Slavoj Žižek has been described as both an “academic rockstar” and “the most dangerous philosopher in the West.” Born in Ljubljana, PR Slovenia, in the former Yugoslavia, his mother was an accountant and his father was an economist. Although he initially aspired to become a filmmaker, he ultimately chose philosophy. While Žižek has written over 50 books, The Sublime Object of Ideology (1989) is widely considered his masterpiece and the foundational statement of his philosophy.
Namely, the proposition that ideology is not something that we can escape from, but rather, is a construct that orders and structures the social reality in which we live. Renowned for his entertaining, idiosyncratic style, obscene jokes, and politically incorrect provocations, Žižek is equal parts brilliant and obscene. He stands as one of the great public intellectuals of our time.
What Is the Big Other?
When it comes to psychoanalysis Slavoj Žižek is big on the work of Jaques Lacan and his concept of the ‘Big Other’ in particular. Lacan’s ideas are notoriously obtuse thus perhaps unsurprisingly, much of their contemporary resonance can be credited to Žižek’s more accessible interpretations.
For Lacan, the Big Other represents an abstract authority – the gaze for which we perform and that gives coherence, structure, and meaning to our social reality. Žižek adapts this idea, extends it, and transforms it into a broader critique of society. The Žižekian Big Other refers to the collective fantasy that sustains the ideological structure of the social order itself.
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Sometimes equating the Big Other with George Orwell‘s “Big Brother”, Žižek argues that much of human behavior is shaped by the belief that the Big Other is real – and watching. Whether embodied in the idea of God, the market, or the rule of law, the Big Other functions as the one to whom appearances must be maintained.
What Are Systemic and Symbolic Violence?
In On Violence (2008), Slavoj Žižek shifts focus from the ‘subjective violence’ of criminal acts, terrorism, and war, to the underlying conditions that make these heinous acts possible. His primary concern lies with the “systemic” and “symbolic” violence that underpins social injustice in the world.
According to Žižek, to truly understand violence, we must move beyond the visceral allure of subjective violence – the kind of acts that dominate media and public discourse – and instead look to interrogate the conditions that produce and give meaning to them.
The first dimension is the ‘symbolic violence’ embedded in ‘language and its forms.’ Dominant ideological structures shape how we perceive the world and determine what qualifies a a subjective violent act. Symbolic violence acts as a lens, subtly imposing common sense norms that dictate how people understand themselves and others.
The second dimension, ‘systemic violence,’ is the violence inherent to the social and economic order itself. The exploitation of labor, poverty, and inequality sustained – and normalized – by neoliberal capitalism. Žižek’s reading is that our contemporary focus on subjective violence obscures the systemic violence that underpins it. As society fixates on visible dramatic acts, the systemic injustices of the modern world persist, unchecked and uninterrupted.
Is Cinema the Ultimate Perversion?
In The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (2012) Žižek explores the hidden language of Western cinema to reveal with popular films can tell us about ourselves. Directed by Sophie Fiennes, with Žižek as the charismatic, star narrator, this provocative documentary offers a whirlwind tour of Žižek’s psychoanalytic ideas. Iconic films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) and modern classics such as Taxi Driver (1976), Titanic (1997), and The Matrix (1999) are re-examined with startling insight.
The documentary features Žižek on replica film sets giving the appearance that he is speaking from within the films themselves. The central theme throughout is that “Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn’t give you what you desire – it tells you how to desire”. The modern problem we face, Žižek provocatively claims, is not whether our desires are satisfied, but understanding how we come to desire in the first place. The answer unfolds in two and a half hours of cinematic imagery and psychoanalytic thought: cinema serves as a canvas on which humanity projects its deepest, darkest desires.
