The Philosophy of Totalitarianism

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Nils Bork said that ideology works even if you don't believe in it. So how to, what can a theorist do here? How to deal with all this? I think the first one who provided the right direction, although in a negative way, was my favorite Catholic theology,. Gilbert Keith Chesterton. In his novel he ironically, but nonetheless seriously, opposed to install, I quote, a special corpse of policemen, policemen who are also philosophers. The idea is that a straight road leads from philosophical notion of totality to political totalitarianism or as we usually ironically put it the line from Plato to NATO.

Radical philosopher, polymath, film star, cult icon, and author of over 30 books, Slavoj Žižek is one of the most controversial and leading contemporary public intellectuals, simultaneously acclaimed as the ‘Elvis of cultural theory’ and denounced as ‘the most dangerous philosopher in the West’. In this special lecture for Intelligence Squared from July 2011, Žižek argues that global capitalism is fast approaching its terminal crisis and that our collective responses to economic Armageddon correspond to the five stages of grief – ideological denial, explosions of anger, attempts at bargaining, followed by depression and finally acceptance of change. Referencing everything from Kafka, the "Hollywood Marxism" of Avatar, the Arab Spring and WikiLeaks, he presents a roadmap for finding a way beyond the madness.

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