Fall 2015
Violence by Slavoj Zizek (selections)
• What is “subjective” violence and how does it differ from “systemic” violence?
Subjective violence consists of crime and terror. Perceptibly obvious violence seen on the news or on the streets in the form of “crime and terror, civil unrest, international conflict.” Systemic violence represents the catastrophic effects of economic and political systems.
• Who are “liberal communists”? Does Zizek admire them? Why or why not?
The usual gang of suspects: Bill Gates and George Soros, the CEOs of Google, IBM, Intel, Ebay. His view on liberal communists is that today’s liberal communists give with one hand what they first took away with the other.
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes