Slavoj Zizek, Cornell West & C.S. Lewis take on OWS

Today, listened to a fantastic interview (thanks to Nic Babarskis) featuring Slavoj Zizek and Cornell West about Occupy Wall Street.  Throughout the interview Slavoj was making some remarkable statements.  I thought I'd capture some of them here for you and then follow it up with a response.  Enjoy!



"We know what we don't want, we definitely do not yet know what we do want." - Slavoj Zizek (comment on Occupy Wall Street about the history of failed attempts at Socialism)

‎"It's clear now that a more radical re-thinking of our entire way of life, mode of life, not just individual, but collective, is necessary." - Slavoj Zizek

‎"Small level lifestyle ecologism - Because it makes you feel good, it prevents you from asking for more radical changes...The problem is not, do you recycle the coke of can, the problem is our entire economic system." -Slavoj Zizek (Starbucks Syndrome = 1% charity attached to our consumerism excuses the need to do more substantial changes)

‎"True capitalism is a perverted religion...the true evil is egotism plus envy...the important thing is not for me to win, but for the other guy to lose." - Slavoj Zizek


‎"Did you notice how today, brief sexual adventures are ok, but people are afraid to fall in love...love is a fall, but a beautiful fall." - Slavoj Zizek


‎"'Time to outsource your dating...we will enable you to find yourself in love, without the fall'..But for me the fall is the authentic moment. Fall means when you are traumatized in a good sense by another person... we don't want to take the risk to open ourselves to the neighbor." - Slavoj Zizek


And now a little bit from Clive Staples Lewis...


"The better stuff a creature is made of - the cleverer and stronger and freer it is - then the better it will be if it goes right, but also the worse it will be if it goes wrong." - C.S. Lewis




OWS represents a similar dynamic that took place in the 18th century revivals that overtook New England.  Cornell and Slavoj highlight that most demonstrations and protests have been single issue protests.  The interesting characteristic that OWS has against those other historic movements is that it is a multi-issue protest.  For many that undermines the entire approach and purpose behind the protests but for Zizek that actually gives OWS credibility.  A multi-issue protest means that there is much more that needs to change than a single issue, a deeper angst than most of us are willing to acknowledge all at once which means a deeper problem that needs to be solved.  The solutions being proposed are thus many but all acknowledge a better way of life for all is needed and access to that better way of life is going to require some radical re-determining of how power is distributed in our society.  

This was true in the revivals. The Revivalists didn't have a better approach that they were promoting over and against the old approach that had steps or a three year program for change - they just lived the better approach and did it because they found that it was better. By living it, they pissed off the establishment and elated the crowds. Religion was no longer to be controlled and administered by ordained, situated, white, male clergy - it could be done outdoors, in a field, by the untrained, by men and women, by slaves, by children, by disenfranchised and marginalized malcontents, by criminals, etc. All of these partook in the Revival and the spiritual manifestations that took place - but they were rarely or never allowed to participate in spiritual communities or activities prior.

This meant that God's Spirit was available to all and as such - all that God had given to mankind was available to all - even spiritual leadership, responsibility and gifts. This had always been the case, but society had hid religious life and leadership so far back into a white and male dominated corner that God needed to break out and so He did and he did so with the least of the least and by breaking the power structures and social expectations that had been established in the social religious setting.

These dynamics are exactly (to me) what Wall Street has done with the power and responsibility of our economic system and now it's time for it to break out. Liberal Democratic Capitalism has a shelf life and the rot has begun to stink long enough. It seems that's why the transition and change is necessary as it was in the Revival time. Revivals aren't necessarily good, they're just necessary because of the mess that precedes them. That's why transitions like the one being fought for at OWS are so important - they demand change even if it's going to be messy - because the mess (corruption) that precedes the revival - though organized - is much worse than the mess that comes with change.

With the transitions of the Revivals came the upending of many social norms as well as mass confusion on a lot of important issues. That's just the nature of change at this level. If it were more organized it wouldn't be a movement, because movements aren't signed up for - they begin by resonating at a deep place within the soul of humanity, so much so that there is an eventual breakthrough and uprising of some sort, and there is usually a cost that is paid in both economic and cultural capacities, even to the point of death for many.

Corruption doesn't go away without a fight so change agents need to get to a point where they are willing to pay the price that corruption demands of them. I'm not sure if we are at that point yet with OWS, but it does seem close.