The Courage of Hopelessness: A Year of Acting Dangerously

I love the "birds-eye" view that Zizek takes for current social issues. He also peppers his arguments with numerous references to modern and contemporary literature. He observes that LGBTQI+ activists and religious fundamentalists are essentially fighting for the same thing - their identity. They like to say that they are basing their believes on "universal" values. However, the values are rooted in their group and the society in which they live. Some of the big conflicts are based on tiny differences - that may not even be coherent for the group at large. (The "bathroom" debate was a case in point. There was conflict over laws that required people to use the bathroom associated with their birth sex. However, neither outcome would help those that didn't identify with either gender. And what about those that do have fluid gender identification but don't identify with the movement?) The grouping of "oppressed" and "oppressors" is also interesting in that it often has a subtext of implying that the "oppressors" are superior.

He is a strong leftist, yet finds good things to say about the 2016 election of Donald Trump. Clinton would have just continued the corporatist politics as usual. Trump spoke out in a vulgar fashion and aligned himself with "the people". He had much more in common with Sanders in his disovowel of the "ruling class". Alas, in 2020, Biden was brought back in to succeed where Clinton didn't. His election was possible in part by the voters that "settled for Biden" in hopes of getting Trump out. However, Trump still came close. There is a demand for more all out reform. Alas, it may take more time.

The refugee crisis in Europe has some additional clashes of civilizations. On one hand, these are underprivileged minorities. On the other hand, they tend to have conservative Muslim values that are at odds with those in Europe. How does one react?

Why does capitalism always seem to win out? Even so called communist states like China end up creating a highly effective capitalist machine. How do we go about effecting system-wide changes?