Slavoj Žižek: Down with ideology!


He is considered philosophy’s enfant terrible, provokes those on the right and on the left and analyses events from the perspective of Marx and Hegel. Above all, Slavoj Žižek is hip, and has been for decades. The eloquent all-rounder defends his ideology criticism on The Finest Hour – Philosophy. For Slavoj Žižek everything is ideology: whether capitalism or tolerance, Islam or simply day-to-day life.

Buying a mobile, choosing clothes, toothpaste – it is all cloaked in ideological terms. Therefore for him, Marxist social criticism is not a thing of the past, it is more current than ever. Where before people used to be blinded by religion, today they are subjugated by technocracy and capitalism, Žižek finds. Nevertheless, the Slovenian philosopher holds on to the idea of truth and advocates human rights and Eurocentrism. He explains how all this fits together in his conversation with Barbara Bleisch.