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On freedom, authority and responsibility.

Theorist Todd McGowan joins us to talk about the End of History, what Hegel can teach us about emancipation, and why Slavoj Zizek’s reinterpretation of Hegel is so important. If contradiction is the basis of modern politics, what is its link to freedom? And what is the connection between freedom and authority? Are stable sources of authority even possible in modernity? We also put some listener questions to Todd, as we learn that the Right, just as much as the Left, evades authority and is unwilling to take responsibility.

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Mouldy L

This analysis of politics in terms of libidinal economies, distribution of enjoyment etc., seems to only work at the level of what liberals themselves want politics to be reduced to, i.e. culture. Listening to McGowan talk about Trump, as well as more recently Zizek calling for total western military commitment to Ukraine, makes me think jokes are good for illustrating Hegel and Lacan but less so to understand what fascism actually is, what's actually happening in geopolitics or real political-economic forces. Ppl like McGowan will believe anything they're told, no matter how stupid, if it fits the theory instead of challenging the theory when it just doesn't work. It's embarrassing, frankly, to hear brilliant theorists like Zizek saying the most retarded shit on subjects that don't end in a punchline.

Bichael Bichards

cute way of looking at things but seems like nice thinking more so than practical approach, very american, is "emancipation" after hegel just a rhetorical process in understanding dialectic? i haven't read the book tho the discussion was very interesting, yet seems to ignore real concepts like power, politics of enjoyment? sounds banal