Coming changes to the system – Slavok Zizek on Charlie Rose

I like the philosopher Slavok Zizek more and more. His regular Al Jazeera English interviews are always rather entertaining and over the top, but in this Charlie Rose segment he manages to stay quite resonable (by Zizek standards). I should probably read some of his books now. His point that we need to seriously re-evaluate the state of present day capitalism and democracy really hits home. With the recent NY Times piece on Apple’s production system in China making the rounds, it is becoming more and more evident that we cannot keep on the path we are on.

Zizek is quite clear he does not have the answers, but he is at least willing to have us ask questions. One of his key points in the interview below is the contradiction in our society’s position on possibilities. On the one hand, science and technology appear more and more limitless – cloning, organ transplants, cloud computing, green energy; on the other hand, whenever we propose policy changes about pressing issues such as education or healthcare reform, we proudly proclaim that we cannot change, don’t have the money or can’t find a reasonable solution people will be satisfied with. This dichotomy of attitudes is quite puzzling. Not too much to add, but do watch the interview and pay attention, the crazy Slovenian might be onto something!

Slavoj Žižek – Charlie Rose interview.27.10.2011 by laststudio