Welcome to the Desert of the Real!: Five Essays on September 11 and Related DatesLiberals and conservatives proclaim the end of the American holiday from history. Now the easy games are over; one should take sides. Zizek argues this is precisely the temptation to be resisted. In such moments of apparently clear choices, the real alternatives are most hidden. Welcome to the Desert of the Real steps back, complicating the choices imposed on us. It proposes that global capitalism is fundamentalist and that America was complicit in the rise of Muslim fundamentalism. It points to our dreaming about the catastrophe in numerous disaster movies before it happened, and explores the irony that the tragedy has been used to legitimize torture. Last but not least it analyzes the fiasco of the predominant leftist response to the events. |
Contents
The Missing Ink | 1 |
Passions of the Real Passions of Semblance | 5 |
Reappropriations The Lesson of Mullah Omar | 33 |
Happiness After September 11 | 58 |
From Homo sucker to Homo sacer | 83 |
From Homo sacer to the Neighbor | 112 |
The Smell of Love | 135 |
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Afghanistan Agamben al-Qaeda Alain Badiou American antagonism anti-Semitism appear apropos Arab Auschwitz basic bear witness biopolitics Bosnian catastrophe Chesterton claim clash of civilizations Communist conflict course cultural democracy democratic emergency enemy ethical Europe European Evil excess fact fantasmatic fantasy Fascist fight film freedom fundamental fundamentalist gesture Giorgio Agamben global capitalism Hollywood Holocaust Homo sacer human rights ideological intervention Islam Israel Israeli Jews jouissance killing Lacan Leftist legitimization liberal living logic Miloševič Muselmann Muslim Nazi notion obscene one's opposite Palestinians paradox Pashtun passion perceived political position post-politics postmodern precisely radical Real reality regime resistance revolutionary Rightist risk September 11 Serb sexual simply Slavoj Žižek Slovene social stance struggle suicide superego symbolic Taliban terrorism terrorist thing Third World tion today's torture true truth ultimate underlying universe unlawful combatants victims violence war on terrorism West Bank Western WTC collapse WTC towers Yugoslavia