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Slavoj Zizek is a crazy dude (who might be right)

Slavoj Zizek is crazy, bombastic and possibly a genius.

Wikipedia has this to say:

He has been labelled by some the “Elvis of cultural theory” and Foreign Policy listed him on its 2012 list of Top 100 Global Thinkers, calling him “a celebrity philosopher.”

Slavoj Zizek fans are telling you: I think differently, often radically. I am a little nihilist. This is my intuition, and I’m still figuring out my own reaction.

The below notes are from his Authors@Google talk, one of his more thorough talks on YouTube.

ideology — the network of ethical, political, social prejudices — is everywhere, it structures our lives
Donald Rumsfeld’s famous quote before the Gulf War — “there are known knowns, known unknowns, etc…”
- but what about unknown knowns? knowledge so embedded in our lives that we don’t know that we know them
- another example of unknown known: structure of toilets; there are 3 types (French toilets have hole in the back, German hole in front, UK doesn’t matter because it’s circular and big bowl of water)
how do we deal with ideology today?
- Niels Bohr, in response to why he followed a particular superstition, said, “I don’t believe in it, but I was told it works even if I don’t believe in it”
- that’s how ideology works today
- we practice beliefs without believing in them
- in the past we publicly believed things and privately didn’t; now we publicly don’t believe things and privately do
- there is a vaguely Dalai Lama-esque spiritualism
- we believe much more than we admit to believing
think about canned laughter on TV — the purpose is not necessarily Pavlovian (to trigger your laughing), but literally that it laughs for you, it does the work for you; why does it work?
- like Tibetan prayer wheel, it prays for you, it does the work
Israel is most atheist country in world, but its claim to land relies on God giving them the West Bank; ironically 60-70% of Israeli Jews don’t believe in God
most important is that we believe others believe; we need that more than our own belief
Gore Vidal — well-known bisexual
- when they asked him, “was your first sexual experience with a man or a woman?”, he replied, “I was too polite to ask”
it’s impossible to fully understand each other, because we don’t even understand ourselves
we’re missing a code of discretion
religion is often employed after-the-fact to justify certain actions
example: Japanese Zen Buddhist community, which ostensibly is about peace and non-confrontation, how did they think about the invasion of China, the atrocities Japan committed in 1930s, 40s?
- with exception of a few dissidents, not only did the Zen Buddhist community fully support the war but provided justification for it!
- Suzuki, a Zen Buddhist who became well-known in the US in 1960s and 70s, was writing different texts in 1930s and 40s, arguing that Japanese invasion of China was work of love, to heal them; even gave advice on how a soldier can train himself psychologically to kill: the Buddhist belief in overcoming your “false self”, stabbing an enemy becomes depersonalized, you’re a 3rd party observer; military discipline is a great way to achieve Enlightenment
- Suzuki’s meditations are authentic, and he’s not saying it’s purely militaristic, it’s just that the stories and narrative we construct about and for ourselves are always ideological
another example: hardcore porn
- a porn film must have some narrative, yet it’s incredible how self-mocking they are
- they do this on-purpose; “you can see it all, but the price you pay is to remove emotional involvement” (i.e. you can’t have a dramatic and touching film with hardcore porn)
- gonzo sex — embedded journalism; don’t even pretend it’s a story; cameraman gives directions, woman talks to camera like it’s a director, this is high point of censorship — afraid to even have a minimum of narrative
in ideology, there’s always tension between what’s explicit and what’s understood
- to penetrate social circle — whether a company, a nation, a social group — you must know the rules, but the rules are always mysterious
- for example, in corrupt countries there are prohibitions which are meant to be violated (e.g., it’s illegal but accepted to bribe a cop or bureaucrat)
- for example, in Japan, work contracts have 40 days of holiday but you’re not supposed to take more than 20
  - this is how links between people are created, like a shared secret
“not only that something is prohibited…but prohibition itself is prohibited from being stated publicly”
- Stalinism — not only was criticizing Stalin prohibited, but even worse was announcing this publicly; so if you came to Stalin’s defense and said, ‘you cannot criticize Stalin’, that was just as bad as criticizing him!
evolution of advertising
- at first advertising was utilitarian — you should buy a truck to get work done in the field
- then it was symbolic — status symbol, Land Rover = I have money
- today, it’s neither utilitarian nor symbolic, it’s about self-actualization, self-fulfillment, buy a Land Rover and you will be your best self, achieve your dreams
- for example, organic food — why do we buy a rotten, 2x pricier organic apple; it’s not because we REALLY believe it’s better for our health, it’s to make us feel good (“I’m more authentic, I’m helping the world”)
beneath official message, always subtext
- ideology always offers you some bribery
- in Nazi Germany it was sacrifice for your country, do your duty; hidden message: kill some Jews, have some fun, be powerful
- in 1900s American South, it was Christian values, community, family; hidden message: rape some women, lynch black people, have some fun
- how about donate $20, feed a child in Africa? hidden message: don’t worry about poverty and global inequality, spend $20 and payoff your conscience
how to understand Sarah Palin, hidden message was: giving voice to rage of ordinary people, but things will stay same in background
- previously female politicians were phallic, imitated men — Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher (me: even Hillary to a degree)
- Sarah Palin is more feminine yet still strong; mother, sex object AND leader, this “sarcastic assertiveness”
- in Obama, skinny, big ears, something of the slightly weak/emaciated guy in him, Sarah Palin subtly alludes to it
in education today, we need more philosophy, even to solve basic problems like bioethics, abortion
most modern liberalism is “global capitalism with a human face”
maybe liberal democratic capitalism isn’t the ultimate horizon
Marxists always believed train of history was on their side
Intellectual Property is closer to Communism than Capitalism — hard to contain within limits of private property
- look at Bill Gates, went from garage to richest man in world in 30 years, hard to say his markets work properly, that they accurately reflect his contributions
loves the details
- look at totalitarian speeches e.g. Hitler; when audience applauses, Hitler accepts
- look at communist speeches, e.g., Stalin; when audience applauses, Stalin joins the applause
God is the original proxy; I don’t know, but He knows for me
what is evil? something that brutally interrupts the status quo; it’s a cut
- Jesus Christ is evil embodied for traditional pagan religions
- one way to look at evil: we are doing something terribly great, something crazy, just need to do it more slowly, it’s the negative dimension/realization that what you’re doing is a huge change
- in order to say “don’t be evil”, you must already dwell in the space of evil

Bertrand Russell’s 4 rules for avoiding persecution mania

For Bertrand Russell — mathematician, writer, philosopher — persecution mania is two things: a belief that everyone is out to GET you, or a belief that everything that happens is ABOUT you. At a cafe, the woman on the phone who glances your way is gossiping about your outfit; a truck that cuts you off in traffic doesn’t like your driving style; and on it goes…

He believes persecution mania is a cause of insanity and a barrier to happiness, and offers four rules for prevention and relief (hah, I sound like a pharmaceutical commercial):

Number 1: your motives are not as altruistic as you think

Number 2: don’t overestimate your own merits

Number 3: don’t expect others to be as interested in you as you are in yourself

Number 4: don’t assume people care enough about you to want to harm you

Wise words from a book with many more: The Conquest of Happiness. Btw, I’m rewriting it — with the occasional adjustment — in a more casual, simple voice…I’ll share when it’s done!

A must-read for Overachievers and their parents: David Brooks on parenting

Despite the lack of an overt tiger mom and family, I somehow adopted the Overachiever’s mindset at a young age. It took two decades and untold mistakes before I was able to step back and try to understand what happened with any honesty or empathy. And in this Katie Couric interview, David Brooks gave an incredible response to a question about overachievers and parents:

A lot of parents especially in our demographic love their children passionately, also desperately want their children to do really well in life, get into college, get great careers, and so these two forces collide to mean intense attention, intense effort, intense care and love for the child, but also intense anxiety about them not doing well, not getting into the right college, not getting the right job and intense love and relief when they do something well. So the kids are bombarded in a world in which when they do something well they get super bursts of love and when they don’t do something well there’s a little withdrawal and they begin to feel conditional love…I’ll love you as long as you’re on my balance beam but if you get off my balance beam you’re in trouble and we’ll cut you off, and I see this in my students, that the will for unconditional love terrifies them, it leads them to lack of internal criteria to make up their own decisions, it makes them in the most concrete sense have two majors, one for mom & dad and one for me, and they live under this inability to really lead their own lives, because the final act of parenting is letting go and I see some of the parents not come to convocation because they don’t like the job choice, and I’ve seen some very strange things in our culture, in our high-achieving high-pressure culture

This! Minute 54. Try to watch the whole thing. If you’re busy and pressed for time, you can listen to it at 1.25 or 1.5x to speed things up :)

Documentary on China’s pollution problem…mind blasted

On my roommate’s recommendation, I watched a powerful documentary about China’s deepening smog and pollution problem. While spending 2013 in Shanghai, I became a fair-weather vegetarian because for weeks, dead pigs were floating toward the city from an upstream tributary, and no one knew why. The government’s eventual explanation was “tainted feed”, but the uncertainty and distrust lingered.

I was also one of the stupid expats who jogged outside from time to time, sans air mask…won’t be doing that again!

(in fairness I enjoyed my Shanghai stay-cation and visit often, this is just a small slice of the experience)

The talk is more than 1.5 hours, but the first 30 minutes are its most gripping. Here’s a link with English subtitles [YouTube].

My notes:

there’s a strong correlation between air pollution and lung cancer incidence
this fact surprised me: severe pollution has been a reality since the early 2000s; it’s not just a recent problem; back then, a lot of the smog was labelled fog
the talk also gave historical context: how England went through a worse, more acute smog battle in early 1900s, 10K+ died; the rising pollution problems in India and Iran
China depends on these “heavy industries” for jobs and social stability
pollution is worse in winter months, due to increased coal usage (and much of the winter coal is lower quality, unwashed coal)
pollution is a regressive tax; the lower your income, the less able you are to buy high quality masks and filters, the more likely you are to work outside and within industry
lack of regulations, weak enforcement and corruption are to blame — for example, China’s big oil companies set fuel quality standards (e.g., Sinopec) and are quasi-governmental enterprises
with China’s continued economic growth, urbanization and transition from developing to developed economy, she believes many of these environmental problems are still in early stages
LA has 1.7M people and 1.3M cars! but while car ownership has tripled since the 70s, emissions have dropped by 75% due to strict regulations and new technology (e.g., diesel pollution filters mandatory for commercial trucks)

PS. and if you’re wondering why I said mind-blasted and not mind-blown, Russell Peters has your answer

Samuel Johnson on Sleep

Samuel Johnson is a brilliant essayist and 1700s pop psychologist. I’m reading a selection of his essays from “The Rambler” and “The Idler” [Amazon link]. I re-wrote the following essays in my own words; the exercise helps me explore writing styles, voices and phrasing.

Here it is! A re-write of Samuel Johnson on Sleep, no. 32 in “The Idler”.

—

People rarely think deeply about common activities. They confuse familiarity with knowledge, thinking they understand such things because they are used to them. But the thinking man looks deeper, knowing that the more he learns the less he understands.

Take, for example, sleep. A great part of our lives are spent sleeping. Every animal sleeps; some philosophers think vegetables sleep, too. Yet with something this important, we don’t know the cause, we can’t explain how falling asleep works and we’re unsure what precise benefits we receive from rest.

There are many theories, but none touch the truth. Sleep affects us all, the loud and the timid, the industrious and the lazy, the happy and the melancholy. Philosophers have long stated that all are equal in death. Sleep does the same: both the rich and poor succumb to its spell.

It is said that Alexander the Great thought himself a mortal only by his need for sleep. Whether he found it useful or not, to him it was a sign of human weakness: a body that needs sleep so regularly, yet dies so quickly.

No matter what emotional state we are in, no matter how passionate and absorbed we are, we eagerly await sleep. We will always retreat to sleep, casting aside a day good or bad, removing our senses and disabling our mental faculties.

Why then are we so greedy, ambitious and jealous? Even he who has everything is separated from his riches in slumber. Differences between us are more superficial than real, when the strong and timid, the famous and workaday, all desire that state of unconscious bliss.

We value sleep so highly that few are happy with its quality. Alexander would use wine as an aid, and almost every man has some trick to quicken its approach.

We spend little of life doing important things. Our time is passed in an equivocal fog. Daydreams, musings and idle thoughts disappear as quickly as they come, and soon the day is gone.

For some, their happiest moments are spent in solitary reflections, lost in their imagination, dreaming of untold riches and incomparable power, fancying a fascinating and luxurious life. For others, solitude is frightening, and they retreat to constant companionship. But the difference is slight; in solitude we wrap ourselves in our dreams, and in socializing we share them. The goal of both is to forget ourselves.

—

And here’s an original version.