变态者意识形态指南

In this documentary film, slavoj žižek explored theideologies that shape what we believe and how we behave. He transplanted into the scenes of various movies, uncovering how those movies reinforce prevailing ideologies.However, he mixed up many concepts after a point, some are even irrelevant. I try to organize some ideas. Many expressions following are from film subtitle, mixed with my interpretations.

1. Ideology and the failure of ideology.

First of all, Žižek assumed there is ‘reality’ beneath the ideology, and the world is always full of ideologies which interpret the ‘reality’ systematically. There are free floating elements, like suffering, poverty, enjoyment etc, they are open themselves to different ideological fields. Ideology, for example, catholic propaganda, Fascism, Nazism, Communism, Cynical ideology, feminism, consumerism… is a kind of a filter, a frame, so that if you look at the same ordinary reality through that frame, everything changes. Decades ago, people in the UK attributed all social problems to unemployed single mother.

However, ideology is not only like glasses which distort our view, it’s also our spontaneous relationship to the social world, how we perceive each meaning. According to Žižek, to some extent we enjoy our ideology, and the truth is painful. So to step out of ideology, it hurts. He called ‘the extreme violence of liberation’: you must be forced to be free. Here it seems the ‘truth’ he meant is those free floating elements without value system. I agree that people always need guidance/principle (whatever they are), people don’t know what to do with too much freedom. For example, the principle of one middle-class friend is doing things with least money, fully taking advantage of capitalism. His explanation is saving money for children, which actually doesn’t really matter. Because he will keep doing so even without children, the truth is that he needs a guidance of life and relationship with society. He definitely would feel lost without this principle.

Fantasies are the central stuff our ideologies are made of. fantasy covers up a certain gap in consistency. When things are blurred, when we cannot really get to know things, fantasy provides an easy answer. In Žižek’s opinion, ideologies always only work for some people. Thus it’s deduced that no ideology is consistent. To put it another way, some always suffer and are exploited. He illustrated the failure of ideology by invoking the music of Ode to Joy which universally touches everybody, the majority may only know the first idyllic part, the brotherhood, freedom… But the second part sounds ridiculous and bizarre, no longer the sublime beauty. It states the failure of ideology: some are excluded.

What will happen? Violence, the reaction of people who are totally caught into the predominant ideology but have no ways to realise what this ideology demands of them. It’s a kind of brutal intervention to cover up a certain impotence. But he further illustrated that sometimes victim doesn’t want to be redeemed, they resist the rescue. He gave the example of American military interventions, especially so-called humanitarian interventions. People try to help victims, but what if they really did not want our help? It’s interesting but another complex topic - moral relativism, or say the collisions of different ideologies.

What I don’t understand is, Žižek said :”It’s not that the frame actually acts anything; it’s just that the frame opens the abyss of suspicion” What’s the abyss of suspicion?

2. Dominant ideology nowadays - consumerism.

The history of capitalism means disintegration of old stable relations. Instability is the way capitalism functions. Antagonism, class struggle and other conflicts is something inherent to capitalism. And there is a strange, absolute demand, capital has to circulate to reproduce itself to expand and for this goal anything can be sacrificed, the so called permanent self-revolution. This weird machine monster will keep accelerating. The ultimate form of consumerism is being a consumerist without any bad conscience because you pay the price for the counter measure. You consume with an illusion of helping poor people in Africa by donating, while it may actually exacerbate the disparity in wealth.

He also mentioned a prevailing ideology in post-ideology society: enjoyment becomes a kind of weird perverted duty, everyone shall realize their potential, ‘improve’ yourself, and lead a satisfying life. But a desire is never simple the desire for a certain thing. It’s always also a desire to continue to desire. Perhaps the ultimate quarrel of a desire is to be fully filled in, met, so that I desire no longer. The ultimate melancholy experience is the experience of the loss of desire itself. The excess is with us forever. I like these insights on desires, but I don’t know what does it to do with ideology. Perhaps it indicates the post-ideology doesn’t work for some people. Patients come to the analystfor not being able to enjoy. In this sense, satisfying life is a fantasy.

3. Insights on enjoyment and pleasures

He distinguished between enjoyment and simple pleasures. They are not the same. Enjoyment is precisely enjoyment in disturbed pleasure, even enjoyment in pain. This is where the power of attraction of Catholic church resides: obscene permission to hedonist, pretend to renounce and you can get it all. This obscene contract does not belong to Christianity, it belongs to Catholic Church as an institution. It is the logic of institution at it’s purest.

4. The way to fight ideology.

The way to fight ideology is to play with it. For example, to fight Nazism is to enjoy these elements, ridiculous as they may appear, by suspending the Nazi horizon of meaning. This way you undermine ideology from within.

Despite it’s not complete, this film provides a quick fun glance at ideology. It's necessary have a closer look at individual ideology and how each works. When the ‘ideology’ is self-consistent, it would be the TRUTH. Plus, I like slavoj žižek, he is fun!