !req
1637. This is for Jesus Christ, boy,
Copy !req
1638. traumatic news like,
my God, why am I dead?
Copy !req
1639. Am I really dead?
Copy !req
1640. How did we come to
that unique point,
Copy !req
1641. which I think, makes
Christianity an exception?
Copy !req
1642. It all began with
the "Book of Job."
Copy !req
1643. As we all know, things
turn out bad for Job.
Copy !req
1644. He loses everything, his house,
Copy !req
1645. his family, his
possessions and so on.
Copy !req
1646. Three friends visit
him and each of them
Copy !req
1647. tries to justify
Job's misfortunes.
Copy !req
1648. The greatness of Job is that he
Copy !req
1649. does not accept
this deeper meaning.
Copy !req
1650. When, towards the end
of the Book of Job,
Copy !req
1651. God himself appears,
Copy !req
1652. God gives right to Job.
Copy !req
1653. He says everything
that the theological
Copy !req
1654. friends were telling
Job is false.
Copy !req
1655. Everything job was
saying is true,
Copy !req
1656. no meaning in catastrophes.
Copy !req
1657. Here, we have the first step in
Copy !req
1658. the direction of
delegitimizing suffering.
Copy !req
1659. - Father, stay
with me, don't leave me.
Copy !req
1660. - The contrast
between Judaism and Christianity
Copy !req
1661. is the contrast between
anxiety and love.
Copy !req
1662. The idea is that
the Jewish God is
Copy !req
1663. the God of the abyss
of the other's desire.
Copy !req
1664. Terrible things happen,
God is in charge,
Copy !req
1665. but we do not know
what the Big Other,
Copy !req
1666. God, wants from us.
Copy !req
1667. What is the divine desire?
Copy !req
1668. To designate this
traumatic experience,
Copy !req
1669. Lacan used the Italian
phrase, che voglio,
Copy !req
1670. what do you want, this
terrifying question,
Copy !req
1671. but what do you want from me?
Copy !req
1672. The idea is that Judaism
persists in this anxiety,
Copy !req
1673. like God remains this
enigmatic, terrifying other.
Copy !req
1674. And then Christianity resolves
the tension through love.
Copy !req
1675. By sacrificing his son, God
demonstrates that he loves us.
Copy !req
1676. So it's a kind of a imaginary,
Copy !req
1677. sentimental even, resolution of
Copy !req
1678. a situation of radical anxiety.
Copy !req
1679. - Father, forgive them.
Copy !req
1680. - If this were to
be the case, then Christianity
Copy !req
1681. would have been a
kind of ideological
Copy !req
1682. reversal or pacification
of the deep,
Copy !req
1683. much more shattering
Jewish insight.
Copy !req
1684. But I think one can
read the Christian
Copy !req
1685. gesture in a much
more radical way.
Copy !req
1686. This is what the
sequence of crucifixion
Copy !req
1687. in Scorsese's film shows us.
Copy !req
1688. What dies on the
cross is precisely
Copy !req
1689. this guarantee of the Big Other.
Copy !req
1690. The message of Christianity
is here radically atheist.
Copy !req
1691. It's the death of Christ
is not any kind of
Copy !req
1692. redemption or commercial
affair in the sense of
Copy !req
1693. Christ suffers to
pay for our sins,
Copy !req
1694. pay to whom, for
what, and so on.
Copy !req
1695. It's simply the disintegration
of the God which
Copy !req
1696. guarantees the
meaning of our lives.
Copy !req
1697. And that's the meaning
of that famous phrase,
Copy !req
1698. Father, why have
you forsaken me?
Copy !req
1699. - Father, why have
you forsaken me?
Copy !req
1700. - Just before Christ's
death, we get what,
Copy !req
1701. in psychoanalytic terms, we
call subjective destitution,
Copy !req
1702. stepping out totally
of the domain
Copy !req
1703. of symbolic identification,
Copy !req
1704. cancelling or suspending
the entire field of
Copy !req
1705. symbolic authority, the
entire field of the Big Other.
Copy !req
1706. Of course, we cannot know what
Copy !req
1707. God wants from us
because there is no God.
Copy !req
1708. This is the Jesus
Christ who says,
Copy !req
1709. among other things, I
bring to Earth not peace.
Copy !req
1710. If you don't hate your father,
Copy !req
1711. your mother, you
are not my follower.
Copy !req
1712. Of course, this doesn't
mean that you should
Copy !req
1713. actively hate or
kill your parents.
Copy !req
1714. I think that family
relations stand here
Copy !req
1715. for hierarchic social relations.
Copy !req
1716. The message of
Christ is, I'm dying,
Copy !req
1717. but my death,
itself, is good news.
Copy !req
1718. It means you are alone,
left to your freedom,
Copy !req
1719. be in the Holy
Ghost, Holy Spirit,
Copy !req
1720. which is just the
community of believers.
Copy !req
1721. It's wrong to think
that the second coming
Copy !req
1722. will be that Christ as a
figure will return somehow.
Copy !req
1723. Christ is already
here when believers
Copy !req
1724. form an emancipatory collective.
Copy !req
1725. This is why I claim that
the only way, really,
Copy !req
1726. to be an atheist is to
go through Christianity.
Copy !req
1727. Christianity is much
more atheist than
Copy !req
1728. the usual atheism,
which can claim
Copy !req
1729. there is no God and so
on, but nonetheless,
Copy !req
1730. it retains a certain
trust into the Big Other.
Copy !req
1731. This Big Other can
be called natural
Copy !req
1732. necessity, evolution,
or whatever.
Copy !req
1733. We humans are,
nonetheless, reduced to a
Copy !req
1734. position within a harmonious
whole of evolution, whatever,
Copy !req
1735. but the difficult
thing to accept is,
Copy !req
1736. again, that there
is no Big Other,
Copy !req
1737. no point of reference
which guarantees meaning.
Copy !req
1738. We are in John
Frankenheimer's "Seconds,"
Copy !req
1739. a neglected Hollywood
masterpiece from 1966,
Copy !req
1740. from the very heart
of the hippy era,
Copy !req
1741. which preached
unrestrained hedonism.
Copy !req
1742. Realize your dreams,
enjoy life fully.
Copy !req
1743. The film is the story of a
late, middle-age businessman
Copy !req
1744. leading a gray,
totally-alienated life,
Copy !req
1745. and then he decides at some
point that he has enough of it.
Copy !req
1746. Through one of his
friends, he contacts
Copy !req
1747. a mysterious agency
which offers him a deal.
Copy !req
1748. They will reorganize his life
so that he will be reborn.
Copy !req
1749. - The cost runs in the
neighborhood of $30,000.
Copy !req
1750. I know this seems rather high,
Copy !req
1751. but in addition to the
rather extensive cosmetic
Copy !req
1752. renovation by way of
plastic surgery for you,
Copy !req
1753. CPS has to provide
a fresh corpse
Copy !req
1754. that perfectly
matches your physical
Copy !req
1755. dimensions and medical
specifications.
Copy !req
1756. - CPS?
Copy !req
1757. - Oh, Cadaver
Procurement Section.
Copy !req
1758. - They
use some corpse.
Copy !req
1759. They change it to look
like his own body.
Copy !req
1760. They plant this corpse,
stage a pseudo-accident
Copy !req
1761. so that police
thinks he is dead.
Copy !req
1762. - You
know, Mister Wilson,
Copy !req
1763. you represent something of
a milestone around here.
Copy !req
1764. - And
then, the agency
Copy !req
1765. organizes an ultimate life
Copy !req
1766. in a nice villa
somewhere around L.A.
Copy !req
1767. They even organize a nice
lady who conveniently
Copy !req
1768. stumbles upon him when he is
taking a walk along the beach.
Copy !req
1769. He is thus reborn no
longer as a boring
Copy !req
1770. businessman but as
a modernist painter.
Copy !req
1771. - Tony Wilson.
Copy !req
1772. Called Tony Wilson,
Copy !req
1773. played by none other
than Rock Hudson.
Copy !req
1774. - Sure.
Copy !req
1775. - So, the
woman, Nora, his new love,
Copy !req
1776. tries to engage him in
life, even takes him to some
Copy !req
1777. wine orgy where people get
drunk, dance naked and so on.
Copy !req
1778. Everything seems okay.
Copy !req
1779. - Yes, yes, yes!
Copy !req
1780. - But Tony Wilson
starts to miss his old life.
Copy !req
1781. More and more, he is
haunted by his past.
Copy !req
1782. Finally, he breaks
down, approaches, again,
Copy !req
1783. the agency, telling them that he
Copy !req
1784. wants to return to his old life.
Copy !req
1785. The boss of this
mysterious company,
Copy !req
1786. a kind of kindly cruel—
Copy !req
1787. - Hello, son.
Copy !req
1788. - Superego paternal
figure tells him the truth.
Copy !req
1789. He disappointed them
by not being able to
Copy !req
1790. adapt himself to his new life.
Copy !req
1791. - You know, I sure hoped you'd
Copy !req
1792. make it, find your
dream come true.
Copy !req
1793. - What?
Copy !req
1794. - I said, I sure
hoped that you'd
Copy !req
1795. make it, find your
dream come true.
Copy !req
1796. Oh, you can call it
wishful thinking,
Copy !req
1797. son, but life is
built on wishing,
Copy !req
1798. and you gotta just keep
plugging away at 'em.
Copy !req
1799. You can't give up, and we can't
Copy !req
1800. let the mistakes
jeopardize the dream.
Copy !req
1801. - So
what went wrong here?
Copy !req
1802. The problem was that
his past, in its
Copy !req
1803. material existence, was erased.
Copy !req
1804. - Well, here's your
transportation.
Copy !req
1805. - What?
- Surgery, sir.
Copy !req
1806. - He lived in a totally
new environment,
Copy !req
1807. new job, new friends, and so on.
Copy !req
1808. What remained the
same were his dreams
Copy !req
1809. because when the company
organized his rebirth,
Copy !req
1810. when the company provided
new existence for him,
Copy !req
1811. they simply followed his dreams.
Copy !req
1812. His dreams were wrong
dreams, and this is quite
Copy !req
1813. a deep lesson for the
theory of ideology.
Copy !req
1814. - Just remember, son, we gotta
Copy !req
1815. keep plugging away at the dream.
Copy !req
1816. The mistakes teach us how.
Copy !req
1817. It wasn't wasted, remember that.
Copy !req
1818. - On the way to
the operation hall,
Copy !req
1819. he discovers the horrible truth.
Copy !req
1820. He will not be
reborn but he will
Copy !req
1821. be used as a cadaver for another
Copy !req
1822. person who wants to be reborn.
Copy !req
1823. We should draw a
line of distinction
Copy !req
1824. within the very
field of our dreams,
Copy !req
1825. between those who
are the right dreams,
Copy !req
1826. pointing towards a
dimension effectively beyond
Copy !req
1827. our existing society,
and the wrong dreams,
Copy !req
1828. the dreams which are just
an idealized consumerist
Copy !req
1829. reflection, mirror
image of our society.
Copy !req
1830. We are not simply
submitted to our dreams.
Copy !req
1831. They just come from some
unfathomable depths,
Copy !req
1832. and we can't do
anything about it.
Copy !req
1833. This is the basic
lesson of psychoanalysis
Copy !req
1834. and fiction cinema.
Copy !req
1835. We are responsible
for our dreams.
Copy !req
1836. Our dreams stage
our desires, and
Copy !req
1837. our desires are not
objective facts.
Copy !req
1838. We created them,
we sustained them,
Copy !req
1839. we are responsible for them.
Copy !req
1840. - This is an area
of ancient lake beds
Copy !req
1841. deposited five to 10
million years ago.
Copy !req
1842. - The scene of mass orgy
in "Zabriskie Point"
Copy !req
1843. is a nice metaphor
of what went wrong
Copy !req
1844. with the 1960s hippy revolution.
Copy !req
1845. It's crucial that "Zabriskie
Point" was made in 1970
Copy !req
1846. when the authentic
revolutionary energy
Copy !req
1847. of the '60s was already
losing its strength.
Copy !req
1848. This orgy is somewhere between
Copy !req
1849. subversion of the
existing social order
Copy !req
1850. and already the
full estheticized
Copy !req
1851. reincorporation
of this allegedly
Copy !req
1852. transgressive activities
into the hegemonic ideology.
Copy !req
1853. Although Antonioni meant this as
Copy !req
1854. a kind of transcendence of
the existing constraints,
Copy !req
1855. we can easily imagine this shot
in some publicity campaign.
Copy !req
1856. The first step to
freedom is not just to
Copy !req
1857. change reality to
fit your dreams.
Copy !req
1858. It's to change
the way you dream.
Copy !req
1859. And again, this hurts
because all satisfactions
Copy !req
1860. we have, come from our dreams.
Copy !req
1861. - The Great
Supreme Commander, Chairman Mao
Copy !req
1862. issued a world
shaking call to us.
Copy !req
1863. You should pay attention
to state affairs
Copy !req
1864. and carry the great proletarian
Copy !req
1865. Cultural Revolution
through to the end.
Copy !req
1866. - One of the big
problems of all great
Copy !req
1867. revolutionary movements
of the 20th century,
Copy !req
1868. such as Russia, Cuba, or China,
Copy !req
1869. is that they did
change the social body,
Copy !req
1870. but the egalitarian communist
society was never realized.
Copy !req
1871. The dreams remained
the old dreams,
Copy !req
1872. and they turned into
the ultimate nightmare.
Copy !req
1873. Now, what remains of the
radical left waits for a magical
Copy !req
1874. event when the true
revolutionary agent
will finally awaken
Copy !req
1875. while the depressing lesson
of the last decades is that
Copy !req
1876. capitalism has been the
true revolutionizing force,
Copy !req
1877. even as it serves only itself.
Copy !req
1878. How come it is easier for
us to imagine the end of
Copy !req
1879. all life on earth, an
asteroid hitting the planet,
Copy !req
1880. than a modest change
in our economic order?
Copy !req
1881. Perhaps, the time has come to
set our possibilities straight
Copy !req
1882. and to become realists
by way of demanding
Copy !req
1883. what appears as impossible
in the economic domain.
Copy !req
1884. The surprising explosion of
Occupy Wall Street protests,
Copy !req
1885. the mass mobilization in Greece,
Copy !req
1886. the crowds on Tahrir
square, they all bear
Copy !req
1887. witness to the hidden potential
for a different future.
Copy !req
1888. There is no guarantee that
this future will arrive.
Copy !req
1889. No train of history on which
we simply have to take a ride.
Copy !req
1890. It depends on us, on our will.
Copy !req
1891. In revolutionary
upheavals, some energy,
Copy !req
1892. or rather, some utopian
dreams take place.
Copy !req
1893. They explode, and even
if the actual result of
Copy !req
1894. a social upheaval is
just a commercialized
Copy !req
1895. every day life, this
excess of energy,
Copy !req
1896. what's get, what gets
lost in the result,
Copy !req
1897. persists not in
reality, but as a dream
Copy !req
1898. haunting us, waiting
to be redeemed.
Copy !req
1899. In this sense,
whenever we are engaged
Copy !req
1900. in radical, emancipatory
politics, we should
never forget,
Copy !req
1901. as Walter Benjamin put
it almost a century ago
Copy !req
1902. that every revolution
is not only,
Copy !req
1903. if it is an
authentic revolution,
Copy !req
1904. is not only directed
towards the future but it
Copy !req
1905. redeems also the past
failed revolutions,
Copy !req
1906. all the ghosts, as if we're the
Copy !req
1907. living dead of the
past revolution
Copy !req
1908. which are roaming around,
unsatisfied will finally
Copy !req
1909. find their home in
the new freedom.
Copy !req