{"id":9396,"date":"2025-08-23T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9396"},"modified":"2025-05-04T18:46:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T18:46:43","slug":"looking-at-slavoj-zizeks-book-2024-christian-atheism-part-7-of-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9396","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Slavoj Zizek’s Book (2024) “Christian Atheism” (Part 7 of 33)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

0075 Have I identified those who cannot handle the truth1<\/sub>?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or those who cannot handle the synthesis1<\/sub>?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one hand, some accumulate capital… [wealth]… without regard to their responsibilities… [power].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, some exercise order… [power]… without regard to their freedom… [wealth]… to be productive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0076 Then, there are those who dampen the irreducible oscillations, so that the contradiction-filled actuality2<\/sub> takes on a certain blandness.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

0077 Zizek starts with American-style Afropessimism.  Yes, it may be true1c<\/sub>, but does it cover the current situation?  Does it synthesize1<\/sub>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surely, with the capitalists of northern European descent<\/em> and their politicians exercising social order,<\/em> the slaves of African descent<\/em> could easily fall into… what scholars today call… “Afropessimism”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0078 Yeah, this version of Afropessimism is definitely American.  Plus, it is not Christian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For matter, the slave of African-descent not only cannot accumulate capital, but his own phenotype (or form) tells others that he constitutes capital, in the normal context of one who is not Christ3<\/sub><\/em>.  It is almost as if the contiguity is the inversion of [wealth and power].  Thesis and antithesis both work against the slave in this instance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what happens after slaves are freed in the 1860s?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0079 Decades after the War of Southern Rebellion<\/em> and the War of Northern Aggression,<\/em> the rich industrialists of the victorious north<\/em> open the floodgates to European immigration<\/em>. These European masses settle into ethnic neighborhoods, with their own restaurants, pubs and churches.  Ethnic neighborhoods become sites of capital accumulation<\/em> and fiefdoms exercising local order<\/em>.  Yes, I am talking about neighborhoods in big northern cities.  Local businessmen, police and clergy grow powerful enough to thwart inroads by both big money and big government.  Eventually, many recalcitrant neighborhoods are destroyed by federal and state governments in the name of “urban renewal”1<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0080 To understand how far dehumanization <\/em>has gone in the USA, Afropessimists<\/em> are now labeled, “blacks”, and ethnic Europeans displaced from their city neighborhoods<\/em> are now labeled, “whites”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1950s and 1960s mark two decades of the so-called “Cold War,” or, what I now label, “The Third Battle of the Enlightenment Gods: The Cold War Among Materialist Ideologies”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0081 That war ends in 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder what comes next<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about “The Fourth Battle involving Enlightenment Gods: Empirio-Normative Domination of Subject Populations”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, that sounds like a nightmare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It officially starts in 1989 and continues to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0082 In one instance, big government (il)liberalism “handles” the truth1<\/sub> through synthesis1<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big(il)libism?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bigger the government gets, the more illiberal the party becomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0083 Bigilibs work both sides of the hylomorphe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0084 For capitalism2<\/sub>, the government accumulates “trust funds” for ‘victims of old age’.  Later, other victims manifest, each requiring accumulations and dispensations tailored to their needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For socialism2<\/sub>, big(il)libs exercise social order on victim’s behalf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0085 What is left out of this picture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bigilib party and its allies<\/em> acquire wealth and power at the expense of the people who are not designated victims<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, according to their broadcasts, the people who are not designated victims<\/em> are responsible for those who are designated victims,<\/em> and need to listen to and obey the One Who Protects The Victims3c<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0086 It1c<\/sub> may not be true1c<\/sub>, but it is a great synthesis1c<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I call the potential, “a synthetic truth1c<\/sub>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, one could translate thesis, antithesis, and synthesis<\/em> in the following figure into problem, diagnosis, and solution<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0087 I wonder, “Does a synthesis1<\/sub> somehow extend the life of its thesis2<\/sub> and antithesis2<\/sub>?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doesn’t that sound like a death drive?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solution1c<\/sub> that undergirds both problem2c<\/sub> and diagnosis2c<\/sub>, not only fails to resolve the tension that plagues the Relativist One3c<\/sub>, but also keeps the Relativist One3c<\/sub> alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0088 It is a repetition disorder<\/em> par excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if the solution1c<\/sub> is forever postponed because the problem2c<\/sub> of accumulating for the victims (of old age and so forth) and the diagnosis2c<\/sub> requiring the exercise of social control in order to protect and assuage the victims (of old age and so forth), then the normal context3c<\/sub>, the historically contingent not-Christ One3c<\/sub>, who stands above all jurisdictions, stays alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0089 Indeed, as long as the hylomorphic actuality2c<\/sub> retains its ontological realness, the transcendent normal context3c<\/sub>and its sublime potential1c<\/sub> continue to manifest the oneness of the entire category-based nested form<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

0075 Have I identified those who cannot handle the truth1? Or those who cannot handle the synthesis1? On one hand, some accumulate capital… [wealth]… without regard to their responsibilities… [power]. On the other hand, some exercise order… [power]… without regard to their freedom… [wealth]… to be productive. 0076 Then, there are those who dampen the irreducible oscillations, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[417],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"yoast_head":"\nLooking at Slavoj Zizek's Book (2024) "Christian Atheism" (Part 7 of 33) - An Archaeology of the Fall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9396\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking at Slavoj Zizek's Book (2024) "Christian Atheism" (Part 7 of 33) - An Archaeology of the Fall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"0075 Have I identified those who cannot handle the truth1? 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