Slavoj Zizek on Squid Game, Dune, and James Bond
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- Опубліковано 27 жов 2021
- Slavoj Zizek reviews some recent film and TV offerings, including Squid Game, Denis Villeneuve's Dune remake, and No Time to Die.
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Full livestream (members): • Slavoj Zizek: The Lega...
Jacobin: What’s your favourite horror movie
Žižek: Here, I am an old-fashioned leftist
I imagine it must be so hard to keep him on track and not to talk on what he wants
im gonna make a move called "here i am an old fashioned leftist" so he's always talking about it when he ramblesniffs along
@@elsanto2401 Ramblesniffing should be put in the Dictionary, hilarious!
@@elsanto2401 looooooool
@@existentialgoberts4345 The thing is that the interviewers are likely to have a crappy "track" and we're all better entertained by his tangents. I sure as hell hope you don't interview people as part of your job. "Keep him on track", INDEED!
Jen : So what's your favourite Halloween movie.
Slavoj : The occupiers tell you they want peace!
he is right
@@Uchihaayoub - Agreed. I just thought it was a very funny segue to his answer. His brain is amazing.
He's so based
He's never given a simple, direct answer before; no reason to change now.
@@keithklassen5320 He thinks the same way i think, scattered and going off into tangents. but he made it work for him, which is inspiring tbh.
also he's just fun to listen to, can't say that about many philosophers
Zizek's camera shaking throughout the video really adds to this
I like imagining Slavoj Zizek clicking around looking for something to watch on HBO Max and Netflix too.
Twisting the ears on his Soviet -era black and white set
He said a few times he is downloading movies
He said in another interview that he watched most of movies from torrent
h ha h ha h h h good
The philosopher of the future is watching tik tok videos right now
Slavoj Zizek should have a regular segment where he reviews movies and other shows.
have you seen The Pervert's Guide to Cinema? and i agree
Have you heard of verso books
"...and then the main protagonist embarks on an epic journey to combat evil and so on an so forth"
I just love how Žižek completely contrasts their smiley-faced approach, literally and figuratively
I mean, he's Slovenian, they're Americans. A very "serious-faced" culture vs a far more smiley one.
'if something appears anti-capitalist it is not necessarily anti-capitalist'
That was the twist in Matrix Reloaded. The resistance can be co-opted to be just another part of the status quo.
Kind of like Zizek.
@@ramonalejandrosuare Ok, Ramon.
@@MarkArandjus As a good Hegelian, Zizek would agree!
Well, how could you get truly anti-capitalist or progressive films generated by a big capitalist machinery like Hollywood? What Zizek doesn't get however; if something appears as reactionary (such as Dune), it's just that.
@@henrirauhala4335 Isn’t the point of dune that reactionary movements are bad and inherently self-destructive?
This is just what I’ve been told; I haven’t actually read the books.
Jen: Favorite Horror?
Zizek: *Vibrates*
Slavoj is a KING but he needs to invest in a better microphone 😂
😂🤣😂🤣😂
Leftist audio :/
And more snot-rags.
Investments are for Capitalists.
I dunno, I kinda like the way he feels in lo-fi.
But the point of dune isn’t to define some protofascist revolution as righteous, like in Star Wars, but to see how these organizations inherently create their own dehumanization through the ideology that defines the validity of said organization.
That point is not made clear in the first book though.
similar point handmaids tale I believe, at least that's my conclusion. Then again it could be a projection of your own preaching choir... never underestimate difference. Different values means willingness to tolerate different things
What the fuck? The point of the book is literally "Don't make heroes"
@@Revanchist that’s what I’m saying
Could you clarify your point about Star Wars being protofascist?
The late Mark Fisher correctly pointed out how capitalism easily synthesizes and absorbs critiques into it's ideology and then sells that pasteurized anti-capitalist sentiment back to audiences.
It's a very imperfect analogy, but it's kind of like how Palpatine funds both sides of a war for his own profit (and I think Orwell's 1984 hints to something similar going on, or at least the enemy being a largely fictitious bogeyman).
I don't know where Id be w/out Slavoj...his books, his allies, his philosophical progenitors--all great. one of the best ramblers ever
I haven't read any of his books but his recorded talks and written articles have actually changed my entire world view.
When the full interview of a Marxist philosopher is kept behind a paywall, that's the scariest movie.
Revolutionary ideology is the enemy of revolutionary theory and knows it.
"Buy my latest book on how to defeat capitalism!"
@@martiendejong8857 buying your book to kill capitalism is another kind of capitalism.
@@martiendejong8857 Zizek is like "guys it s on torrent go pirate it"
Marxism isn't against making money?
ordinary people: *fighting over whether it's pronounced "Dune" or "Djune"
Zizek: DOON
When i first watched Nomadland i was so dissapointed becasse of what zizek said that they are FCKING ROMANTICIZING being homeless like the new NORM which is ultra bad for the courage of ppl to organize to do somthing for that reason.
Dune isn't really anti-capitalist the universe is more mercantilist than capitalist with the emperor controlling who has the monopoly over spice. The book is more anti-tyrannical as Herbert himself said the the main message of the book is "don't trust charismatic leaders". Those who have only watched the film won't understand this yet but dune is far deeper than just a criticism of greed
And heroes are rarely who we think they are. Isn't that right Duncan mk 9003, "totally not a Tleilaxu mutant" Idaho?
Leto II is still a spice encrusted bastard though. His 3,000 years of forced servitude to the fish speakers fostered entire industries to get rid of his psychic reach.
@@severdislike4222 unfortunately I haven't read god emperor of dune yet I've read the first 3 but do plan getting round to it. I know it's very different to the original 3 though.
MACHT, GIER, MATIRIALISMUS, RESSOURCE📢👂👁
It also shuts down atheism...
Isn't mercantilism just early capitalism
Come And See may not be a horror film, but it scarred and scared me more than any fright flick.
It's so cool that you guys get to chat with Zizek
not gonna lie, i like watching not for his takes (i am writing this before i heard his take at all). i watch zizek because he has a unique energy and i dig it
he's fucking iconic
Zizek's take on Squid Game is interesting. I hadn't thought about it that way.
He doesn't seem to understand allegory. Yeah, the games in Squid Game recreate capitalism, because they are allegories for capitalism. That's the entire point.
I was trying to figure out if it's his opinion that Squid Game is pro-capitalist because it is disingenuous as a product of a capitalist society, because of the actual structure of the narrative, or some kind of conflation. He does mention that it is presented as a game from the outset. For me there are no points for novelty here, he's disregarding the purpose of metaphor in satire. The purpose of the premise is not to turn capitalism into a game that is fun for the audience, it is to recognize that capitalism is already a game that is not fun, and often is fatal, to its unwilling participants, just like it is to the characters in the show. One thing Squid Game does really well too, is to demonstrate how people become "willing" participants because the fear brought about by the burden of not playing the "game" is naturally coercive.
Zizek's point may be similar to what one French film director said about war movies which is that "There is no such thing as an anti-war movie because the action will inevitably be thrilling on screen." But fireworks are thrilling, unless perhaps you're a veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Most of the audience who watches a war movie has never been to war, so the thrill they get from it is informed by lack of consequence. Squid Game's success in South Korea and America comes from audiences who are all too aware of the burden of living in a dog eat dog economy.
I would also argue that getting a vicarious thrill out of something does not mean we submit to it. We as viewers can and do go to war movies directed with the explicit intent to be anti-war movies with an all but singular purpose to be entertained, can walk away entertained, and still take away the message of the movie - that what we watched would not be fun in real life, because real life has consequences. It's worth noting that both takes disregard the empathic qualities of storytelling. They only account for how disconnected "exciting" events endear an audience to a FILM without accounting for the audience's relationship to the characters, or how that "excitement" is consequential to them in the narrative. The paradox is: it's like saying "Because this movie is fun it can't be meaningful" but Slavoj couches this same point in "Just because it's depressing doesn't make it progressive." The criticized thrill is different but the point is the same, and the overall reasoning is just as flawed even if the basic statement is true. It's selectively disregarding the things that provoke complex thought to complain about a few of the things people theoretically feel, giving them far more weight than they deserve.
@@futurestoryteller Yeah, Zizek doesn't seem to understand the show. In fact, I kind of doubt he's even watched it all the way through, because the introduction of the VIPs is essentially a commentary on the audience itself and how people consume media under capitalism. The show is, in part, satirizing the very thing that Zizek is criticizing it for here.
I didn’t fully understand his criticism of it and I’m not sure I agree. But I do think Squid Game really falls down. It sets itself up as a pretty on the nose metaphor for capitalism, but towards the end I feel it gets lost in its own plot and ends up not saying much of anything.
The other recent Jacobin video where they criticise “woke horror” films is relevant to this too I think. They are a lot kinder to Get Out than they are to more recent horror films, and I think it’s because, even if you’re an edgy Marxist and you find Get Out too liberal, that movie had a real vitality and authenticity to it and it knew exactly what it was about. As they pointed out, more recent “woke horror” has had the unmistakable smell of cooptation about it. Studios have gone “ah so horror + woke = profit”.
I think Parasite was like Get Out but for economic, class-based politics instead of racial politics. Parasite is similarly laser-focused and… REAL is the best way I can put it. Squid Game feels like someone went “aha, so anti-capitalism is the hot new thing.” Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the show, but it felt like I was being catered to, not like I was listening to a true authentic expression.
As always, when an authentic expression of dissent against capital emerges, it gets packaged and sold to you again and again until it’s just one more wave of content.
@@hideshiseyes2804 This is sort of the "I liked Nirvana before it was cool" class of film criticism. I'm sure the success of Parasite, in some ways provokes the ironic, and self-dissonant rise of class commentary based products into the distribution market, but I think it's a bit silly to insinuate - by implication, I stress - that Squid Game was a cynical, virtually assured success brought about by a calculated capitalist risk assessment.
First of all, I've hardly seen any "woke" horror made in the wake of Get Out that could reasonably be considered an unmitigated success story, even Jordan Peel's sophomore picture: US, was more of a modest success. Even with the same author delivering the same type of "woke" messaging, and noticably no less appetite for it. US logically follows, marketably from Get Out, because Jordan Peel succeeded, in the same way Squid Game does from Parasite, but less directly.
So there is once again an unacknowledged conflation here between the art and marketing sides of the film industry. "Squid Game was produced to be a capitalist product" is indisputible, but it is not the same as saying "Squid game was written, from the outset, for no OTHER purpose than to be a capitalist product." Which is what you're arguing.
All of these films are both literally and figuratively products of their time and place. The fact that an anti-capitalist message is marketable, despite recognizable and sizeable short term gains, socially speaking, is hardly beneficial to a capitalist society, any more than anti-democratic populism is beneficial to a democratic society. To say otherwise you have to suggest that the driving force behind the popularity of Parasite and Squid Game is economic in nature... but in a way that decouples that reality from the personal circumstances that make the ideas in them relatable to a paying audience to begin with.
You're doing the same thing the culturally illiterate executives are doing "This dress was a success, pink is the hot new color" "This film was a success, anti-capitalist stories are the hot new narrative." Just because copies of Squid Game are flying off virtual shelves, as if the same mindset naturally motivates the SUCCESS of both products and not just the manufacture of them. To me this cynicism begs more the question of whether your ideology is motivate more by social pressures or by logical inferences. Since I'm not prepared to believe anyone could have predicted the success of Squid Game, pre-launch, and I don't know how you could think that would be possible.
All products in a capitalist society exist in some fashion to make money.
"Parasite is 'real.' Squid Game is a disingenuous show because it is a capitalist product with an anti-capitalist message." is a disingenuous argument. It is obviously an inherently self-defeating argument, because Parasite is not any less a PRODUCT - in every way - of a capitalist society than Squid Game is. So really all that's left here is that you're put off by the popularity of something because it came in after a recent, similar thing that was also popular.
Zizek is so aggressive and I love him for that
He is at the same time aggressive, and actually a really nice guy
"germans in 1943 wanted peace" lmao true
All in one video he said "Here I am an old fashioned leftist", "Now you will see my fascist side", and "Now comes my bourgeois side."
i know they hate capitalism but cant they buy him a decent mic?
he won’t buy himself 😂
@@aydc6740 hes poor
@@guguigugu with all those books? He has different priorities.
@@bemersonbakebarmen you dont really earn much from books, unless youre consistenly selling millions every year
@@guguigugu He is doing just fine. He said somewhere, when asked about spending money, that he treats himself to an exquisite hotel in Dubai every year.
I’m so curious what Slavoj thinks of Succession.
R.I.P
Here lies Slavoj Zizek's wet laptop microphone
Frank Herbert made it known that the political and social structure served as a warning about the ideological power, and the messianic response.
Can I possibly be the only person who needs subtitles for this guy? The auto generated subtitles don’t come close to explicating his points. If you’re going to host him the least you could do is is put the subtitles in yourselves. He’s a smart guy, would it kill you to follow through in his exposition?
Squid Game isn’t over yet. It feels like there will be a season 2
Of course there will be another season. They don’t put production and marketing budgets like that in 1 season shows. But most shows that are actually subversive (I don’t think squid game is) become less so with additional seasons and attention
@@allyson87 I completely disagree. It’s as subversive as they live. The last episode solidifies this
They'll milk Squid game for all it's worth and then some.
By the time they're finished with it you'll be throwing up every time you hear those words.
@@deathmagneto-soy yeh I think it’s perfect as is. Doesn’t need a second season. Will receive finishing returns eventually. The writer should just do something new. He rocks
@@deathmagneto-soy yeah, I think it’s the next Sherlock or Game of Thrones. When they overtly disrespect the audience and everyone is upset, can come back here and say I called it
Herbert created an amazing story and Villeneuve finally brought it to life on the silver screen.
Yes and it was boring
@@mavis3916 no, it was spectacular
@@apina9731 even Lynch wont watch that
@@apina9731 Lynchs Version a faithful adaptation? you must be trolling
Hans Zimmer gets on my nerves.
The last episode of squid game, and all the stuff people don’t like about it, solidifies it as explicitly anti capitalist and not recuperating misery porn. It doesn’t reify the game. It shows that gi hun hasn’t become a more productive member of society by participating, but is just another trauma in his life. And that after seeing the essential good in people resolved to use his trauma to fight to destroy the system that made him rich (without his consent remember. He gave up)
I agree, Squid Game is definitely solidly anti-capitalist.
A really unique part of Squid Game, pretty early on, that is absolutely not in many other left-ish media, was the vote by all the game participants in order to continue the game. And it is true. Our participation in capitalism requires our daily mass consent. If we all voted not to continue, we could end the game. Obviously it is more difficult than a simple vote (requires mass organization, formation of new institutions), but we do absolutely have the power to end the game by with holding our labor.
Also there was direct reference to an auto plant strike where state violence was used to crush it, and the de-industrialization in South Korea. We learn that the main character is not necessarily a dead-beat gambler on the margins due to his own volition, he lost his job due to movement of skilled labor offshore. This little detail, and the inclusion of the North Korean, and the representation of the elites as multinational, should tell the viewer how the struggle is absolutely an international struggle.
nope, this last episode frames Squid Game as capitalist fantasy. Oh Il Nam invites Gi Hun to wager on someone's life, and guess what: he does! And when he takes on the phone, and decides to participate in the Game, what will he do: will he use collective action to break capital? Not necessarily. It more appears he will use his wealth to exert influence on the game, and avenge himself (and others of course). It is the superhero-Tony Stark-Bruce Wayne fantasy all over again most probably.
It's a great product. Selling well. Gains for Netflix.
@@felooosailing957 you're reading a lot into what Season 2 might be.
@@gfarrell80 but it doesn´t matter, because even if you just keep with what is shown in the episode, that is the lesson. First, he beats the hell out of his former friend, and then, as he has already beaten him, he gives up. His friend kills himself simply because he cannot stand Gi-Hun inhuman, unnatural, "plot armor" goodness, because it makes him feel guilty, even though Gi Hun arrived at this stage in part because of his friend. Later, Gi Hun learns he is becoming like Oh: he sits there, waging on someone´s life. And he became a millionaire from money Oh and others put to make him kill other people: he literally becomes their inheritor. And he only gets this far because Oh saw him as worthy. He even is giving money as charity to other people, like a good millionaire, like the ideal one: the one who doesn´t spend, as Max Weber knew. Keep in mind: the amount of money he has to do other things, but he limits himself to roses and a briefcase. And he is not seeing "into the good of people", as the OP claims: on the contrary, he wants to oppose the gamemakers on mere terms of vengeance.
Holy sheet this is one of Slavoj's best ramblings. 8 min of random information overload!!!
Gotta love this guy.
I thought for sure Zizek must have snorted up some Covid by now, lol. All that mouth and nose touching... Well I'm glad he's still alive.
"I know 'blah-blah-blah'!" - ZIZEK😆
I think it's a hard thing to balance the politics of a show against the need to have an interesting story -- with Squid Game, there is that shell of an anti-capitalist argument (maybe not so much an argument as just an allegory) but if it had been more overt (like if the characters spoke more explicitly about the 2009 SsangYong Motors strike, and through dialogue, likened it to the games they were playing) it would have struck the audience as simply too contrived.
I don't particularly care for Frank Herbert's patriarchal, feudalistic universe portrayed in Dune, but I agree that at least it fully imagines and fleshes out a whole universe. I think so often our media shies away from depicting a society that isn't just our own projected into a fantastic setting (like Star Wars, or the Marvel Movies) and goes the safer route of depicting how "one of us" (in most cases, a cis-het white male) would fare (and of course, prove to be excellent) in some other setting (like the main character of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies thriving in an alien environment).
The truly interesting science-fiction to me (that never gets made into TV or movies, unfortunately) are works that really imagines a completely different society, how it came to be, and how it operates. I can only think of Star Trek (at least the first few series) as an example of sci-fi depicting a post-capitalist society with any sort of positive light. Can anyone think of any others?
You can't really create a fictional world without using the same type of society we currently live in. It would be construed as too unrealistic.
The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin - would like to see that turned into a film
any Paul Verhooven film, namely Starship Troopers, is pretty good, because, at least in the case of Starship Troopers, Verhooven makes a movie that a fascist society would make, but throwing in some lampooning of it by making it absolutely absurd. not that its depicted as a good thing though
I recommend listening to Chapo Trap House talk about Starship Troopers for more thorough explanation of this
Star Trek is garbage precisely because of that reason. Its inane wish fulfilment for leftists who want to blithely "imagine" new worlds (like some kind of bored baby), without of course showing us the course to get there. I hate it. In fact, if you think the world of Star Trek, with bland nothing personalities spouting philosophical diatribes all day, dressed in Mao style jumpsuits, in a world of unending plenty (and hence, unending boredom and tedium), neutralising the precise thing that makes life meaningful, that of struggle, is a utopia, then you need clinical help. The world of Star trek is about as utopic as the Eloi from The Time Machine, creatures divorced of any sense of purpose having eliminated the need to achieve any purpose whatsoever.
Herbert was able to use the medium of science fiction to explore precisely the problem of the world today, uneven and combined development, the monopolisation of energy by a tiny cliche of the rich and the subsequent colonial wars over said scarce material, the use of selective religious fundamentalism by colonial powers as means for control (see the Muhajeen in the 80s against the soviet Union for proof of this), the complete impossibility of genuine change or growth in systems rooted intricately on violence and oppression (a feudal system, and the deluded false revolution that Paul promises, swapping one tyrant for a worse one). All these themes are vitally important to today's world. And that us what good science fiction does, it takes the problems of today, interprets them through a speculative lense, and through shows how we may confront or defeat it. Not blithely wish it away as that fucking senile hippy new age granny twat Ursula K Le Guin or the mawkish liberal utopian of Gene Roddenberry hoped for.
Also, if you think the Guardian of the Galaxy movies are about a cis white dude owning it throughout the universe, you patently and clearly didn't watch Vol. II. Its precisely about the need to *get over* white male power fantasies, to stop reliving the 80s I'm a state of permanent cultural infanthood (which is ironic for a movie franchise that bases its entire wretched, nauseating existence of precisely said churned out, repetitive, mcnostalgia garbage) and start, actually, having responsibilities to other people than you.
Do you even know anything about art? Or did you crawl out the womb like this?
"Occupiers always want peace..." - Zizek
"Dude I just asked what's your favorite horror movie is :
Slavoj is the coolest uncle I never had
whats the alec baldwin movie that he is talking about?
Zizek will forever be the man!
Thank you! Squid game is cooptation. I’m so disappointed that ppl aren’t seeing the many problems. It’s not nearly as subversive as people want to make it
It's a perfect example of how capitalism subsumes and replicates anything that is a threat.
@@deathmagneto-soy completely disagree. What in the show does that. I think this phenomenon of recuperation by capital is insidious and omnipresent, but squid games is resolutely not within that cannon
@@Neuroticmancer - It's Netflix bro. Don't get me wrong, I really like the show.
@@deathmagneto-soy frankly, all media production is compromised by capital. As is all consumption. I think media can overcome that and if the media fails at that? I think audiences can view it critically, and if not watch it critically with an acknowledgement of its context. I think squid games specifically does more good than bad and is written with its context in mind
@@Neuroticmancer How exactly does it do more good than harm?
I enjoy listening to this
Zizek gets it again!! Squid Game is too in your face or filled with obscene enjoyment (in Lacanese) for it to become a meaningful critique of capitalism. What it does is it only reinforces the prevailing disgust of South Koreans towards poverty and financial failure. It reinforces not shakes or disturbs the status quo in South Korea.
As usual, Zizek sees through. Squid Game stages capitalism as a game in which you either die quickly, or win a big lottery on the end. But no: capitalism is precisely not that. 1) It is not a game we voluntarily participate in. 2) In capitalism you do not necessarily die quickly, but live "indebted in blood" to Capital. 3) Chances to win millions of dollars are much, much less than 1/456. And in fact, those who usually win these astronomic quantities are inheritors of wealth. In capitalism, there is no fair start as in the competition.
I think Squid Game isn‘t an allegory about capitalism. It is an abstraction of what humans, because of their sheer desperation, financial struggle, immaturity or sadism would be willing to do, in order to survive in a capitalistic world. There is a reason that in episode 2, people voluntarily decide to reenter a survival game. Money equals survival and the individual reasons and motivations these people have to survive (not go into jail or face their unjust deeds, free their loved ones from tyranny or estrangement) they long for this utopian solution which eventually, unravels itself as a dystopia. Dystopias and Utopias are infantile visions and solutions for complicated problems. Hence, they literally play children games. It‘s not just Korean absurdism. This series speaks about something very deep and fundamental to the human spirit. I think the capitalist conditions are something that are explicitly commented on only in the first two episodes. Everything that happens in this show after those two episodes can be blamed both on the capitalist system of economy, BUT also on the immaturity and malevolence of these individuals (depends also on to what degree their immaturity is a product of the system). After those two episodes, the show just unravels itself as a playground for psychological drama and the dynamic of dystopianism ~ utopianism.
What I wonder is why Zizek doesn't ever point out that "anti-capitalism" created in our media landscape is by its nature recycled when we write about it or make videos on it, because in a Control society data itself is part of capital and there's no way to transcend the situation by individuals.
Come to think of it, that might be the problem with Squid Game's fantasy, that it still uses an individual as an identification point...
@@romanticplacebo3693 Could you elaborate on that point? I‘m intrigued
Work your ass off and you can have exactly what the rich has. No system will be fair, yes, its crap that some people just land balls deep in sea of money when there born but thats just the way it is... but it doesn't mean you can't go and do it yourself.
1) The people participating in Squid Game aren't participating voluntarily though. They're participating because they have no other choice. They chose people who were in financial ruin for a reason. 2) Allegories aren't meant to be taken literally. Yes, you die quickly in the game. But under capitalism, being in born in a lower class/being financially in debt can be the equivalent of death sentence. 3) Yes, the chances to win millions of dollars under capitalism are much less than 1/456...which is partly why the return rate was over 90%. Why do you think the vast majority of people that play the lottery are poor? 4) The people that run the Squid Game preach equality and fairness (much like under neoliberal capitalism) but in reality the games are inherently unequal/unfair. Most of the games rely on physical strength or intelligence (attributes some people are born with and others are not), or sheer luck of the draw.
Nobody, absolutely Nobody :
Slavoj' Camera : Ulalalalalaalala#$^%^
Žižek insightful as usual.
Where’s the beginning of the interview lol
this is probably the shakiest video call i've ever seen
02:27 and 02:30 that was a Steam message notification? anyways - "The occupiers tell you they want peace!" he's right
zizek is actually right and wrong on squid game, them making a capitalist game out of this is the thing that is supposed to be the core opposition and the thing we are to condemn like in the ending how gi-hun swears to take down the game
But the fact you all are the willing spectators is a funny layer of criticism in itself. The superficial condemnation doesn't negate that people are still literally paying to see the games.
Funny Games did that so well. It constantly reminded you what you are actually seeing, by emphasizing the human context and ommiting the splatter you came to see, and it reminds you that all this only happens to entertain you. The movie breaks the illusion and tells you:"You came here to see this. This happens only for you. Don't pretend to be disgusted. This is exactly what you asked for."
@@tomitiustritus6672 more proof that piracy is morally correct
*What Zizek has to say on every concept:*
Squid Game: capitalist fantasy
Bond: misogynist male fantasy pretending to be feminist
Dune: actually impressive comment on imperialism
I just saved 10 minutes of your life.
I ❤️ Slavoj!!! But. Keeping it real. As much as I detest capitalism, to paraphrase Cornel West, we all have a gangster inside us. I’m skeptical of people who aren’t at least on some level attracted to capitalist porn. I’d be lying if I said I don’t envy people with massive wealth. But like all porn, just cuz you fantasize about it, doesn’t mean you actually want to realize that fantasy. In fact, that’s the point of a fantasy- to enjoy what you wouldnt actually do. Like Scorsese movies. In some atavistic way, he glorifies brutal sociopaths and there’s something both titillating and horrifying about identifying with those characters. But that doesn’t mean that if you like Scorsese, you actually want to put a hit out on even your worst enemy, you dig?
That gangster inside of you will die if you stop feeding it capitalist porn my friend, I speak from experience.
Mafia flicks are fun but in a world that worships the wealthy these movies can have a dangerous effect of normalizing greedy sociopathic behaviors by rich boys.
Perhaps even to the point where we could elect a president who bragged he could shoot a man in broad daylight and no one would care.
There are better fantasies🖖
I never got what s even mildly interesting about mafia movies.Infact they just piss me off
The Ali8oras watch The Irishman. It’s like an anti-mafia movie
@@jcmea13 ^excellent movie^
@@GUILLOTINE_GANG
Unintended or not, I find your comment oddly capitalist in nature in that it attributes personal choice rather than systemic reinforcement to the problem at hand. In my view, almost all problems (including the fascination with capital) is an inevitable result of capitalism itself - capital consolidating itself - which yields this result despite our struggle against it. Which is also why workers seek a higher wage! We too consolidate our capital! Even when workers oppose the system by demanding a higher wage, because we don’t own the means of production we replicate rather than overcome the power of capital. The belief that we can somehow escape this tendency entirely through sheer will is hubris and an inability to see how the capitalist system reinforces itself independent of our personalities and efforts. Better to understand it and accept it when it crops up within us despite our efforts to the contrary, because it will. That is ultimately inescapable and a feature of capitalism, not us. Which is precisely why we need to change the entire system.
So true!!!!
Thanks God, I was afraid he was going to say that Squid Game should be taught in schools. Thanks for not disappointing me 😂
I mean the director even said the point of White Lotus is to make them all shitty people to portray this feeling of how a vacation can turn into a nightmare.
Everyone except for the sympathetic characters like Belinda who worked in the spa, Rachel (the wife) and the locals were rich for a reason.
Imagine- 2 or 3 weeks ago Slavoj Zizek, ,Orthodox Lacanian Stalinist Pulp Fiction Author- starts to notice that everywhere he look peoples mimic and copy him. He's thinking there is something definitely weird going on here and start to write his next book, he grab Pandemic Times 1 and 2 (last books that prolific writer sell) to see what can be recycled. Zizek writes with purpose and knowlege that his own writing can be re- used up to 6 times in print and much more than that in lecture- thus creating philosophical work that is sensitive to Climate Change. Just like starbucks coffee contain within commodity for increase price charity to mitigate capitalist excess, Zizeks work of philosophy is recycle-able and act of producing this is in and of itself action addressing immediate crisis of Climate Change. But Zizek starts his new book with cultural critique of wierd phenomena of everybody start to copy and mimic him and discover - that a complete no-body- in standard invasion of body snatchers storyline- really steal his essense from him. Surely we imagine Zizek finding some humor in this absurd theft of his creativity. Nope, Zizek is actually pissed off that recycling has been adopted to combat climate change by another leftist fraud. What Zizek can not forgive- is that this rotten huckster in squidgame- STEAL- jokes from him that Zizek steal from someone else fair and square already...........Only meaning of this act- highest form of flattery
Dune is a WARNING against charismatic leaders like Paul. Wait for the second movie.
is he charismatic? the nomads prayed to him before he's said even a word. his success is based on not some charisma, but the prophecy Bene Gesserit sowed generations ago
@@agapon2023 ua-cam.com/video/26GPaMoeiu4/v-deo.html go to 1: 35
@@agapon2023 i think that K Jones is citing Frank Herbert's words, when he was asked about the idea behind writing Dune. And he said, that it was a warning about charismatic leaders and that all of them should come with a warning label saying "may be dangerous to your health".
@@agapon2023 He still has to rein in the Fremen because there are those who DON'T think he is the messiah. For example in book 2 they literally pray to him and see him as a god.
You can say "don't make heroes" or "it's a warning against charismatic leaders" but it still means the same thing, you are blindly following someone and that's what matters.
4:18 THIS! so you are a rebel?! get yourself our rebel package, full of movies and series that will make raise your left fist! buy the DVD on your nearest mall, order your Tshirts on Amazon
They asked a very simple question hahahaha
My favorite horror movie - Parasite
Man Socrates looks really coked out these days
Скажите, где он говорит о James Bond
'depressive is not progressive' - zizek. so true king
I see Dune I click
I’m a radical syndaclist
Nomadland sells itself out at the end with elite condescension for outsiders.
H O O L Y W O O D
Well, he did make some good sniffs here...
how is he so charming while yelling at a laptop
I think Zizek would enjoy Babylon Berlin
Slavoj, i just want to sit with you and watch movies.
Just wanted to let you know that when I see Zizek anywhere I just have to click on it.
"What's your favorite Halloween movie?"
Slavoj: cocaine
The Žižek cocaine jokes got old like 7 years ago, let it go man.
@@mladimajstor I'm new to the man. So it was the forst thing I noticed lol
@@dustinjames1122 as far as I know he has a condition
Now as a person who does speak English as his second language people often say to me that I have an ear for accents and they are right. I can communicate with a variety of people from different places People from Liverpool, Scotland, Jamaica, Nigeria etc... No problem at all. But here is the thing: I can not understand this guy aside from that : "here I am a old-fashioned leftist".
I been saying for years now that they need to do a remake of They Live. Especially with today's social and political issues combined with a horror aspect. Just saying!
No. They Live says it is aliens. But in truth we are the aliens.
Zizek, folkowing is own stated methodology, has likely not seen the whole of squid game. He uses movies as a means to illustrate his preconceived ideas.
"Occupiers always want peace"
...and Simón
Dune:
"Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.
Thou shalt not disfigure the soul." (Orange Catholic Bible)
The irony here is that the soul in old theological scholastic terms is indistinguishable from the body. Like a mobius strip instead of a cartesian dualism. But with the ban, the dependence on Spice by humans for progress means deformation regardless! The navigators are basically forced evolved transhuman God-addicts that have transformed into atrophied fish like beings. Would that be a deformation of the soul? They can see the future from their life support fish tanks, but their God like faculties are reduced to........logistical management: a narrow concept of work destroys our bodies, along with a life philosophy based on devotion as addiction, and only allows us to see a very, very narrow future. Sounds familiar...
@Marcelo Ojeda oh I agree. The universe in which this plays out, all of it, it's terrifying. Incidentally, the fact that Paul sees a mystical vision of his future under a new name he's made for himself (mau dib) directly after his father's name is decimated is significant. Once the paternal metaphor is destroyed, all that is left is the desire of the bene gesrit: his mother.
Please send a better microphone to Zizek please 😔😔
Is he saying his issue with Squid Game is that it essentially functions as entertainment for people who enjoy seeing the lower classes suffer?
EDIT: I found his talk about the Handmaid's Tale, and what I believe he is communicating is this: essentially, what we need is an _even more_ fascist and authoritarian regime potentially gaining power in the Handmaid's Tale to communicate that our "lesser evil" of liberal Democrats is not at all acceptable just because the alternative is even worse.
I interpreted it to mean that even though we recognize that it's all a big caricature of capitalism and that it's a really fucked up unfair situation, you nevertheless want to see the main characters do well and succeed in the games
@@weasel6843 In his critique of the Handmaid's Tale, he states that we never see the liberal side of things and are not permitted to understand why society chose a totalitarian state over whatever the liberals were promising. Ignoring the liberal side functions to absolve them of their terribleness and place the blame solely on those in power - in reality, people don't want Trump so they settle for liberal garbage no mater how bad. Additionally, the joy of the show is in watching how fucked up things are and how debased and dehumanized women have become. It's not in seeing their liberation from oppression - oppression which liberals at the very least played an enabling role in.
Is it bad to indulge in imagining yourself as a victim who is brutalized by the system, the powers that be, even, rather than someone who themselves is a brutalizing figure in an uncaring universe? I can't help thinking of the track name "the voyeur of utter destruction (as beauty)" on David Bowies Outside album. The concept of the album was of an imagined "art crime" of ritual murder. Inspired by the manifesto of surrealism, supposedly. At what point are we going to be satisfied enough to say enough is enough? At least the self-conscious brute might one day feel that they have had enough.
His critique of the Handmaid's Tale borrowed an idea of nostalgia for the present from Fredric Jameson. So basically in the Handmaid's Tale, instead of those women seeing a dystopian society as a unique chance for emancipation, they paint a beautiful picture of present liberal society and yearn to go back to the very society that brought them to this dystopian existence. Of course, the the underlying implication is to fool the audience into thinking how lucky they are to live in a modern liberal society. A series like the Handmaid's Tale might appear to be progressive but in the end it reinforces the idea of the end of history and how we can never go beyond the logic of liberal capitalism.
Squid Game stages capitalism as a game in which you either die quickly, or win a big lottery on the end. But no: capitalism is precisely not that. 1) It is not a game we voluntarily participate in. 2) In capitalism you do not necessarily die quickly, but live "indebted in blood" to Capital. 3) Chances to win millions of dollars are much, much less than 1/456. And in fact, those who usually win these astronomic quantities are inheritors of wealth. In capitalism, there is no fair start as in the competition.
Ugh, that Regnery commercial!
👍🙌
Dune challenges and throws Zizek because Herbert doesn't accept an Hegelian version of history. Herbert is modern without being mystical or mystifying. He sees that history has a norm--alternating projections of brutality and promise--and that to get out of that pattern, even temporarily, requires stagnation and the resulting drive to throw it off. That's it. No utopianism, no perfect society.
>Herbert doesn't accept an Hegelian version of history.
Neither did Marx.
@@mehg8407 I was speaking to Zizek's take, not Marx. Zizek is a strange Marxist; if you read Parallax View, he DOES accept what Marx rejects about Hegel, that history is an engine, a fait accompli humanity only tinkers with. Hegel would never agree with Marx about social relations driving it.
What was zizek saying about the Alec Baldwin shooting?
I think he was implying he wanted the guy who got shot, to be shot. It was murder, not an accident. It's probably just as well he didn't finish his thoughts there, at least not if Baldwin is really so powerful!
@@squirlmy I'm sorry what? That is probably the total opposite of what he meants. He was providing validation to Alec's past actions and him being on the "right side" of the story, going a bit into detail to justify his opinion. I think it's pretty clear that he was implying that is very likely Alec Baldwin was framed and that the numerous higher powers present in hollywood found their way to the movie set and touched that gun in order to get him into serious trouble. Since, as was implied by Zizek, he has been such a powerful force and not just some pacifist
his past support of the unions perhaps gives his claims that the Rust set *wasn't* unsafe more weight? That is, he actually pays attention to what's happening around him?
@@squirlmy It was a camerawoman who was shot.
I think we can all agree with Slavoj on one thing, MORE COCIANE FOR EVERYONE /s
You have to know Dune in order to talk about Dune. You can’t go off the movie alone (which is amazing btw), you have to at least wait for Part 2, or read the books. Because that’s a very layered story. But there is a strong critique and warning on capitalism and the allure of strong, charismatic leaders in this story though. So let’s see what Zizek has to say
I read an article that explained the same, because I found the movie laughably orientalist, Lawrence of Arabia meets Jesus and the Oil Industry. Not having read the original books I googled for insight. The article says that Herbert did, indeed want to warn the world against charismatic leaders, but since Herbert was a Republican, he had Kennedy in mind when fearing such leaders. Later, he had no problem with Reagan.
@@nicuhosu yeah, regardless of his Republican affiliations, the story is actually amazing. My wife is Chinese, and she noticed the “oriental” elements as well, but she didn’t mind. She loved the movie. It’s actually a really good movie. The director is extremely talented. I love all of his movies. And considering he grew up being a fan of Dune, he was able to give the movie justice. But yeah, Paul’s character will be one of the most tragic and fascinating characters that cinema has seen for any blockbuster-like movie for the past decade, possibly since Dark Knight. See, think about what’s going on with Paul’s character. The movie sets him up to have an atypical hero arch. The prodigal son who is reluctant in assuming the hereditary role his father is laying out for him; moments of principle and empathy towards the exploitation of the Freman, which shows his moral compass; the prescient visions of the future that torment him throughout the movie in which billions die for what they believe to be a jihad in the name of their messiah, etc; along with his quest for vengeance and the restoration of his family’s House. See, the Bene Gesserit sisterhood operates and control things in the shadows, fronting as a religious organization as a ploy to get close to all of the houses within the Landsraad. Through science, as a result of the war humanity fought against the AI that was imprisoning them (by the control of other humans), computers were banned. So humans developed ways, through careful training and genetic parsing, to build factions of humans responsible for roles within society, like computers, interstellar travel navigation, etc. The Bene Gesserit, as you see in the movie, developed methods that seem like powers, to have abilities, like The Voice, which is just commands said in a certain pitch, after careful study of people’s individual psyche, that could best manipulate them to their bidding, psychologically. And also, the ability to tap into their maternal genes in order to gain all the memories of their ancestors. So, their mission is to save humanity from destroying itself. But in order to fully see into the future, in order to best direct humanity, they need someone who is able to tap into both the paternal and maternal lines of their genetic coding, a person who will also have the ability to see possibilities into the future to do that. So it has to be a man (x, Y chromosome sh!t). So this sisterhood went around the galaxy implanting religious legend of a male messiah who would be born of a Bene Gesserit, from one of the Houses of Landsgaard, and they did this for hundreds of years to a point where this legend/prophesy is an integral part of their cultures. They also carefully selected the right genetic matches for members of their sisterhood to procreate with, by carefully selecting men of the Houses, in order to both produce someone who can handle these abilities and someone who could be under their control. Paul wasn’t supposed to be born right away. He was supposed to be a girl. And that girl would have been married to a Harkonnen son, and they would have produced this “messiah.” So anyway, Paul was born because Lady Jessica loves Leto, and wanted to give him a son, and she believes that he will be the Messiah. Paul knows this. He knows that “they believe what they were told to believe,” as was said in the book and in the movie. So he was reluctant at first. His exposure to spice is activating his prescient abilities, and he saw the genocide that happened under the pretexts of a “jihad” (because any war fought for their messiah will be a religious war from their pov), but was really made to serve his self-interested purposes, which is to seek revenge and restore his family House. So at the end of the movie, when his mother wanted to go off-world, back go Caladan, Paul saying “no,” and that his journey is there, with the Freman, was a HUGE turning point and character development for Paul, because it solidified him as an anti-hero. In that moment, at the very end of the movie, he decided to go forward with the Freman, which he knows will result in 60 billion ppl d*ing as a result of his selfish need for revenge. In that moment, he knowingly decided to manipulate these people knowing that he’s not really their “messiah,” just so he could use them for his agenda. This story shows you that people who aren’t overtly bad or “evil” can, as a result of their weakness and cowardice, make decisions that can result in outright evil outcomes.
Sorry for the very long comment. Lol
@@nicuhosu also, he probably wasn’t talking about JFK. He was probably referring to folks like Hitler and Mussolini
@@dfwherbie8814 I heard on the channel "Quinn's Ideas" that even if Paul killed himself in the desert the jihad would still happen. At the point when he acquires prescient vision it is already too late. Actually Jessica is the villain. But I've only read the first book, so I can't confirm this personally.
@@famailiaanima i think the jihad would have already happen because he made series of decisions that ultimately set this course in action. So even if he backs out, it’s too late.
All I can hear is Villanelle
zizek watches "Filmanalyse"
Was Zizek banned from speaking in a proposed conference on "Zizek's political and philosophical thinking" in China? I came across that news and just want to confirm.
I think that whole conference was cancelled
The business of movie making itself is capitalistic, so critiquing it as an entertainment on working class porn is saying the obvious, isn't it. However, I think the appeal of squid game is because the fantasy game it portrayed is not too far fetch from the reality we are living in. Squid Game does not really provide a real solution to anti-capitalism but it makes us aware about the broken system we are living in.
Squid Game is hardly the only film in the past few years that make us aware of how shitty capitalism is. And just because we are aware does not necessarily mean it's gonna lead to a real change. His point is that as more and more medias try to spin the whole anticapitalist shtick , it creates a distance between us and the actual everyday problems allowing us to enjoy our social and political awareness without leading to any potential of real change. The radical message is becoming more and more normalised to a point of no real threat to the ruling class.
You could also argue the business of movie making itself is also not so capitalistic but rather socialist. So?
@@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342 Netflix socialist? I doubt so.
Indie filmmaking can only go so far without big corp financial backing. Even if such film gets made, it requires large platforms like Netflix or big distributors like Warner Bros to get the film a worldwide screening. The whole process itself is not altruistic nor socialist but with a profit-motive in mind.
@@footbaht6401 Agree, and the Black Mirror episode with the treadmills was one of the first critiques of this type I saw in popular media. It's really fascinating how this pseudo-participation (consuming a TV show or movie, or hell, commenting on a UA-cam video) functions to simultaneously highlight inequality while providing just enough of an illusion of "participation" to help make us feel like we've done our part. I think Jon Stewart's Daily Show back around the 2000s was a big part of this as well. Even Trevor Noah has some quote that's like: "Don't fight the power; mock the power." How more explicit can you be than that? The underlying message is "Nothing can fundamentally change, but you can at least take some cheap satisfaction in knowing that the system is rigged."
@@CeramicShot a half assed seed is still a seed , is it not? It wont grow strong but it will be there.
Maybe that s just optimism....
Capitalism creates great gaps in wealth, but it also creates pragmatic paths out of abject poverty and out of starting to death. It's never happened before.
The big problem with Capitalism is when government corruption and capitalism work together. It is no longer free-market capitalism.
Dune is ten thousand worlds that only can proceed with the navigators (dependent on spice to do so) for trade. Wealth creation is so vast at this point in Dune that capitalism is hardly detectable. The great houses are like the great houses of our history. They are concerned with being the most powerful above all. They only trade as a matter of survival. And the masses are unable to create anything without it being too quickly harvested. It's the golden-goose story.
What the saffron succotash
he’s so crazy, gotta love him
👍👋
Class Warfare Identity Politics
need subtitles his accent is so strong, i understood capitalism but dune is not about capitalism, the movie cant be made without funding but who is to say wether vilenueve created it out of the sake of art not profit, i have no idea about squid game, havent seen it and if its a book i havent read it, the bond movies aredefinitley capitalistic but what isnt.
Any of the books that he have behind him(about communism) is a horror movie per se, anyways the guy is right in mostly everything there
Calling out fake anticapitalist media? On a Jacobin show? 😂
Quite on the nose, do you think?