by
Slavoj Žižek
vicissitudes
(en)
(noun) a change or variation occurring in the course of something; successive, alternating, or changing phases or conditions, as of life or fortune; ups and downs
101
don't the recent vicissitudes of Muslim fundamentalism confirm Walter Benjamin's old insight that 'every rise of Fascism bears witness to a failed revolution'?
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
don't the recent vicissitudes of Muslim fundamentalism confirm Walter Benjamin's old insight that 'every rise of Fascism bears witness to a failed revolution'?
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
Hegelian
(en)
(adjective) of, relating to, or characteristic of Hegel, his philosophy, or his dialectic method / (noun) a follower of Hegel; an adherent of Hegelianism
101
One should take a Hegelian step back and question the very measure from which fundamentalism appears in all its horror.
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
One should take a Hegelian step back and question the very measure from which fundamentalism appears in all its horror.
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
teleological
(en)
the philosophical attempt to describe things in terms of their apparent intrinsic purpose, directive principle, or goal, irrespective of human use or opinion
105
No wonder that genuine revolutionary moments are so rare: no teleology guarantees them; they hinge on whether there is a political agent able to seize a (contingent, unpredictable) opening.
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
No wonder that genuine revolutionary moments are so rare: no teleology guarantees them; they hinge on whether there is a political agent able to seize a (contingent, unpredictable) opening.
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
ontology
(en)
(noun) a branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature and relations of being / (noun) a particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of things that have existence
108
it is also an 'ontological' struggle, a struggle which concerns the thing itself, a struggle that goes on in the very heart of the protests themselves
on protests in Egypt
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
it is also an 'ontological' struggle, a struggle which concerns the thing itself, a struggle that goes on in the very heart of the protests themselves
on protests in Egypt
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
res nullius
(la)
(lit: nobody's thing) derived from private Roman law whereby res (an object in the legal sense, anything that can be owned, even a slave, but not a subject in law such as a citizen nor land) is not yet the object of rights of any specific subject
110
Global capitalism tends to reduce the commons to res nullius which in Roman law designates anything that can be owned [...] but which is not yet the object of the rights of any specific subject--such things are considered ownerless property, 'free to be owned'.
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
Global capitalism tends to reduce the commons to res nullius which in Roman law designates anything that can be owned [...] but which is not yet the object of the rights of any specific subject--such things are considered ownerless property, 'free to be owned'.
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
neoliberalism
(en)
the postulate that markets are organised most effectively by private enterprise and that the private pursuit of accumulation will generate the most common good; accomplished by opening international markets and financial networks, and downsizing the welfare state
111
there is no analytic value in blaming neoliberalism for our particular woes: today's world order is a concrete totality within which specific situations ask for specific acts
in other words, maybe neoliberalism was inevitable (as a stage we must pass through) and now all we can do is try to move past it?
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
there is no analytic value in blaming neoliberalism for our particular woes: today's world order is a concrete totality within which specific situations ask for specific acts
in other words, maybe neoliberalism was inevitable (as a stage we must pass through) and now all we can do is try to move past it?
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
eschatology
(en)
the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind
128
rejection of the eschatological notion of the Future which Marxism inherited from the Christian tradition
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
rejection of the eschatological notion of the Future which Marxism inherited from the Christian tradition
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
elucubration
(en)
produce (especially literary work) by long and intensive effort
128
the pure lawless Real resists symbolic grasp, so that we should always be aware that our attempts to conceptualize it are mere semblances, defensive elucubrations
uncertain
7 years, 3 months ago
the pure lawless Real resists symbolic grasp, so that we should always be aware that our attempts to conceptualize it are mere semblances, defensive elucubrations
uncertain
7 years, 3 months ago
nomenklatura
(en)
a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in the bureaucracy running all spheres of those countries' activity
134
the most dangerous place to be at the time of the terrible 1930s purges in the Soviet Union was at the top of the nomenklatura
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
the most dangerous place to be at the time of the terrible 1930s purges in the Soviet Union was at the top of the nomenklatura
notable
7 years, 3 months ago
bulwark
(en)
(noun) defensive wall
165
small Slavic nations were all looking towards Russia, the bulwark of reaction, for their liberation
not really sure what it means in this context
strange
7 years, 3 months ago
small Slavic nations were all looking towards Russia, the bulwark of reaction, for their liberation
not really sure what it means in this context
strange
7 years, 3 months ago