Episode #200 ... The Postmodern subject and "ideology without ideology" (Zizek, Byung Chul Han, Marx)

Hello, everyone. I'm Stephen West. This is Philosophize This. So a clip you'll likely see of Slavoj Zizek, if you're scrolling through wherever you get your videos from, is one where he says that the idea of wisdom as it's often presented in media is a conformist thing for people to be chasing. Even says that wisdom is the most disgusting thing you can imagine. It's an actual quote from him. But what did he mean when he said it? Well, he continues. He says, look. If I just say some wise sounding stuff in the right tone of voice, then all of a sudden it passes to people as wisdom. He says, watch. I'll do it. Why are we running after these miserable earthly pleasures? The the only true satisfaction is in eternity. You know, I say that in a certain way, and it sounds like a totally wise thing to say. But now let's say the opposite. Why run after the specter of eternity? Carpe diem, seize the day, grasp what you have right now in this moment. This also sounds wise. Now how about the third option? Why be caught in a contrast between eternity and temporary existence? True wisdom is to seek eternity in temporary earthly pleasures. This is wise. Then I can say the fourth variation. We are forever condemned between these two things, and a wise man accepts this. Whatever I say, he says, you can sell it to people out there as a wisdom. Isn't it interesting that wisdom itself can be used like that as sort of a tool? Having four episodes on Jizek before this one should at least make it cautious about judging what he's saying here too hastily. He's obviously not saying that he's against developing your understanding about life and reality and then experiencing that there are different deeper levels to that understanding. What he's against is the concept of wisdom itself as a fixed universal. The idea that there needs to be some easy to digest marketable common sense thing that is wisdom, you know, something that regardless of whatever circumstances you find yourself in, that this wise insight is gonna be the thing that guides you to the right decision. Because the Zizek, this whole way of thinking about reality where we come up with common sense takes on the way the world is, is just too simple. As much as it would be great if it was, reality isn't a simple thing the more and more you look at it. You'll see parallels to other things. He's had a problem with people oversimplifying that we've talked about on this series so far. Your identity as a static fixed thing, social relations as static fixed things, institutions like a school or the government as static fixed things. Well, so too with wisdom. There's this obsession that some people have with nailing down a static universal definition to things, coming up with some ultimate definition that everything …