Abstract
Selling out his new authoritarian political prospectus in 2000. Slavoj Žižek argued that “the only ‘realistic’ prospect is to ground a new political universality by opting for the impossible, fully assuming the place of the exception, with no taboos, no a priori norms (‘human rights,’ ‘democracy,’) respect for which would prevent us from ‘resignifying’ terror, the ruthless exercise of power, the spirit of sacrifice.” Perhaps aware that this kind of talk would be received with horror by the democratic Left, Žižek quipped “If this radical choice is decried by some bleeding-heart liberals as Linksfaschismus, so be it!”1
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Judich Butler, Ernesto Laclau, and Slavoj Žižek, Contingency, Hegemony and Universality: Contemporary Dialogue:, on the Left (London: Verso. 2000), 326.
Sigmund Freud, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (New “York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989), 120.
Slavoj Žižek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real (London: Verso, 2002), 80.
Explorations ol left-fascism include J. M. Bale, “‘National Revolutionary’ Groupuscules and the Resurgence of ‘Left-Wing’ Fascism: Tire Case of France’s Nouvelle Résistance,” Patterns of Prejudice, 36(3) (2002): 24–49
Russell A. Berman, “From Left-Fascism’ to Campus Anti-Semitism: Radicalism as Reaction,” Democratiya, 13 (Summer 2008): 14–30
Philip M. Coupland, “‘Left-Wing Fascism’ in Theory and Practice: The Case of the British Union of Fascists,” Twentieth Century British History, 13(1) (2002): 38–61
Anthony James Gregor, Use Fascist Persuasion in Radical Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974)
Anthony James Gregor “Fascism Marxism and Some Considerations Concerning Classification” Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 3(2) 2002: 61–8
Jeffrey Herf, “An Age ol Murder: Ideology and Terror in Germany,” Telos, 144 (Fall 2008): 8–37
Bernard-Henri Lévy. Barbarism With a Human Face (London: Harper & Row, 1980)
Bernard-Henri Lévy, Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism (New York: Random House 2009)
Michael B. Loughlin, “Gustave Hervé’s Transition from Socialism to National Socialism: Continuity and Ambivalence,” Journal of Contemporary History, 38(4) (October 2003): 515–538
Zeev Sternhell Neither Right nor Left: Fascist Ideology in France, trans. David Maisel (Berkeley: University ol California Press, 1986)
Alberto Spektorowski, “The Making of an Argentine Fascist. Leop-oldo Luoones: From Revolutionary Left to Radical Nationalism,” History of Political Thought, 17(1) (1996): 79–108
Tony Judt, Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944–1956 (New York: New York University Press, 2011) 18.
Slavoj Žižek, Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism? Five Interventions on the (Mis)use of a Notion (London: Verso, 2001), 244–245.
Slavoj Žižek “A Leninist Gesture Today: Against the Populist Temptation.” in Lenin Reloaded, eds. Sebastian Budgen, Statins Kouvelakis, and Slavoj Žižek, trans. David Fernbach (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007), 95.
Slavoj Žižek, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce (London: Verso, 2009), 135.
For a defense of representative democracy as the best possible mode of democratic participation and decision making, see Nadia Urbanati, Representative Democracy: Principles and Genealogy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2006).
Slavoj Žižek, Postface: “Georg Lukacs as the Philosopher of Leninism,” in Georg Lukacs, and John Rees. Slavoj Žižek, A Defence of History and Class Consciousness: Tailism and the Dialectic (London: Verso. 2000), 176.
Ernst Jünger, On Pain (New York: Telos Press Publishing. 2008), xxvii.
Slavoj Žižek. In Defense of Lost Causes (London: Verso, 2008). 183.
Slavoj Žižek. Violence: Six Sideways Refections (London: Profile Books. 2009), 25.
Slavoj Žižek, Living in the End Times (London: Verso, 2011), 100–103.
Slavoj Žižek, “How to Begin from the Beginning.” New Left Review, 57 (May/June 2009): 43–55
Slavoj Žižek, “A Cyberspace Lenin—Why Not?” International Socialism, 95 (Summer 2002): 90.
V. I. Lenin, “Left-Wing Communism—An Infantile Disorder,” in Collected Works, 31 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1964), 23
See Alan Johnson, “The Reckless Mind of Slavoj Žižek,” Dissent (Fall 2009): 122–127.
Alan Johnson, “The Power of Nonsense,” Jacobin 3–4 (Summer 2011): 18–21
Alan Johnson, “Slavoj Žižek’s Theory of Revolution: A Critique,” in The Legacy of Marxism. Contemporary Challenges, Conflicts and Developments, ed. Matthew Johnson (London, Continuum, 2012), 37–56.
Slavoj Žižek “Psychoanalysis and Marxism The Case of Alain Badiou.” The South Atlantic Quarterly, 97(2) (Spring 1998): 235–26
Quoted In Ian Parker, Slavoj Žižek: A Critical Introduction (London: Pluto, 2004), 95
Alain Badiou. “One Divides Irsclf into Two” in Lenin Reloaded: Towards a Politics of Truth, eds. Sebastian Budgen. Suathis Kouvciakis and Slavoj Žižek (Durham: Duke University Press 2007), 43.
Slavoj Žižek, The Parallax View (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2009), 5.
See Herman, “From ‘Left-Fascism’ to Campus Anti-Semitism.” and Russell A. Berman. “From Folk to Ummafi: A Genealogy of Islamofascism,” Telos. 144 (Fall 2008): 82–88.
Daniel Bell, The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962), 393.
Slavoj Žižek, Violence (London: Profile, 2009), 159.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2015 Gregory Smulewicz-Zucker and Michael J. Thompson
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Johnson, A. (2015). Slavoj Žižek’s Linksfaschismus. In: Smulewicz-Zucker, G., Thompson, M.J. (eds) Radical Intellectuals and the Subversion of Progressive Politics. Political Philosophy and Public Purpose. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137381606_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137381606_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-57047-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-38160-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy CollectionPhilosophy and Religion (R0)