Slavoj ίζiεek: What the Slovenian philosopher said about the Taliban and the West and caused a stir

The US withdrew from Afghanistan and Taliban returned to power, announcing φύ purges of all kinds at all levels. This, of course, did not go unnoticed by the Slovenian Marxist philosopher Slavoj ίζiκek, who in text of his opinion in the Italian weekly review L ‘Internazionale, recalls first that he had predicted that neoconservative imperialism would reinforce Misogynistic Islamic Fundamentalism (its own definition).

The far-left philosopher points out that in the case of the Taliban, this is exactly what happened, embellishing his view with another thought, that is, it is not accurate to blame what happened on the neoconservative imperialist mechanisms.

THE Zizek He even recalls that peace with the Taliban was achieved by these same neoconservative mechanisms (meaning Donald Trump’s alt-right movement). However, he emphasizes that Islamic fundamentalism has been strengthened primarily and mainly “as a reaction to the influence of liberal individualism and Western liberal secularism.”

He then recalls his famous proclamation Ayatollah Khomeini, who after the domination of the mullahs of Iran in 1979, he had bluntly clarified that “we are not afraid of financial sanctions, nor of military invasions. “All we fear is the invasion of Western immorality.”

So, Zizek concludes, given this, the deepest enemy of Islamic fundamentalism and its followers is not the economic neo-colonialism of the West or its proverbial military aggression and invasion, but this “immoral culture of hers”, stirring up, as usual, a storm of reactions in the academic circles of many states.

This is where things get tricky and slightly blurry for the Slovenian philosopher, who believes that this “Western immorality”, as defined by fundamentalists, also includes homosexuality and women’s freedom.

“In many African and Asian countries, the gay rights movement is seen as an expression of the cultural influence of capitalist globalization that undermines traditional social and cultural structures. That is why the fight against homosexuals appears as an aspect of any of their jihad against the West “, Zizek notes, implying, without mentioning that, more or less, For the Taliban, “religion is not just a matter of faith, but a matter of their own existence,” according to TheWire.in.

Zizek wonders at the end of his article “why do Muslims, who have suffered exploitation, domination and other humiliating aspects of colonialism, react by blaming the whole West for perhaps the best part of its heritage, namely equality and our individual freedoms? “

The answer, according to Zizek, is that “The West has become unreliable because of its historically contradictory behavior. “What makes the liberal West unbearable in their eyes is not exploitation or violent domination, but the fact that it presents this brutal reality as if it were its opposite: freedom, equality and democracy.”

At the end of his article, the Slovenian philosopher remembers a saying of Marx, that “it is true that capitalism systematically violates its own rules.” Zizek recalls that indeed capitalism grew and became what it became thanks to alginate practices such as work, but he also has an interesting contradiction: “he then invented human rights, thus providing, and ways of measuring the magnitude of his hypocrisy».

We should not say “as human rights are a mask that hides exploitation, we deny human rights” but “We take human rights more seriously than whoever created the ideology of human rights”. This was the meaning of socialism from its conception“, Concludes the Slovenian thinker with meaning.

“Yes, I would vote for Trump”

However, this is not the first time that Zizek is in a whirlwind after an interview or an article. A few days before the 2016 US presidential election, he had made people wonder who he would elect as the next American president. Answering the question of the British network Channel 4 News who would vote if he were American, he answered without even thinking about it: “Donald Trump”.

Zizek, of course, was quick to state “Terrified by both candidates”, however, he stressed at the time that the real danger was Hillary, because of her connections to Wall Street and the cloak of progressiveness she wears. “While if Trump is elected, then the system will collapse. Both parties, Republicans and Democrats, will have to sit down and think and reinvent themselves, redefine themselves, and maybe something positive will emerge from all this,” he said.