View
1
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
18/3/2020 Slavoj Žižek “el Coronavirus es un golpe a lo Kill Bill al sistema capitalista”
https://medium.com/@esferapublica/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-el-coronavirus-es-un-golpe-a-lo-kill-bill-al-sistema-capitalista-48cf8af6ca0a 1/10
Slavoj Žižek “el Coronavirus es un golpe a lo Kill
Bill al sistema capitalista”
@esferapublica
Mar 3 · 11 min read
El �lósofo, sociólogo y crítico cultural esloveno se re�rió a la pandemia -que
comenzó en la localidad china de Wuhan- como un gatillante de otros aspectos de
la sociedad como la histeria colectiva y el racismo. Comparándolo con un golpe
propio de la cinta de Tarantino, Zizek analiza las repercusiones del Covid-19 a
nivel político.
“La actual expansión de la epidemia de coronavirus ha detonado las epidemias de
virus ideológicos que estaban latentes en nuestras sociedades: noticias falsas,
teorías conspirativas paranoicas y explosiones de racismo”, comienza la columna
To make Medium work, we log user data. By using Medium, you agree to our Privacy Policy,
including cookie policy.
18/3/2020 Slavoj Žižek “el Coronavirus es un golpe a lo Kill Bill al sistema capitalista”
https://medium.com/@esferapublica/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-el-coronavirus-es-un-golpe-a-lo-kill-bill-al-sistema-capitalista-48cf8af6ca0a 2/10
de Slavoj Žižek publicada en RT.
“La bien fundamentada necesidad médica de establecer cuarentenas hicieron eco
en las presiones ideológicas para establecer límites claros y mantener en
cuarentena a los enemigos que representan una amenaza a nuestra identidad.
Pero tal vez otro -y más bene�cioso- virus ideológico se expandirá y tal vez nos
infecte: el virus de pensar en una sociedad alternativa, una sociedad más allá de
la nación-estado, una sociedad que se actualice como solidaridad global y
cooperación”, continuó el �lósofo.
Según explicó Žižek, han resonado especulaciones que apuntan a la caída del
comunismo en China, de la misma forma que Gorbachov dijo que la tragedia de
Chernobyl detonó el �n del comunismo soviétivo. “Pero hay una paradoja aquí: el
Coronavirus también nos obliga a re-inventar el comunismo basándonos en la
con�anza en las personas y la ciencia”.
Un golpe “a lo Kill Bill”Recordando una de las producciones más famosas de Quentin Tarantino, Slavoj
Žižek citó Kill Bill 2. O más bien, rememoró un aspecto especí�co de la cinta
protagonizada por Uma Thurman.
En la escena �nal, Beatrix inhabilita al malvado Bill con la “Técnica del corazón
explosivo de cinco puntos en la palma”, la más letal de las técnicas de artes
marciales. El movimiento consiste en la combinación de cinco golpes en distintos
puntos de presión del cuerpo. Luego que la persona agredida se aleja cinco pasos,
su corazón explota en su cuerpo y cae al piso.
“Lo que hace a este ataque tan fascinante es el tiempo entre el golpe y la muerte
en sí: Puedo tener una buena conversación mientras esté sentado y calmado, pero
tengo claro que desde el momento que comience a caminar, mi corazón explotará
y yo caeré muerto”, agregó Zizek.
“Mi modesta opinión sobre la realidad es mucho más radical: la epidemia de
coronavirus es una forma especial de ‘Técnica del corazón explosivo’ en el
sistema global capitalista, un síntoma de que no podemos seguir en el camino que
hemos seguido hasta ahora, se necesita ese cambio”, aseguró el crítico cultural.
18/3/2020 Slavoj Žižek “el Coronavirus es un golpe a lo Kill Bill al sistema capitalista”
https://medium.com/@esferapublica/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-el-coronavirus-es-un-golpe-a-lo-kill-bill-al-sistema-capitalista-48cf8af6ca0a 3/10
Un día después que el Vice Ministro de Salud de Irán, Iraj Harirchi, dio una
conferencia de prensa en la que minimizó la pandemia y dijo que las cuarentenas
masivas no eran necesarias, admitió que él mismo contrajo coronavirus: “Este
virus es democrático, y no distingue entre pobres y ricos o entre estadista y
ciudadano común”, dijo Harirchi.
“Es difícil perderse la ironía suprema del hecho que lo que nos unió a todos y nos
empujó a una solidaridad global, se exprese de tal manera que hay que evitar el
contacto entre personas e incluso aislarse”, escribió Žižek en su columna.
“Y no es la única amenaza viral con la que estamos lidiando, otras catástrofes se
acercan en el horizonte y ya tomaron su lugar: sequías, olas de calor, tormentas,
etc. En todos estos casos, la respuesta no es el pánico, si no que el duro y urgente
trabajo de establecer una especie de coordinación global e�ciente”, puntualizó el
esloveno.
Lo virtual parece lo único seguro“Podemos esperar que la epidemia viral afecte nuestras interacciones elementales
con otras personas y objetos alrededor nuestro, incluyendo nuestros propios
cuerpos, ya que evitaremos tocar cosas que puedan estar contaminadas, como
barandas, baños públicos o juegos del parque. Incluso evitaremos saludar a las
personas dándoles la mano. Probablemente seamos más cuidadosos con
movimientos espontáneos, como tocarnos la nariz o los ojos”, prevé Žižek.
“Así que no es solo el Estado u otros agentes los que nos controlarán, también
debemos aprender a controlarnos y disciplinarnos a nosotros mismos. Tal vez
solo la realidad virtual se considere segura, y moverse libremente en espacios
abiertos será limitado a islas pertenecientes a los ultra ricos”, publicó el �lósofo.
“Pero incluso ahí, en el nivel de realidad virtual e internet, debemos recordarnos
a nosotros mismos que, en las últimas décadas, los términos ‘virus’ y ‘viral’ fueron
usados en su mayoría para designar virus digitales que infectaban nuestro
espacio-web y de los que no estábamos al tanto, al menos no hasta ver su poder
destructivo (es decir, destruir nuestros softwares o hardwares). Lo que vemos
ahora es un retorno masivo al signi�cado literal de término: las infecciones
18/3/2020 Slavoj Žižek “el Coronavirus es un golpe a lo Kill Bill al sistema capitalista”
https://medium.com/@esferapublica/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-el-coronavirus-es-un-golpe-a-lo-kill-bill-al-sistema-capitalista-48cf8af6ca0a 4/10
virales van mano a mano en ambas dimensiones: real y virtual”, publicó en RT.
“Los mercados se ponen nerviosos”A Slavoj Žižek también le llama la atención la correlación que hace el capitalismo
de tratar fenómenos sociales como mercados o entidades vivientes, ya que al leer
los medios de comunicación, abundan informaciones que muestran el peligro de
la estabilidad económica.
“La impresión que uno obtiene es que de lo que uno realmente debería
preocuparse no es de los cientos de fallecidos, sino del hecho que ‘los mercados
están nerviosos’. El coronavirus está perturbando crecientemente el mercado
mundial y, según escuchamos, el crecimiento puede caer entre un 2% y 3%. ¿No
es esto una clara señal de la urgencia de una reorganización de la economía
global, que ya no estará a merced de los mecanismos del mercado?”, plantea
Žižek.
El sociólogo aclara que no se re�ere al comunismo “de viejo estilo”, sino algún
tipo de organización global que pueda controlar y regular la economía, así como
“controlar y limitar la soberanía de la nación-estado cuando sea necesario”. Esto
en el marco de lo que Žižek cali�ca como “guerra médica”.
Además, como efectos colaterales “bene�ciosos” del Coronavirus, el �lósofo se
re�ere a los cruceros como métodos de cuarentena -al cali�carlos de lujo
obsceno-, y que la epidemia afecta la producción de automóviles -lo que llevaría a
buscar vías alternativas de movilización-.
“En un reciente discurso, el primer ministro húngaro Viktor Orban dijo: ‘No existe
tal cosa como un liberal. Un liberal no es más que un comunista con un diploma’.
¿Qué pasa si lo contrario es verdad? ¿Si consideramos ‘liberales’ a todos los que
se preocupan por nuestra libertad y como ‘comunistas’ a todos los que consideran
que podemos salvar esas libertades solo con cambios radicales desde que el
capitalismo global se acerca a una crisis? Entonces deberíamos decir que, hoy,
aquellos que aún se reconocen como comunistas son liberales con diploma,
liberales que realmente estudiaron porque nuestros valores liberales están bajo
amenaza y se dieron cuenta que solo el cambio radical los puede salvar”, concluye
18/3/2020 Slavoj Žižek “el Coronavirus es un golpe a lo Kill Bill al sistema capitalista”
https://medium.com/@esferapublica/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-el-coronavirus-es-un-golpe-a-lo-kill-bill-al-sistema-capitalista-48cf8af6ca0a 5/10
Slavoj Žižek en su columna.
. . .
Slavoj Zizek: Coronavirus is ‘Kill Bill’-esque blow tocapitalism and could lead to reinvention ofcommunismThe ongoing spread of the coronavirus epidemic has also triggered vast epidemics
of ideological viruses which were laying dormant in our societies: fake news,
paranoiac conspiracy theories, explosions of racism.
The well-grounded medical need for quarantines found an echo in the ideological
pressure to establish clear borders and to quarantine enemies that pose a threat
to our identity.
But maybe another — and much more bene�cial — ideological virus will spread
and hopefully infect us: the virus of thinking about an alternate society, a society
beyond nation-state, a society that actualizes itself in the forms of global
solidarity and cooperation.
18/3/2020 Slavoj Žižek “el Coronavirus es un golpe a lo Kill Bill al sistema capitalista”
https://medium.com/@esferapublica/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-el-coronavirus-es-un-golpe-a-lo-kill-bill-al-sistema-capitalista-48cf8af6ca0a 6/10
Speculation is often heard today that the coronavirus may lead to the fall of
communist rule in China, in the same way that (as Gorbachev himself admitted)
the Chernobyl catastrophe was the event which triggered the end of the Soviet
communism. But there is a paradox here: the coronavirus will also compel us to
re-invent communism based on trust in the people and in science.
In the �nal scene of Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Kill Bill 2,’ Beatrix disables the evil Bill
and strikes him with the “Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique” — the most
deadly blow in all of martial arts. The move consists of a combination of �ve
strikes with one’s �ngertips to �ve di�erent pressure points on the target’s body.
After the target walks away and has taken �ve steps, their heart explodes in their
body and they fall to the ground.
This attack is part of martial arts mythology and is not possible in real hand-to-
hand combat. But, back to the �lm, after Beatrix does it, Bill calmly makes his
peace with her, takes �ve steps and dies…
What makes this attack so fascinating is the time between being hit and the
moment of death: I can have a nice conversation as long as I sit calmly, but I am
all this time aware that the moment I start to walk, my heart will explode and I
will drop dead.
Is the idea of those who speculate about how the coronavirus epidemic could
lead to the fall of communist rule in China not similar? Like some kind of social
“Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique” on the country’s communist regime,
the authorities can sit, observe and go through the motions of quarantine, but
any real change in the social order (like trusting the people) will result in their
downfall.
My modest opinion is much more radical: the coronavirus epidemic is a kind of
“Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique” attack on the global capitalist system
— a signal that we cannot go on the way we were up until now, that a radical
change is needed.
Sad fact, we need a catastropheYears ago, Fredric Jameson drew attention to the utopian potential in movies
18/3/2020 Slavoj Žižek “el Coronavirus es un golpe a lo Kill Bill al sistema capitalista”
https://medium.com/@esferapublica/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-el-coronavirus-es-un-golpe-a-lo-kill-bill-al-sistema-capitalista-48cf8af6ca0a 7/10
about a cosmic catastrophe (an asteroid threatening life on Earth, or a virus
killing humanity). Such a global threat gives birth to global solidarity, our petty
di�erences become insigni�cant, we all work together to �nd a solution — and
here we are today, in real life. The point is not to sadistically enjoy widespread
su�ering insofar as it helps our cause — on the contrary, the point is to re�ect
upon a sad fact that we need a catastrophe to make us able to rethink the very
basic features of the society in which we live.
The �rst vague model of such a global coordination is the World Health
Organization, from which we are not getting the usual bureaucratic gibberish but
precise warnings proclaimed without panic. Such organizations should be given
more executive power.
Bernie Sanders is mocked by skeptics for his advocacy of universal healthcare in
the US — is the lesson of the coronavirus epidemic not that even more is needed,
that we should start to put together some kind of GLOBAL healthcare network?
A day after Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi appeared at a press
conference in order to downplay the coronavirus spread and to assert that mass
quarantines are not necessary, he made a short statement admitting that he has
contracted the coronavirus and placed himself in isolation (already during his
�rst TV appearance, he had shown signs of fever and weakness). Harirchi added:
“This virus is democratic, and it doesn’t distinguish between poor and rich or
between statesman and an ordinary citizen.”
In this, he was right — we are all in the same boat. It is di�cult to miss the
supreme irony of the fact that what brought us all together and pushed us into
global solidarity expresses itself at the level of everyday life in strict commands to
avoid close contacts with others, even to self-isolate.
And we are not dealing only with viral threats — other catastrophes are looming
on the horizon or already taking place: droughts, heatwaves, massive storms, etc.
In all these cases, the answer is not panic but hard and urgent work to establish
some kind of e�cient global coordination.
Will we only be safe in virtual reality?
18/3/2020 Slavoj Žižek “el Coronavirus es un golpe a lo Kill Bill al sistema capitalista”
https://medium.com/@esferapublica/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-el-coronavirus-es-un-golpe-a-lo-kill-bill-al-sistema-capitalista-48cf8af6ca0a 8/10
The �rst illusion to dispel is the one formulated by US President Donald Trump
during his recent visit to India, where he said that the epidemic would recede
quickly and we just have to wait for the spike and then life will return to normal.
Against these all too easy hopes, the �rst thing to accept is that the threat is here
to stay. Even if this wave recedes, it will reappear in new, maybe even more
dangerous, forms.
For this reason, we can expect that viral epidemics will a�ect our most
elementary interactions with other people and objects around us, including our
own bodies — avoid touching things that may be (invisibly) dirty, don’t touch
hooks, don’t sit on toilet seats or public benches, avoid embracing people or
shaking their hands. We might even become more careful about spontaneous
gestures: don’t touch your nose or rub your eyes.
So it’s not only the state and other agencies that will control us, we should also
learn to control and discipline ourselves. Maybe only virtual reality will be
considered safe, and moving freely in an open space will be restricted to the
islands owned by the ultra-rich.
But even here, at the level of virtual reality and internet, we should remind
ourselves that, in the last decades, the terms “virus” and “viral” were mostly used
to designate digital viruses which were infecting our web-space and of which we
were not aware, at least not until their destructive power (say, of destroying our
data or our hard-drive) was unleashed. What we see now is a massive return to
the original literal meaning of the term: viral infections work hand-in-hand in
both dimensions, real and virtual.
Return of capitalist animismAnother weird phenomenon that we can observe is the triumphant return of
capitalist animism, of treating social phenomena like markets or �nancial capital
as living entities. If one reads our big media, the impression one gets is that what
we should really worry about are not thousands who already died (and
thousands more who will die) but the fact that “markets are getting nervous.” The
coronavirus is increasingly disturbing the smooth running of the world market
18/3/2020 Slavoj Žižek “el Coronavirus es un golpe a lo Kill Bill al sistema capitalista”
https://medium.com/@esferapublica/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-el-coronavirus-es-un-golpe-a-lo-kill-bill-al-sistema-capitalista-48cf8af6ca0a 9/10
and, as we hear, growth may fall by two or three percent.
Does all this not clearly signal the urgent need for a reorganization of the global
economy which will no longer be at the mercy of market mechanisms? We are not
talking here about old-style communism, of course, just about some kind of
global organization that can control and regulate the economy, as well as limit the
sovereignty of nation-states when needed. Countries were able to do it against
the backdrop of war in the past, and all of us are now e�ectively approaching a
state of medical war.
Plus we should also not be afraid to note some potentially bene�cial side e�ects
of the epidemic. One of the symbols of the epidemic is passengers caught
(quarantined) on large cruise ships — good riddance to the obscenity of such
ships, I am tempted to say. (We only have to be careful that travel to lone islands
or other exclusive resorts will not become again the privilege of the rich few, as it
was decades ago with �ying.) Car production is also seriously a�ected by the
coronavirus — which is not too bad, as this may compel us to think about
alternatives to our obsession with individual vehicles. The list goes on.
ALSO ON RT.COMFace o�: Fights break out on streets of Japan amid
surgical masks shortage (VIDEOS)
In a recent speech, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said: “There is no such
thing as a liberal. A liberal is nothing more than a communist with a diploma.”
What if the opposite is true? If we designate as “liberals” all those who care for
our freedoms, and as “communists” those who are aware that we can save these
freedoms only with radical changes since global capitalism is approaching a
crisis? Then we should say that, today, those who still recognize themselves as
communists are liberals with a diploma — liberals who seriously studied why our
liberal values are under threat and became aware that only radical change can
save them.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
Slavoj Zizek*
18/3/2020 Slavoj Žižek “el Coronavirus es un golpe a lo Kill Bill al sistema capitalista”
https://medium.com/@esferapublica/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-el-coronavirus-es-un-golpe-a-lo-kill-bill-al-sistema-capitalista-48cf8af6ca0a 10/10
*is a cultural philosopher. He’s a senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology
and Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, Global Distinguished Professor of
German at New York University, and international director of the Birkbeck
Institute for the Humanities of the University of London.
. . .
Originally published at https://culto.latercera.com on March 3, 2020.
Slavoj Zizek Kill Bill
About Help Legal
Recommended