In Defense of Lost Causes

Book Description

2 Reviews

• 

  必讀

  當我們均以為現在可以為上世紀一些公認的社會主義「敗局」下定論 ，並全球一體朝經濟自由主義（再）進發之時，齊澤克大膽在本書為 極權主義者翻案：究竟毛澤東、羅伯斯比、俄國多數派這些極權政治 家的恐怖革命統治背後的核心主張是什麼？他們這一派真的再沒有當 世值得借鏡之處了嗎？面向廿一世紀這已然可預視的生態大災難之世 代，齊澤克與我們勇敢回顧近代一些「敗局」、猛力評擊二元政治論 （非右即左、捨社會主義取資本主義）的弊處，並嘗試為新世紀開發 出一條新革命之路。

  * * *

  (a reder’s review, by Nin Chan)

  If for nothing el ... (continue)

  當我們均以為現在可以為上世紀一些公認的社會主義「敗局」下定論 ，並全球一體朝經濟自由主義（再）進發之時，齊澤克大膽在本書為 極權主義者翻案：究竟毛澤東、羅伯斯比、俄國多數派這些極權政治 家的恐怖革命統治背後的核心主張是什麼？他們這一派真的再沒有當 世值得借鏡之處了嗎？面向廿一世紀這已然可預視的生態大災難之世 代，齊澤克與我們勇敢回顧近代一些「敗局」、猛力評擊二元政治論 （非右即左、捨社會主義取資本主義）的弊處，並嘗試為新世紀開發 出一條新革命之路。

  * * *

  (a reder’s review, by Nin Chan)

  If for nothing else, you should buy this book because it engages, in a direct and rigorous fashion, with the thought of various luminaries of the Left. While Zizek’s discussions of Mao, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and Robespierre are stirring in their own right, his assessments of Antonio Negri, Ernesto Laclau, Simon Critchley and fellow-traveler Alain Badiou are acute and incisive. Of especial interest is his careful evaluation of the latent ambiguities in Badiou’s political thought, probing its interstices and interrogating its silences. Also crucial is Zizek’s neo-Deleuzian injunction to ‘repeat’ Lenin, to actualize the multiple virtualities that Lenin missed. The importance of Zizek for our time lies in his continued exhortation to look beneath the post-structuralist affirmations of endless differentiation, creativity and diversification- tropes that are in no way inimical to the ‘permanent revolution’ of global capitalism- and discern the underlying sameness beneath the protean flux. For instance, what is repressed/disavowed in the First World’s triumphalist discourses on limitless mobility and decentralized organization, what is its hidden subtext? As Boltanski and Chiapello have told us in The New Spirit Of Capitalism, the movement of some requires the inertia of others- the nomadic flight of today’s jet-setting executive is made possible by the sweatshop worker, the office janitor, outsourced labor. As such, the properly ‘transcritical’ attitude (Kojin Karatani) is to refrain from treating ‘globalization’ as a revolutionary break, a ‘cut’ in history- we must identify the residual sediments of the past that persist in our purportedly ‘postmodern’ age (traces of premodern feudalism in Japan, the predominance of noncapitalist forms of production in South America). This theory of ‘uneven development’ means that we should regard all celebratory affirmations of globalization with extreme suspicion.

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  aco_books said on Oct 14, 2009 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

• 

  必讀

  當我們均以為現在可以為上世紀一些公認的社會主義「敗局」下定論，並全球一體朝經濟自由主義（再）進發之時，齊澤克大膽在本書為極權主義者翻案：究竟毛澤東、羅伯斯比、俄國多數派這些極權政治家的恐怖革命統治背後的核心主張是什麼？他們這一派真的再沒有當世值得借鏡之處了嗎？面向廿一世紀這已然可預視的生態大災難之世代，齊澤克與我們勇敢回顧近代一些「敗局」、猛力評擊二元政治論（非右即左、捨社會主義取資本主義）的弊處，並嘗試為新世紀開發出一條新革命之路。

  * * *

  (a reder’s review, by Nin Chan)

  If for nothing else, you ... (continue)

  當我們均以為現在可以為上世紀一些公認的社會主義「敗局」下定論，並全球一體朝經濟自由主義（再）進發之時，齊澤克大膽在本書為極權主義者翻案：究竟毛澤東、羅伯斯比、俄國多數派這些極權政治家的恐怖革命統治背後的核心主張是什麼？他們這一派真的再沒有當世值得借鏡之處了嗎？面向廿一世紀這已然可預視的生態大災難之世代，齊澤克與我們勇敢回顧近代一些「敗局」、猛力評擊二元政治論（非右即左、捨社會主義取資本主義）的弊處，並嘗試為新世紀開發出一條新革命之路。

  * * *

  (a reder’s review, by Nin Chan)

  If for nothing else, you should buy this book because it engages, in a direct and rigorous fashion, with the thought of various luminaries of the Left. While Zizek’s discussions of Mao, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and Robespierre are stirring in their own right, his assessments of Antonio Negri, Ernesto Laclau, Simon Critchley and fellow-traveler Alain Badiou are acute and incisive. Of especial interest is his careful evaluation of the latent ambiguities in Badiou’s political thought, probing its interstices and interrogating its silences. Also crucial is Zizek’s neo-Deleuzian injunction to ‘repeat’ Lenin, to actualize the multiple virtualities that Lenin missed. The importance of Zizek for our time lies in his continued exhortation to look beneath the post-structuralist affirmations of endless differentiation, creativity and diversification- tropes that are in no way inimical to the ‘permanent revolution’ of global capitalism- and discern the underlying sameness beneath the protean flux. For instance, what is repressed/disavowed in the First World’s triumphalist discourses on limitless mobility and decentralized organization, what is its hidden subtext? As Boltanski and Chiapello have told us in The New Spirit Of Capitalism, the movement of some requires the inertia of others- the nomadic flight of today’s jet-setting executive is made possible by the sweatshop worker, the office janitor, outsourced labor. As such, the properly ‘transcritical’ attitude (Kojin Karatani) is to refrain from treating ‘globalization’ as a revolutionary break, a ‘cut’ in history- we must identify the residual sediments of the past that persist in our purportedly ‘postmodern’ age (traces of premodern feudalism in Japan, the predominance of noncapitalist forms of production in South America). This theory of ‘uneven development’ means that we should regard all celebratory affirmations of globalization with extreme suspicion.

  Is this helpful?

  aco_books said on Oct 14, 2009 | Add your feedback

Book Details

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• English Books
• Hardcover 208 Pages
• ISBN-10: 1844671089
• ISBN-13: 9781844671083
• Publisher: Verso
• Pub date: Aug 19, 2007
• Dimensions: 1290 mm x 839 mm Just how big is that?
• Also available as: Others

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