Rape analogy

- Biztos úr! Szeretnék feljelentést tenni, mert kiraboltak!

- Igen? Kirabolták, mi? Na, lássuk csak, mikor és hol?

- Hát úgy nagyjából fél órával ezelőtt a Práter utcáról befordultam a Szigony utcába, tudja, a Klinikák felé, és akkor megjelent egy kapucnis figura pisztollyal! Azt mondta, hogy adjam oda az összes pénzemet!

- Na, és maga meg odaadta, mi?

- Hát persze, hogy odaadtam, hiszen pisztoly volt nála!

- Tehát együttműködött ezzel az emberrel. Nem kiáltott segítségért és nem is próbált elmenekülni...

- Mondom, hogy pisztoly volt nála!

- Na, ne kiabáljon, kisapám, mert mindjárt bedobom egy cellába, aszt nézhet!

- Bocsánat! Elnézést kérek, hogy...

- Hát mondhatom, szépen vagyunk! Odaadja az összes pénzét egy idegennek, aztán jön itt nekem óbégatni! Mégis mit képzel magáról, hol van? Talán azt hiszi, ez itt a Máltai Szeretetszolgálat?

- Már bocsánat, de én...

- Már bocsánat, de maga nagyon hülyének néz engem! Na, ide figyeljen! Én úgy tudom, maga nagyon karitatív ember hírében áll. Jól tudom?

- Igen, szoktam adakozni, mert úgy gondolom... Na, de ez most hogy jön ide?

- Hát úgy jön ide, kisapám, hogy maga elegáns ruhában ment a Szigony utcába, ahol pedig mindenki tudja önről, hogy szeret adakozni, úton-útfélen mindenkinek odaadja a pénzét...

- Uram, ezt kikérem...

- NE VÁGJON A SZAVAMBA! Ha még egyszer félbeszakít, én komolyan mondom, lesittelem magát! Na! Szóval megy a Szigony utcában, ahol ugyebár közismert adakozóként odaadja az összes pénzét egy idegennek, mint ahogy azt szokta! Aztán egy fél óra múlva hirtelen meggondolja magát és jön nekem ide hisztizni! Ismerje csak be, hogy ez történt, és ne próbáljon engem itt hülyíteni! Mégis mit képzel magáról?

- Ne haragudjon, uram, de ez már tényleg felháborító!

- Nos, kedves uram, ez itt nem más, mint a nemi erőszak analógiája! Ez történik ugyanis a legtöbb megerőszakolt nővel, amikor megpróbálják az elkövetőket bíróság elé állítani. És ez bizony ám, ahogy mondja, tényleg felháborító!

- Hát akkor valami nagyon nem stimmel ebben a rendszerben...
- Úgy bizony!

Give Greece a chance

Zizek speech in favour of Syriza...

Late in his life, Sigmund Freud asked the famous question "Was will das Weib?" - What does a woman want? - admitting his perplexity when faced with the enigma of feminine sexuality. A similar perplexity arouses today: What does Europe want? This is the question you the Greek people are adressing Europe. Because you know what you want! You want this guy as a prime minister! Europe doesn't know what it wants! The way European states and the media relate to what is going on in Greece is the best indicator of what kind of Europe they want: is it the neoliberal Europe, is it the Europe of isolationist nation states, or maybe something different?

Wickedness of the heavens

I can hear your minds craving for a proper dosage of Zizek. I'm your man to watch out for your libidinal frustrations of this kind, so here we go!

Ladies and gentlemen, Slavoj Zizek!

***

So where is ideology? When we are dealing with a problem which is undoubtedly real, the ideological designation introduces its invisible mystification. For example, tolerance designates a real problem. When I criticize it, I am routinely asked: "But how can you be in favour of intolerance towards foreigners, of misogyny, of homophobia?"

Therein resides the catch! Of course I am not against tolerance per se. What I oppose is the perception of racism as a problem of intolerance. Why are so many problems today perceived as problems of intolerance rather than problems of inequality, exploitation or injustice? Why is the proposed remedy tolerance, rather than emancipation, political struggle or even armed struggle? The source of this culturalization is defeat: the failure of directly political solutions such as social democracy. Tolerance has become the post-political ersatz.

***

How not to hate the rich

I said there are pitfalls in hating the rich, but I didn't talk much about them. Shame on me! I'm not the kind of person anyone cares to debate with, so now I will pretend to be my own ideological opponent...

First of all, Jesus was probably not an evil man. He was not a living God, not born of a virgin mother, didn't have twelve disciples (maybe more or less), didn't rise up from the dead, the pope is not his representative on Earth, et cetera. This stuff was made up by people who knew about the prevailing religious superstitions of neighboring Egypt. That place was full of Jews even after the Exodus (I guess they thought it was mission failed), including a famous classical philosopher called Philo. It is of course disturbing that none of them cared to say "Come on guys, that was Horus!", or maybe it's just that nobody listened to them, but that's quite a different story. It doesn't change the fact that Jesus was cool. He said quite a lot of great things which Horus seemed to forget.

How to hate the rich

Of course there are some pitfalls in hating the rich. First of all, like I already said, hate is not a good thing in itself! Moreover, self-serving and self-generating hate is definitely bad. If you don't have valid reasons to feel anger, you must not hate anything!

But this doesn't mean that you cannot hate the rich. You can. Actually, you have to!

As a matter of fact, even rich people must start hating their peers if they want humanity to survive on the long run. If you find out the true reason why there is frustration and anguish in the hearts of the working class and feel with them in a truly empathic way, you will definitely start hating the rich for good. If you don't start hating them with all your passion, that means you do not really understand the living conditions of the working class. Never mind. Keep trying!

The triumph of Freedom

Yesterday's referendum in Ireland was a triumph of freedom!

Sounds lovely, doesn't it? Well, this is actually the case! In the splendid world of Capitalism, freedom means that you are free to choose as long as you make the right choice. If you don't make the right choice, you can very quickly stop being free. That's a solid fact. I wonder how many Greeks did actually know the name of Lucas Papademos before he became prime minister...

Got the point? All right then, here comes the blissful part: The people of Ireland are not so foolhardy as the stupid Mediterranean bunch of lazy slackers down there at the Balkans! Here we've got some really wise and judicious people who - after being "isolationist" and "anti-european" in the past (Shame on them!!!) - have finally made up their minds and decided to choose the right! Here we've got one more nation we don't have to completely destroy in order to save them! Of course they will be destroyed anyway, but they will suffer with pride and happiness knowing that their freedom was preserved. Isn't that just wonderful?

Oh, come on!