An Inquisition

[poliphilo]

I've seen this happen before. A distinguished heretic is invited into the studio for an interview only for them to be persistently interrupted and shouted at by the interviewer. I suppose the idea is to beat unconventional ideas to death in public so as to dissuade people from holding them. It's essentially what the Holy Inquisition did.

On this occasion the interviewer was a fierce young man from Al-Jazeera and the interviewee was the whiskery Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek and they were talking about the US election.

The interviewer's case went- "Sanders good, Clinton goodish, Trump unspeakable." Zizeck's case- in so far as he was allowed to make it- was "Sanders good, Clinton unspeakable, Trump unspeakable but at least he may get the left to wake up."

I tuned in because I'm interested in Zizek. He may be totally wrong but his ideas are interesting and nuanced and hopeful.

Comments

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I agreed with all of his points (at all) but the one about Trump shaking up the left is certainly valid. There is no doubt that the left - in the US and, for that matter also in the UK, France, Denmark and basically across the board - needs to find a way of dealing with the world as it is.

It seems right now that Denmark has no real opposition to our government - and as far as I can see from across the North Sea it seems pretty much the same in the UK. And democracy requires an opposition, regardless of who is in government.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Obama sent the left to sleep. He was their man and he was personable and dignified and they were so busy admiring him they never noticed that he wasn't actually pursuing their agenda.

The British Labour party has collapsed and there's nothing to take its place. The present government inspires little confidence and is little liked but faces no serious opposition.