Episode #200 - The Postmodern subject and “ideology without ideology” (Zizek, Byung Chul Han)
Episode #200 - The Postmodern subject and “ideology without ideology”. (Zizek, Byung Chul Han)
This episode examines Slavoj Žižek’s critique of how modern culture turns wisdom into a shallow, marketable product that discourages people from engaging with the real complexity of the world. He argues that phrases passed off as “wise” are often just performances, easily reversed or repackaged without offering deeper understanding. Žižek connects this to a broader problem in postmodern thinking, where people claim to reject fixed identities and grand narratives, yet unknowingly recreate new universals under the guise of fluidity and freedom. He shows how surface-level experiences—like moderation, political correctness, or performative activism—replace real engagement, creating a sense of freedom and moral superiority that masks ideological control. Through this lens, Žižek sees philosophy not as a search for stable truths, but as a constant effort to reveal contradictions in how we make sense of reality.
Further Reading:
The Society of the Spectacle – Guy Debord (1967)
The Parallax View – Slavoj Žižek (2006)
Simulacra and Simulation – Jean Baudrillard (1981)
See the full transcript here
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