Home > Work > Heaven in Disorder

Heaven in Disorder QUOTES

Heaven in Disorder QUOTES

1 " This is why Lacan was deeply skeptical about the notion of distributive justice: it remains at the level of the distribution of goods and cannot deal even with a relatively simple paradox of envy - what if I prefer to get less if my neighbour gets even less than me (and this awareness that my neighbour is even more deprived gives me a surplus-enjoyment)? This is why egalitarianism itself should ever be accepted at its face value. The notion (and practice) of egalitarian justice, insofar as it is sustained by envy, relies on an inversion of the standard renunciation accomplished to benefit others: 'I am ready to renounce it, so that others will (also) not (be able to) have it!' Far from being opposed to the spirit of sacrifice, Evil here emerges as the very spirit of sacrifice - a readiness to ignore my own well-being if, through my sacrifice, I can deprive the Other of its enjoyment ...
This, however, does not work as a general argument against all projects of egalitarian emancipation but only against those which focus on redistribution. "

― Slavoj Žižek , Heaven in Disorder

2 " The only small hope is that an unintended result of the Trump era may survive: the partial withdrawal of the United States from world politics. The United States will have to accept that it is just another state in a new multi-centric world. This is the only way for all of us to avoid the humiliating situation of fearfully following the counting of votes in the United States, as if the fate of the entire world depends on a few thousand American ignoramuses. "

― Slavoj Žižek , Heaven in Disorder