The eternal return of Zizek. posted by Richard Seymour

Here's a collection of materials for Zizek fans.

First, this morning's Guardian article on the EU Constitution. A lot of old material re-mixed, but still worth a read. I want to take issue with this, however:

To put it bluntly, do we want to live in a world in which the only choice is between the American civilisation and the emerging Chinese authoritarian-capitalist one? If the answer is no then the only alternative is Europe. The third world cannot generate a strong enough resistance to the ideology of the American dream. In the present world constellation, it is only Europe that can do it. The true opposition today is not between the first world and the third world. Instead it is between the first and third world (ie the American global empire and its colonies), and the second world (ie Europe).

I must say that the 'third world' is doing a better job of generating ideological resistance to capitalism than Europe is at the moment. From Caracas to Hyderabad, from Brazil to South Korea, militancy far outruns anything that presently persists in Europe. The anticapitalist movement began in the South, with the Zapatistas, the resistance to GM crops, the trade union militancy in South Africa etc., only later spreading north. If a chain is only a strong as its weakest link, then Venezuela is capitalism's weakest link - "goodbye!" Interesting that Europe has replaced the USSR as the 'second world' in Zizek's ideological universe, a strange gesture which reveals a residual commitment to liberalism as the obverse of a certain trace of nostalgia for Stalinism... just a thought.

Second, via Infinite Thought , recordings of the Zizek talks at Birkbeck . I had trouble downloading them, but that's probably because I'm stuck on dial-up.

Finally, K-Punk has a couple of excellent reports from the Zizek lectures. To attempt a Zizek-style plug (usually involves a bit of moral or emotional blackmail): if these posts do not become an essential reference point then this will signify the irrelevance of the blog-o-sphere, and I will never forgive you. Enjoy!