Slavoj Zizek writes this in the Sublime Object of Ideology"Society is not prevented from achieving its full identity because of Jews: it is prevented by its own antagonistic nature, by its own immanent blockage, and it 'projects' this internal negativity into the figure of the 'Jew.'" He was writing about anti-Semitism, but the same logic applies to the figure of the radical Muslim, the illegal immigrant, etc...
And in the church? Perhaps what happens there isn't so much a negative type in response to an internal problem or blockage, but the creation of a positive type whose non-existence or absence can always be posited as an explanation for why things are falling apart. Zizek talks about how, in anti-Semitism, perceived counter-evidence is absorbed as evidence for anti-Semitism: "The fact that this Jew doesn't seem xyz just demonstrates how dangerous they actually are." And sin works similarly in the church: "...this shows just how deceptive sin is..."
4 comments:
interesting thoughts.
so what zizek's saying is, we project the worst parts of ourselves onto groups of people we don't like based on their ethnicity?
isn't this the same thing that people have been saying for a long time (i don't really know how long, as long as i've been around, but i'm sure it must be long than zizek's been alive) that we see our weaknesses most easily in others?
i don't mean to be splitting hairs here, just trying to figure out if these are original thoughts from zizek, or he's just applying the old adage to anti-semistism, or if i'm missing the point altogether.
i'm enjoying the more regular posting lately, by the way.
Hey Luke, thanks for the question.
The difference I see is that the projected failure here has to do with the failure of a system rather than the failure of specific individuals. In this same chapter Zizek talks about Jews as fantasy, and fantasy as a "means for an ideology to take its failure into account in advance." This is more about the failures of an ideological system. Does that make sense?
Also, I'm not sure if it necessarily has to do with people we don't like. For instance, Zizek also argues that anti-Semitism has nothing to do with Jews, that the claims of anti-semitism aren't moving from anything real in Jewish practice, and that likewise anti-semitism or other forms of discrimination aren't dismantled by evidence or facts, showing how "they aren't really like that," etc. It seems more arbitrary than projecting onto those we already dislike.
yeah, that makes more sense. good points. cheers.
by the way, if you have a bit of time to waste, i'd recommend this website. a current study you can paricipate in, to do with implicit associations. i've done a few. this anti-semitism talk just reminded me of it. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html
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