Žižekianism is a political ideology, based on Slavoj Žižek, that is characterized by the advocation of 
Ideology Disintegrationism, but considering people cannot live without ideologies, and it also advocates utopic communism, considering that it is possible to realize a fast transition to a communist state without too many problems and even turn the whole world communist if people want.
Philosophical Beliefs[edit | edit source]
Interpassivity[edit | edit source]
Slavoj Žižek and Robert Pfaller introduced the concept of interpassivity to explain the phenomenon wherein certain artworks appear to facilitate their own reception. In contrast to interactive works that require active participation from visitors to come alive, interpassive works are described as self-fulfilling. One could argue that they derive enjoyment themselves or, perhaps more accurately, we experience enjoyment through them. Žižek and Pfaller emphasize that these works enjoy "on our behalf," implying a passive enjoyment that occurs in our place.
Subversive Affirmation and Over-Identification[edit | edit source]
In Žižek's essay Why Are Laibach and the Neue Slowenische Kunst Not Fascists? he drew upon the psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan to argue that Laibach, a band known for employing aesthetics reminiscent of totalitarian regimes, engaged in more than ironic imitation of communist state ideology. Instead, Žižek contended that Laibach's performances frustrated the system by over-identifying with the perverse, hidden aspects of the ideology and manipulating the process of transference with the totalitarian state.
For subversive affirmation to be effective, Žižek asserted that it must address the system anonymously rather than targeting specific entities. In contrast to film theories that ascribe a particular gender identification to Lacan's concept of the gaze, subversive affirmation emphasizes the inconsistency of symbolic mandates and highlights the absence of a definitive authority figure, the "Big Other." Laibach, in line with this perspective, deliberately avoids both irony and the categorization of their work as art. They also disavow any intention of being explicitly subversive.
Ideological Fantasy[edit | edit source]
The question at hand is whether ideological belief begins with "knowing" or "doing." According to Žižek, it is the "doing" or action that takes precedence. The concept of fetishistic disavowal suggests that even if individuals are aware that commodities possess a fetishistic quality, they continue to engage in the illusion within the act of exchange. The participants are being fetishists in practice, not in theory. The inversion observed in commodity exchange occurs in action rather than in the mind. The concrete value of commodities, known as use-value, is expressed through its abstract universality, known as exchange-value and the relationships among different particular things. The illusion, therefore, takes place within the material reality and the acts themselves. While individuals may understand that Value in-itself does not exist, their behavior contradicts this understanding by treating particular things as if they possess universal value. The social process mediates their actions, but it is their actions that give rise to the social process. This unconscious illusion, which structures reality, is referred to as the ideological fantasy. Even if individuals possess knowledge about their actions, such as pretending the King is Absolute or believing money has substantial value, they continue to engage in these actions, following the King's authority or allowing money to dictate their acquisition of objects. If ideology were solely based on knowledge and not action, this entire process that shapes reality would not exist.
Revival of Dialectical Materialism[edit | edit source]
Slavoj Žižek's work, particularly Absolute Recoil and Less than Nothing, explores the significance of Hegelian dialectical philosophy in contemporary capitalism. He argues that to truly understand the modern world, we need a materialist and dialectical theory that encompasses society as a whole. Žižek emphasizes the importance of Hegelian dialectics and aims to draw attention to its relevance in a critical theory of 21st-century society.
Žižek's dialectical materialism focuses on two main aspects: absolute recoil and retroactivity. Absolute recoil refers to the dialectical development that posits its own preconditions, returning to itself and constituting itself. Retroactivity is a logical and historical principle that Žižek highlights as crucial in the dialectic of history. While Žižek's emphasis on absolute recoil is significant, it is argued that the dynamic between the starting and endpoint of the dialectic, involving labor exploitation and commodity production, is equally important. This perspective recognizes that the dialectic is an ongoing process of extinguishing and kindling itself, leading to new contradictions and developments.
Žižek incorporates concepts like the parallax, absolute recoil, and retroactivity into his conceptualization of the dialectic of history, emphasizing the presence of a non-dialecticizable intruder/excess that keeps the dialectic open. However, it is suggested that this concession to postmodern thought may undermine the critique of capitalist totality. A proper dialectic of the totality acknowledges the source of differentiation within the dialectic itself, based on a complex interplay of chance and necessity.
Subjectivity[edit | edit source]
For Žižek, although a subject may take on a symbolic (social) position, it can never be reduced to this attempted symbolisation, since the very "taking on" of this position implies a separate 'I', beyond the symbolic, that does the taking on. Yet, under scrutiny, nothing positive can be said about this subject, this 'I' that eludes symbolisation; it cannot be discerned as anything but "that which cannot be symbolised". Thus, without the initial, attempted, failed symbolisation, subjectivity cannot present itself. As Žižek writes in his first book in English: "the subject of the signifier is a retroactive effect of the failure of its own representation; that is why the failure of representation is the only way to represent it adequately."
Žižek attributes this position on the subject to Hegel, particularly his description of man as "the night of the world",and to Lacan, with his description of the barred, split subject, who he sees as developing the Cartesian notion of the cogito.According to Žižek, these thinkers, in insisting on the role of the subject, run counter to "culturalist" or "historicist" positions held by thinkers such as Louis Althusser and Michel Foucault, which posit that "subjects" are bound by and reducible to their historical/cultural(/symbolic) context.
The Sublime Object of Ideology[edit | edit source]
The sublime object refers to a captivating fantasy or illusion that exceeds our comprehension, providing a sense of meaning and desire. Ideology, on the other hand, encompasses a system of beliefs, values, and social practices that shape our understanding of the world and influence our actions. Žižek argues that ideology operates through both conscious and unconscious processes. It utilizes language, symbols, institutions, and social practices to shape our perceptions and desires. The sublime object serves as the underlying allure that sustains and gives power to ideological systems. It represents an unattainable or elusive object or idea that captivates individuals and provides them with a sense of meaning and identity.
Political Beliefs[edit | edit source]
Ideology[edit | edit source]
Žižek's Lacanian-informed theory of ideology is one of his major contributions to political theory; his first book in English, The Sublime Object of Ideology, and the documentary The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, in which he stars, are among the well-known places in which it is discussed. Žižek believes that ideology has been frequently misinterpreted as dualistic and, according to him, this misinterpreted dualism posits that there is a real world of material relations and objects outside of oneself, which is accessible to reason.
For Žižek, as for Marx, ideology is made up of fictions that structure political life; in Lacan's terms, ideology belongs to the symbolic order. Žižek argues that these fictions are primarily maintained at an unconscious level, rather than a conscious one. Since, according to 
psychoanalytic theory, the unconscious can determine one's actions directly, bypassing one's conscious awareness (as in parapraxes), ideology can be expressed in one's behaviour, regardless of one's conscious beliefs. Hence, Žižek breaks with 
orthodox Marxist accounts that view ideology purely as a system of mistaken beliefs (see False consciousness). Drawing on Peter Sloterdijk's Critique of Cynical Reason, Žižek argues that adopting a cynical perspective is not enough to escape ideology, since, according to Žižek, even though 
postmodern subjects are consciously cynical about the political situation, they continue to reinforce it through their behaviour.
Communism[edit | edit source]
Although sometimes adopting the title of 'radical leftist',Žižek also controversially insists on identifying as a communist, even though he rejects 
20th century communism as a "total failure", and decries "the communism of the 20th century, more specifically all the network of phenomena we refer to as Stalinism as "maybe the worst ideological, political, ethical, social (and so on) catastrophe in the history of humanity." Žižek justifies this choice by claiming that only the term 'communism' signals a genuine step outside of the existing order, in part since the term 'socialism' no longer has radical enough implications, and means nothing more than that one "care[s] for society"
In Marx Reloaded, Žižek rejects both 20th-century totalitarianism and "
spontaneous local self-organisation, direct democracy, councils, and so on". There, he endorses a definition of communism as "a society where you, everyone would be allowed to dwell in his or her stupidity", an idea with which he credits Fredric Jameson as the inspiration.
Žižek has labelled himself a "communist in a qualified sense". When he spoke at a conference on The Idea of Communism, he applied (in qualified form) the 'communist' label to the Occupy Wall Street protestors:
They are not communists, if 'communism' means the system which deservedly collapsed in 1990 - and remember that the communists who are still in power today run the most ruthless capitalism (in China). ... The only sense in which the protestors are 'communists' is that they care for the commons - the commons of nature, of knowledge - which are threatened by the system. They are dismissed as dreamers, but the true dreamers are those who think that things can go on indefinitely the way they are now, with just a few cosmetic changes. They are not dreamers; they are awakening from a dream which is turning into a nightmare. They are not destroying anything; they are reacting to how the system is gradually destroying itself.
Personality and Behaviour[edit | edit source]
- He likes dialectical materialism but criticizes mainstream Marxist-Leninism for its strict views on doctrine.
- He detests liberals seeing them as culturally obsessed ideologues who often ignore the economics of politics.
- He has a sniffing problem & often interrupts himself mid-sentence by sniffing which is seen as funny by others.
Relationships[edit | edit source]
Friends[edit | edit source]
Hegelianism - "I am a good Hegelian. If you have a good theory, forget about the reality."
Continental Philosophy - Ok I guess.
Freudianism
Frenemies[edit | edit source]
Petersonism - A good debate opponent even if still a capitalist *shnif*
Post-Structuralism - Only considers the signifier and the signified, never jouissance, castration, and che vuoi.
Spartacism - The Pascal of Communism.
Enemies[edit | edit source]
Liberalism - Hey leeberal *shnif* where did you get your ideeology? The ideeology *shnif* shupermarket!?
Marxism-Leninism - the most destructive *shnif* to humanity!
Capitalism - You will eventually die out.
Gallery[edit | edit source]
Further Information[edit | edit source]
Wikipedia[edit | edit source]
 Marxist philosophy - Workers of the world, unite!  | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Classical Marxism | |||||
| Orthodox Marxism | Major
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 Unorthodox Marxism | |||||
 Left Communism | |||||
 Capitalist | |||||
 Mainstream Philosophy - Socrates, Descartes, Kant and Nietzsche | |
|---|---|
 Ancient Era | |
 Grecoroman Era |  Aristotelianism •  Catholicism •  Cynicism •  Eleaticism •  Ephesian School •  Epicureanism •  Gnosticism •  Milesian School •  Neoplatonism •  Platonism •  Pythagoreanism •  Stoicism •  Skepticism •  Socratism •  Sophism • |
 Medieval Era | |
 Enlightenment Era | |
 Modern Era | |
 Contemporary Era  |  Absurdism •  Accelerationism • Analytic Philosophy •  Conservative Revolution •  Contemporary Anarchism •  Critical Theory •  Deleuzoguattarianism •  Duginism •  Feminism •  Freudianism •  Heideggerianism •  Hermeneutics •  Jungianism •  Logical Positivism •  Neo-Marxism •  Phenomenology •  Popperism • Postmodernism •  Post-Structuralism • Psychoanalysis •  Randian Objectivism •  Russellism •  Sartrean Existentialism •  Speculative Realism •  Straussianism •  Structuralism •  Structural Marxism •  Superfascism •  Wittgensteinism |
