“This paradox signals a sad predicament of ours: today’s capitalism cannot reproduce itself on its own. It needs extra-economic charity to sustain the cycle of social reproduction.” (Zizek 24)
Zizek asserts that the needs of capitalism are hidden by bland and tepid policies and philosophies. Billionaires cajoling their stockholders with "ruthless speculation" while assuaging the guilt of their common public consumers with huge investments in progressive policy and intellectualism. This desire to fuel their idealism through continued assertion of a violent system exposes our own fallacious desire to participate in the system. Our good intentions are flavored by real ascetic commitments to systematic change on behalf of those on the receiving end, on the wrong side of the tracks; those desperate to take some sort of dignity away from these boundless speculative capitalists.
I am not quite sure where Zizek hopes to release his activism. In new systems? Nihilism? The system cannot change on its own. It refuses to.
Alex
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