Zizek!

Slavoj Zizek is an extremely intelligent individual with plenty of thought-provoking ideas to share. The film we watched in class exposed me to his opinions, many of which coincide with those of Marx and Lacan. Zizek's eccentric personality kept me engaged and interested in what he had to say. He made statements that are debatable, such as "the universe is one big void" and "love is evil." One of the topics that he mentioned that really stood out to me though was his take on post-modernism. He claimed that post-modernism is almost like a secret message. An example of this would be a child visiting their grandmother's house on a Sunday. The totalitarian-esque father would force their child to go, saying that it is the right thing to do, even if they do not want to. However, the postmodern approach is a bit different. The postmodern father would say something along the lines of, "your grandmother loves you very much, but it is ultimately up to you if you want to go see her." Zizek states that "this apparent free choice secretly contains an even stronger authority...Not only do you have to visit your grandmother, but you have to like it." He claims that this is more dishonest than the former. I definitely agree with Zizek's take on this scenario. It leads me to think about our idea of freedom. In the United States, we claim to be "free," but are we really? Yes we are free, but that doesn't mean that society's version of what's "right" is not constantly being shoved down our throats to influence our behavior and opinions, sometimes without us even realizing it.