Zizek On Coronavirus Politics

[Leo Gura]

He's got some great analysis:

 

[Milos Uzelac]

From 0:38, he talks about, what I see, as a key insight on the future for the most strategic path of struggle and type of policy creation and framing for democratic socialist movements market and corporate regulation legislation pushes in the U.S. in the daily increasing turmoil and suffering.

''All these bailouts, totally violate market logic. We are already entering a different system. At a certain point, I claim here, money, when you give trillions of dollars, no longer functions in the old capitalist way, now money becomes a simple means of allocation. Karl Marx thought money will function like this in the first stages of socialism. Money is no longer surplus, exploitation and so on, it becomes simply a way to give to those poor, suffering three thousand dollars to survive, to each family''.

From 1:47 ''I think what we need is, which is totally irrational from the point of market standpoint, print trillion's of dollars, distribute them, and so on, and so on...''

From 2:01 ''We have minimal democratic control, at least in some countries, to look closely at how this money will be spent.''

From 2:24 ''Capitalism as we knew it is in the last stage here''.

From 2:34 ''The state is doing things now, which even during the worst crises, the Great Depression '29 and the Great Recession of '08 - where they pumped also millions of dollars into the economy -  this was then done to help the banks to keep the economy functioning, now something much more radically is happening - it no longer fits the capitalist logic - and on the other hand, it is clear that the system cannot survive, by just printing trillions and trillions of dollars, somebody has to work, problems will arise... but I am also like you basically a pessimist'' says Zizek but nonetheless concludes, ''but I think a space for struggle will open up.''

From 8:00 - ''I see a progressive potential." ''I disagree with those who claim that this is not a political moment, that it is just a crisis, we just have to go through it to restore normality. No! We have to be very attentive to, of course, hand in hand with following the orders and minimizing victims and so on, but then the key point will be what kind of ''new normality will be proposed to us. This will be the critical moment.''

I share here some of Zizek's pessimism, that is progressive potential is not were a lot of developing and state authoritarian countries are heading towards. They are rather, I see an experiential example from my country during the crisis and other developing (some developed) countries, that I see virtually online, and hear from the news, ramping up and using this crisis to expand the national surveillance and security state apparatus to solidify and protect their hold on republican institutions and legitimacy of their power. 

This includes, as I heard on RT news, increased data collection from citizens or required data sharing from them in Israel, on the pretense of marking people who are most likely in danger of having or getting the disease, to protect themselves and others and using a sort of a prototype of the ''social credit score'' system in China to rank people on the basis of the danger level of likelihood of contracting the virus and appropriately restricting their movement if they fit the danger level ranking quota.

In Algeria, for example, there are a few far distance computer-controlled (sorry can't remember the correct scientific terminology in English), robot mini-vehicle buggies roaming the streets of the capital (or some other city, I don't know I am not good with their geographic nomenclature) with laser beam face-scanner rods attached  on top of them and  micro-cameras on and with connected flat computer screens, also affixed top in a horizontal position and slightly bent downwards, that display the citizen's identification that was stopped to be scanned on the street by the robot-buggy and tries to determine, using the citizen's id and I don't know the exact procedure or method, but I am guessing they try to determine (based on data collection update in the citizen's id database, regarding passport control checks and passport data updates that he passed in order to travel abroad, that all are transferred into his id database, that the governmental bodies corresponding to regulating traveling have access to if he was in a possible dangerous hotspot of the virus infection and spread in his recent travel destination and stay) if he should be roaming the streets and if determined he is a potential viral carrier they adequately send signals to local authorities to request sending a test or containment unit to conduct a test on that citizen and carantine them, if necessary, immediately.

So regarding Zizek's question, will the ''new normality'' put forward, 

1.) be an increase in power, legal authority and reach of an authoritarian based national security and surveillance state to continue it's ubiquitous favoring trickle-down neoliberal monetary and fiscal economic policies, to sustain and regulate unfettered capitalist transnational corporate oligopoly arena of global economic competition and flooding of cheap goods on market's of developing nations and minimizing prospects and stimulus for any competitors for them to arise in the market of those small national economies and control consumers via loan and debt repayment force and intimidation and continue suppressing and using ''police state force monopoly'' to crack down on worker's organizing and union's and ultimately to be rid of them or

2.) will it be an opening for strikes, and protests or even uprising or rebellions and creation of progressive movements with a solid base and that gain widespread support, because of the global citizen reaction to the handling by established governments of this situation, that push for and ultimately succeed in progressive solutions regarding financial market regulation reforms, healthcare reforms for the U.S. scenario and a more equal and sustainable global and national income distribution vis-a-vis progressive tax reform, more opportunities for union organizing and rebooting and reconstructing social safety net and benefits for workers government programs and benefits for workers for a new and also reborn, from the ashes of the 20th century one, welfare state-oriented economy, to help ease and curb the greatest wealth and social inequality in history between classes in developed countries and between first world and third world nations.

Zizek, 9:30 - ''I disagree with those who try to give a cheap New Age, anti-consumerist steam towards what is going on, that sound like'' Zizek imitates them (or caricatures them) in the following statement manner: ''Now we have time to reflect, what are really the crucial things in our lives, have we really to be cheap consumerists and so on'', Zizek then exclaims ''I hate this so much!'' He then continues to explain his ire and reasoning as a young lad ''From when I was young, I distrusted this critique of consumerism'', he then a mentions hypothetical examples of  ''what consumerism means differently for some poor and downtrodden, third-world country workers and their families, that are the maybe most endangered from the unfolding economic consequences of this crisis in the upcoming months and years'' and concludes with his final view on the topic ''I don't believe this New Age metaphysics claims: ''That we will become soberer, acquire some wisdom'' No!'' claims and thinks Zizek ''There will be no greater wisdom and so on.'' The interviewer says she agrees with him.

I wonder what this says about the broader left-wing intellectual consensus that leads and inspires left-wing movements today, regarding their stance on ''New-Age'' theory and practices in general. I heard a Zizek quote, from a part of the book called ''McMindfullness'' by an ordained, I think, Mahayana tradition Buddhist monk and American writer Ron Purser, I haven't read that book but plan to, when I do, post it on high-consciouness resources (regarding the McDonaldization (which is a process of global economic standardized product consumption by consumers and of standardized productions of those goods by transnational corporate oligopolies which translates to, as a mode of consumer lifestyle, to other sphere's of society including the shape of and cultural state in them) of the practice and teaching of mindfulness, by even it's appropriation by some corporate entities for workplace event colleague gatherings and mindfullness course training offered by the corporation itself, for the purpose of increasing work productivity and to fit a middle-class consumer lifestyle and to decrease job-related stress and employee subjected demands of performance pressure) and that of mindfulness that critiques the shallow work productivity enhancement aspects and stress management and reduction aspects of some claimed mindfulness organizations and movements, which are status-quo and deaf in regards to broader social engagement, solidarity and change strives and more generally on the charity aspect of the struggle and compassion for the endangered and vulnerable in society and represent a well off middle-class lifestyle consumerist revision and strict utilitarianism for work and career advancement in regards to mindfulness practices, be it less spiritually oriented and more physical type of yoga or stress reduction mindfulness meditation techniques. 

The quote goes something like ''the newly developing standardized theory and practice of mcmindfulness is ramping up to replace and become the new hegemonic ideology on which neoliberalism as a globalized system gains it's legitimacy and sustains it's declining consensus among the middle-class lifestyle consumer.'' - Zizek quote from McMindfullness book by Ron Purser

All in all, Zizek sees a kernel of optimism in the virtual world as an international solidarity sphere and as a device of communicating, sharing ideas for developing programs of action for movements and as a means of forming plans to organize and recruit after the pandemic epidemiological crisis wears off, vast swathes of the population into new grassroots organizations, that have more argumental leverage due to the crisis economic consequences and also into convincing them into joining existing progressive political parties that fight for and demand progressive governmental policy changes and solutions when he says 

at 11:24, that ''This is one paradox that people should remember, and here I don't agree with other leftists critics, who claim we are more isolated now than ever, but I would add while the physical reality part of that may be true, on the other hand, we are in regards on the communication front and ideas for solutions unanimity front, more connected than ever. This is the first stage of thinking, when people should be aware, that even to confront these problems - we need vast international links.''

at 12:34, ''We have to learn dealing with this crisis and future ones in a coordinated way internationally, that's the paradox of these technologically global interconnected times when facing a common global crisis, isolation now doesn't really isolate us, it actually connects us more than ever''

at 13:04, ''But nonetheless, I think that it's not a big hope since there is a better chance that some sort of barbarism with a technocratic face ensuing in the crisis aftermath and will prevail, combined with direct barbarism, but I think something of this tradition of local-level cooperation and even gangs in favelas (as mentioned earlier as a real-world event happening now in Brazil's favelas by the interviewer) of cooperating for the benefit of the whole community, national cooperation, etc.''

and finally, Zizek concludes with the following remark at 13:48: ''You know when we on the contemporary political left, left in regards to certain like-mindedness and demand of global economic, political, and legal policy changes and solutions, we're talking about potentials of vast cooperation between peoples of same and even different backgrounds, most thought: ''No, usually people are egotists, you are utopian etc.'', now we see it's not a matter of utopia, precisely if want to be an egotist as an egotist, to survive, I need to think globally''. 

Sorry for the lack of clarity in certain areas of the post and if it's is too long and bulky if you care to read the excerpts. My intention was to practice my English writing grammar in writing this and see if I can correctly, articulately and precisely write out my own conclusions on thinking about the potential future and heading of the globalization and blue developing nation-state evolution future and internal organizing in the future global economic and political landscape as consequences of the outbreak.