Philosopher Slavoj Žižek on 'soft' fascism, AI & the effects of shamelessness in public life

when I was young we were this old style

leftist we thought those in power have

dignity but we you know all obscene

gestures we spoke uh use dirty words and

we got the answer which is that those in

power are now more obscene than we even

imagined to be we got it so wrong in the

last elections how Democrats really

cannot learn anything

[Applause]

I'm

seriously not a bad joke honored to be

here and uh I will try since I talk too

much to keep it short this is more some

introductory

remarks to give you an idea where we are

so where are we I like to flirt with

quantum

mechanics but what fascinates me is how

to apply Notions of quantum mechanics

superpositions collapse and so on

to social events to history and uh uh my

basic idea is this one while still in

some sense a radical leftist but be

warranted my official self- designation

is now a moderately conservative

communist I will explain why uh I think

that what we have to leave behind is

this either liberal or Marxist dream of

a history

which even if you say yeah it's

contingent it may not happen which

points in a certain direction like with

fukuyama we had end of history fukuyama

is not an idiot now he is for Bernie

Sanders he saw that that doesn't

function or uh or we have Orthodox

Marxist who thinks yeah there are some

complications but nonetheless communism

is in the future

and

uh you know even if they mask their

determinism like the famous saying by

Rosa

Luxemburg the future will be Socialism

or

barbarism you know what she missed in

stalinism we get both at the same time

now socialism so my idea is this one you

know

this basic idea of quantum

superpositions a particle goes I

simplify to the utmost from point A to

point B but to understand what happens

you must presuppose then that in this

let's call it virtual state of waves

particle takes all

possible roots and then in one it

collapses and I think we are today in

such a moment who knows where we are

going we know that we

have three four deadly threats crisis

ecology

War immigration I mean population

movements and so on I will not go into

it but uh I the key problem is how they

will interact like

some people think that if ecology crisis

goes even in a more terrible Direction

then there will be less Wars I'm not so

sure it's completely open so my idea is

that we are now in a state of

superpositions it may

be some new socialism it may

be it may be new barbarism with islands

of civilization around it murderous

violence but now comes my bad news you

can ask me question later I think that

makes me sad the most probable result

will be what I call not that I like it

soft fascism by Soft I mean not direct

Nazi fascism killer them but simply what

the best definition of fascism is for me

uh uh uh uh conservative Revolution that

is to say you want to participate in the

capitalist Dynamic fast development but

you are aware many intelligent fascists

knew this you are aware that left to

itself free capitalism and Li alism can

end up in Social

disintegration so the idea is in economy

capitalism but controlled by a strong

state which legitimizes Itself by a

reference to some mostly invented it

doesn't matter

traditional religious but not

necessarily religious ideology you know

now I will maybe hurt some among you but

you know who is is here almost my model

I closely follow what goes on there

China I read people don't notice this

two months ago he their leader gave a

speech and he began with our youth is

not educated enough we have to train

them ideologically then I expected the

usual stuff oh read more marks ma no he

said confian tradition we need that

tradition to hold things together Modi

is doing the same in India extremely

brutal capitalism but and so

on so uh uh this is if you ask me for

the majority of the

world the most probable Direction so

history is not on

our history is not on our

site another thing that worries me

extremely and wonder if you noticed it

is that more and more states are

so-called Rogue States now don't be

afraid I will not use this term in the

usual Western develop imperialist way

but who is today a rogue State I propose

a very simple definition of a rogue

state you have a certain legal

structure laws police and so on and a

Rog State one of the approaches is the

state where the existing order cannot

reproduce itself legally in its own

ideological terms and needs a support of

brutal illegal violence the first idea

that comes here is of course Haiti where

the state fell apart and even more now

than 80% of the territory is uh run by

ganks but why remain

there let me go to the for some people

highest points what about Russia Wagner

group was a typical half legal illegal

military group as we learned now totally

financed by state but

nonetheless kept at some distance from

Power then let's be frank till now now

the mask has fallen settlers on the West

Bank in

Israel they were following Israeli laws

themselves illegal and that's the

tragedy of Israel today itar benu was

condemned by Israeli courts some 20

years ago ago as a racist criminal now

he is a minister for of course Security

even in the United States look at all

those groups which are in this mixture

today at the same

time

anti-muslim and anti-semitic and all

like proud boys and so on Trump keeps

them at distance but nonetheless

manipulates with them this is the

true uh failed State a state itself

cannot reproduce

itself in accord with its own not just

ideology but uh legal premises and so on

so we should be aware of this radical

openness of the situation it's obviously

that our situation today cannot go on

indefinitely but the situation is not

predetermined we don't know how it will

get to use in a simplified way the

quantum terms into what single reality

will it collapse I don't have now time

to go into my favorite hegelian topic

because I think that Hegel was aware of

this of what of

retroactivity in the sense then that

when some a certain version takes place

retroactively it doesn't of course

change the past empirically what

happened happened but the narration the

way we perceive the past changes we are

all the time changing uh the past and

although Marx is often uh dismissed as

naive progress yes there are these

elements in marks but nonetheless in

some place in his big manuscript grund

he says something wonderful he says in

the same way that anatomy of a man is

the key to the anatomy of the ape

capitalism provides the anatomy and

allow us to interpret all the previous

stages but I think Marx is here

radically anti theological his point is

not oh capitalism was predetermined and

so on no his point is much more refined

once capitalism won we retroactively

read the entire history we rewrite it as

leading towards capitalism that's why I

love Al don't always agree with them the

work of David Graber and the other guy

wro they tried to show this

superposition in ancient Inca Society

you know how it wasn't just sacrificing

children horror there was an incredible

local democracy at work it just collapse

in so my lesson is to understand what

happens always Focus off on what might

have happened but didn't happen because

what might have happened doesn't simply

disappear it remains

either as a reactionary dream or as a

very Progressive dream I will not go on

in this direction just to say that

because of all this I think we should be

very careful in how we Define progress

for example the big question today I'm

approaching the end uh artificial

intelligence I think we we approach it

in a wrong way when we ask the question

will it be able to think really and by

this we usually mean Think Like Us

humans first I think again that it's an

abstract question we don't know the

answer in the sense that why do we

always formulate it in these terms will

it think like us it's possible that a

totally different form of

we may even call it spirituality will

emerge but now this is my psychoanalytic

approach and to provoke you I will use

it uh when I asked myself and I spoke

with many

specialists uh this I accepted this

stupid debate of what can artificial

intelligence do of course it can

calculate whatever much faster than we

it can uh uh it can uh it can learn

itself self reproduce but my point and

my partners in dialogue were usually

shocked are two things which are for me

specifically human and they are crucial

for our Humanity one is the daily

rituals no superstitious habits rather

you know for example I have one and

don't give me that that

psychoanalysis is that it has to do with

my fear of insemination or what whenever

I wash my hands even if I see that no

water is dropping I have to check it

with my hand what if I just don't see

them but this is an absolute habit but

you know all these habits for example I

read in a biography of Agata Christi

that every evening after finishing her

writing she took a bath and ate an apple

while

what's the point of

this stupid habits they have no deeper

meaning I think it's wrong to play

psychoanalysis here no they are a pure

appearance of meaning but you know what

I mean meaning as such without any

meaning it's wrong to say oh this means

that trauma I don't know aatr was

thinking the cheese Eve in Paradise

apples whatever

no it's just this empty appearance of

meaning by means of which we counteract

the obvious chaotic meaninglessness of

Our Lives now my big surprise comes the

second

thing I don't think that artificial

intelligence can can swear really

swearing is for me something very

interesting it's not just vulgarity

wearing means a proof that we humans we

exist in language we think but thinking

occurs in words in language but we are

never at home really in language and in

swearing when you swear we don't express

simply dissatisfaction with some

objective event I wanted to this no it's

frustration about not being a able to

formulate it in your in your language so

I have here and I talked about this with

my religious friends I have many and

they agreed with me that uh I always

like this anachronistic topological

movements you know that uh imagine

Christ on the cross no forget about that

uh uh father why have you forsaken and

me when he was dying he should be swear

swearing maybe that's the Paradox but I

think there is true he should have said

oh Christ where I am and and so on but

you see what I mean it's a certain

embarrassment of our inability to be in

language which is constitutive of our uh

of our uh Humanity now let me conclude

with

another maybe

surprising moment for

you what makes me really sad today is

the

exploding I cannot but use this term

shamelessness things which in public

space were simply impossible even 10

years ago

you can say them publicly today and I

don't mean just the obvious example all

the vulgarities of Donald Trump trump of

your own Boris Johnson and so on but

uh even for

example I'm definitely not anti-semitic

I see also the Israeli side but what

really shocked me is two things that

happened recently in Israel in August

they had a debate when in keset their

Parliament uh Zionist members protested

because in a prison just south of

Jerusalem where Hamas prisoners are kept

it's nobody denies it now there are even

video clips guards were doing pretty

rough things like

pushing up the rectum big metal sticks

with needles in them many many prisoners

died from

bleeding okay I'm uh I'm here try to I

try to be neutral who knows what other

sites are doing I'm not saying but what

depressed me is that is the debate in

knesset you can find it easily on

YouTube when the predominant tone was

it's a shame that our guards were

arrested for doing this uh Hamas members

are less than human we can we can do

whatever we want to them you see I think

it's better hypocrisy than this type of

openness and also uh another thing uh

similar thing uh uh shocked me

uh uh now an honest on

with decency Israeli soldier his name is

Elan mrai returned from Gaza where he

was ordered to do horrible thing with

the bulldozer he was running over

hundreds of De and Alive Palestinians he

was in such a crisis that he killed

himself and the reaction was not which

would be my reaction at least he

obviously had some decency

no the reaction of official IDF

psychologist was how to train soldiers

that they will not have ethical problems

with acting like with acting like this

that's for me the end this shamelessness

so to conclude really what fascinates me

so much is that ja laong my teacher gave

a seminar the other side of

psychoanalysis

in

6970 reaction to uh his reaction to 68

events where instead of Simply uh uh

simply supporting student revolts and so

on he said what you are lacking is shame

he said the ultimate goal of

psychoanalysis today today in our era of

permissiveness is not get rid of

paternal oppression realize all your

fantasies but it's a lack of

Shame which then results in

universalized uh perversion laon is here

referring to something that already

Freud

knew perversion is is much less

subversive than hysteria and if you know

a little of psycho analysis this couple

is usually also sexualized like this is

the usual male chauvinist St women are

hysterical they just moan but secretly

they want a new master no well men are

pervert they do what they dream about uh

Freud already knew it that he put it

literally nowhere is the unconscious

more oppressed than in

perversion all great things happen

through

hysteria and this is I think the lesson

for us when I was young we were this old

style leftist we thought those in power

have dignity but we you know all obscene

gestures we spoke uh use dirty words and

we got the answer which is that those in

power are now more obscene than we even

imagined to be we got it so round in the

last elections how Democrats really

cannot learn anything uh they thought

that you know when when Trump was caught

lying they thought oh now we caught him

no it only helped him when Trump was

caught in vulgarities in lies that was

the basis of his identification people

loved him for that so the question to

ask is now in our era of this type of

permissiveness how to restore a basic

sense of Shame thank you very much if I

was too long