On Zizek
Written in response to Zizek’s talk on the 7th of October 2014. It is entirely unmediated — just the raw thought as it drove the pen on that train journey home.
In other words, if man is to be broken of the
cycle of flailing chains then they must be placed
more firmly upon him.
He must have scars upon his back before
he can learn to shirk the whip.
If that be the case, then all that has
been said is a cry for suffering and
the inference must be made that
he who wields the whip is not just a good man but the best.
I do not agree.
For one man to place chains upon an other is to
enslave both.
Man as he is, has become a slave of the
gadget and the ease of modernity.
It would be possible to enslave a man
and maintain his ease.
This can be done by placing him in
a cage gilded with twinkling trinkets, squawking boxes and empty politicians.
If you have all that, you have what
you may think of as a life.
Yet there is no freedom.
You cannot fail, you cannot succeed,
You cannot be ought more than an automata.
You may therefore be put to any end he
that orchestrates your confinement may choose,
for you do not know you are being put upon.
How then would the removal of the padding and the gilt from the
cage bars solve mans problem?
He might in time lose amóur with them
but by then he is so placated by age
and long use to accept them.
No. Man needs to be given the chance to spear himself
on the tattered, mangled remains of a cage torn
asunder, its gilt stripped and used anew.
Man needs scars. But not placed upon him
in vain hope that he will twitch aside
and shirk the system.
He needs to earn them.
Earn them tearing open the barbed shell
that truly comprises the padded gilt.
He needs to learn that he has been inducted
into a war against nature that must not be
fought, but of which he is the primary weapon.
The hardness of life does not lessen it’s value, but
instead fills it with the light of glory.
Man can be a god, he has only to take the
mantle, the spear and the light.
That will not happen by having
them thrust upon him. They must be chosen.
Then taken, against the prevailing will.
Man cannot be forced to be free, he must choose it.
Whip him and you preserve his peace for you are
proving his right to ease.
Throw him into an ocean of suffering and he ‘will’
swim, but make the cause one single man and you have failed.
You have failed because you have given
a foca for his fear.
Remove it.
He will see that life is not the enemy.
If you break the system you become its
replacement.
The system must break itself and
be seen to do so.
Then, tossed aside in the dark tumult he will
seek light.
Let those that would seek the light
save themselves
and
those that would deny and refuse it
dash themselves upon the rocks.
Those that would be saved will come,
they will save themselves,
and they will be free.
No matter what lengths pursued,
those that would not be saved
can not be saved.
For no matter how bright the light
they will always seek to re-chain
themselves.
This is why man must not be whipped,
until he chooses it himself,
it will not help him.
S. D. Hallett 26.1.2015
