Slavoj Zizek appeared on Democracy Now to critique the ideology that provides scaffolding for capitalism to go on doing what it does, even when we know its consequences. He cites the example of the openness of cynicism in democratic societies with no room for radical emancipation.

“That’s ideology today. We don’t believe in democracy—nobody. You make fun of it and so on, but somehow we act as if it works. It’s a very strange situation, because there are—some of us old enough still remember them, old days when the public face of power was dignity, belief. And privately you mocked it, you made fun, and so on, no? Now we are, I think, approaching a very strange state, where the public face of power is becoming more and more openly indecent, obscene. Look at Sarkozy in France. Look at Berlusconi in Italy, who is systematically undermining, for over five years now, the minimum of dignity of the state power.”

Link to video on Democracy Now! (here)

Part 1

Part 2