Tag Archives: Idea of Communism

Capitalism, Debates, Empire, Left watch, Theory

Evangelist Zizek and the End of Philosophy – II

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Idea of communism? Courtesy Oscar's global blog
Idea of communism? Courtesy Oscar’s global blog

Today was the third and final day of the ‘Idea of Communism’ conference and it was the truly most bizarre experience – bizarre philosophical experience, I should say – of my life. Let me start backwards today.

The preacher from Ljubliana was in full form and he closed his own hour-long (or was it 55 minutes) presentation ‘To Begin from the Beginning, Over and Over Again’ with the following: “If the rumour that Gilles Deleuze was writing a book on Marx before he died, is true then this should be seen as a sign that after having spent a life time away from the Church he wanted to come back to its fold…We welcome all those anti-communist Leftists who have spent their lifetimes attacking us to come and join us.” Continue reading Evangelist Zizek and the End of Philosophy – II →

Capitalism, Debates, Empire, Frontiers, Left watch, Movements, Theory

Re-booting Communism Or Slavoj Zizek and the End of Philosophy – I

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Zizek - the postmodern Lenin?
Zizek - the postmodern Lenin?

Today, 13 March, a whole galaxy of philosophers and theorists got together for a three-day conference “On The Idea of Communism” under the auspices of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, London University. The Conference opened to a jam-packed hall where all tickets had sold out (no jokes, this was a ticketed show where the likes of Alain Badiou, Slavoj Zizek, Jean Luc-Nancy, Toni Negri, Jacques Ranciere, Terry Eagleton and many many others are to perform on the ‘idea of communism’). The huge Logan hall with a capacity of about 800-900 was so packed that the organizers had made arrangements for video streaming in another neighbouring hall – and that too was half full! Very encouraging in these bleak days.

The conference began in the afternoon with brief opening remarks by Alain Badiou and Slavoj Zizek. Badiou made his general point (see below) about the continuing relevance of the ‘communist hypothesis’. Staid and philosopherly. Continue reading Re-booting Communism Or Slavoj Zizek and the End of Philosophy – I →