Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism?: Five Interventions in the Mis(use) of a Notion
[In the following review, Morrison argues that Žižek fails to introduce any significantly new concepts in Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism? and faults Žižek for simply presenting theories already put forth in his many previous publications.]
On receiving Slavoj Žižek's latest book, Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism?: Five Interventions on the (Mis)use of a Notion, one might recall that familiar saying, “How can I miss you if you won't go away?” Virtually no publishing season passes without a new book by Žižek and spring 2001 is no different with Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism? and a revised edition of Enjoy Your Symptom! both recently released.
The premise of Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism? is that the notion of totalitarianism is “a kind of stopgap: instead of enabling us to think, forcing us to acquire a new insight into the historical reality it describes, it relieves us of the duty to think, or even actively prevents us from thinking”. How? In Žižek's estimation the left has essentially thrown up its collective hands in agreement that liberal democracy reigns supreme and is thus attempting to redefine itself firmly within the grasp of liberal-democratic thinking. Totalitarianism, Žižek contends, is an ideological notion used to block any attempt to think outside of the liberal-democratic horizon and, as such, he calls for the entire notion of totalitarianism to therefore be discarded.
One either subscribes today, Žižek observes, to the “basic co-ordinates” of liberal-democracy or one is considered to be totalitarian and anti-democratic. To evade any real social reform and to dismiss any radical social thought, liberal-democrats simply respond to any such efforts by saying that however valuable a given reform might be it will inevitably lead down the road to totalitarianism. But when totalitarianism is invoked, to what definition does one refer?
In five interventions that trace the notion of totalitarianism conceptually rather than historically, Žižek explores how totalitarianism is fundamentally different from Nazi fascism and socialism under Stalin. In a brilliant explication of the Stalinist show trials, and the relationship between Bukharin and Stalin, Žižek reveals the ways in which the October 1917 revolution was a genuinely authentic act, in terms of breaching the dominant system and maintaining one's fidelity to the revolution, that was ultimately perverted by Stalin who framed mass exterminations in terms of Kantian ethical duty and responsibility. Žižek still sees in communism, though, the kernel of a radical emancipatory project that might be the only escape from the structural grip of Capital that renders impotent nearly every major political challenge to it.
Žižek decries much of the left's seeming complicity with liberal-democracy and the spread of capital, arguing that both the feminist-deconstructionist who reluctantly embraces melancholia as one's permanent state of being, and the cultural studies intellectual who embraces a complete relativism, cannot properly commit authentic acts of resistance. Their positions are, instead, rather easily incorporated within the horizons of liberal-democratic thinking. In striking contrast to prevailing theories on the left that see resistance only in terms of parody, Žižek argues that such a form of resistance is nothing more than resigned acceptance to the status quo and he exhorts us, instead, to summon of the spirit of revolution in order to repoliticise the processes toward inevitable globalisation.
As is characteristic Žižek offers robust chapters on each of his five subjects making accessible the various theories of German Idealism and Lacanian psychoanalysis through repeated references to popular culture. Žižek is at his best when, in opening Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism?, he explains one of the main functions of totalitarianism through a careful reading of the back of a “Celestial Seasonings” green tea bag. Even the title, Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism?, echoes a recent McDonald's advertising campaign. But sometimes his imagination wanders a bit too much as when he claims that the only time one sees manual labour anymore is in the standard James Bond flick in which the hero destroys the place of production. What, then, are we to make of the now standard practice of being able to watch the production process through windows, guided tours, and even Web cams? Like the now rather fashionable restaurant design in which the kitchen is situated in the middle of the restaurant design in which the kitchen is situated in the middle of the restaurant with all those dining able to peer in on the chefs at work, the production process itself has been commodified and staged for the consumer's gaze.
For all of its insights and the many incisive critiques of our current cultural and apolitical present, Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism? is all too familiar. The same jokes and stories, theories, ruminations, anecdotes, and popular culture references that appear in his many articles, online postings, and the nineteen (and counting) other books authored or edited by him appear here, too. If one has encountered Žižek before, there is little here that is new. That is not to say one should not read it. But if you are prone to skipping reruns, you might want to wait until next season when yet two more books by Žižek are released.
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