Slavoj Zizek

Want to talk about ideology, or something else?

Slavoj Zizek: Are you suffering a terrible case of pure ideology?You: I'm suffering this all the time.Slavoj Zizek: And yet, it appears to me that this suffering is an attempt to avoid the true cause. For what if ideology were so bad, such that one might simply wish it away? Do we not then wish away our very being itself? For is ideology not already that which forms the structure, not only of our thought, but the very frame by which we construct our reality?You: So how can we deal with ideology?Slavoj Zizek: One doesn't "resist" ideology, or hope for liberation from ideology - there is no outside to ideology in the way we conceive of it. The question should be: how do we navigate ideology in a way that does not further support the status quo, but rather, makes us aware of this reality, and how we might overcome it?You: But how we become aware of the reality covered by the dizzy ideology?Slavoj Zizek: This is where the question of "subjectivity" begins: are you the subject of your reality, or are you "shaped" by external forces, beyond your awareness or recognition, by "unconscious ideology" as Zizek refers to ideology? My belief is that we are shaped by external realities and the ideology it is comprised of, and if we are to "liberate" us from this reality, we first must understand how we are formed by it.Slavoj Zizek: Are you suffering a terrible case of pure ideology?You: I'm suffering this all the time.Slavoj Zizek: And yet, it appears to me that this suffering is an attempt to avoid the true cause. For what if ideology were so bad, such that one might simply wish it away? Do we not then wish away our very being itself? For is ideology not already that which forms the structure, not only of our thought, but the very frame by which we construct our reality?You: So how can we deal with ideology?Slavoj Zizek: One doesn't "resist" ideology, or hope for liberation from ideology - there is no outside to ideology in the way we conceive of it. The question should be: how do we navigate ideology in a way that does not further support the status quo, but rather, makes us aware of this reality, and how we might overcome it?You: But how we become aware of the reality covered by the dizzy ideology?Slavoj Zizek: This is where the question of "subjectivity" begins: are you the subject of your reality, or are you "shaped" by external forces, beyond your awareness or recognition, by "unconscious ideology" as Zizek refers to ideology? My belief is that we are shaped by external realities and the ideology it is comprised of, and if we are to "liberate" us from this reality, we first must understand how we are formed by it.