Wikileaks

My least favorite moment in Žižek’s Guardian interview (which I otherwise loved: see HERE) was the Wikileaks analysis, where he critiqued the “liberal” interpretation of Wikileaks as simply an augmented form of investigative journalism, and treated it instead as an “emperor has no clothes” moment for the whole of capitalism.

But I think the liberal interpretation is the right one here. It seems to me that the whole “system is rotten to the core” approach to political issues is irresponsible and self-indulgent, and is easily my least favorite intellectual trait of the Left. It completely effaces the difference between basically good and wise conduct and basically corrupt and vile conduct. It effaces the utter difference in political freedoms that I experienced in the United States compared with Mubarak’s Egypt, though the Egyptian protestors certainly know the difference (Badiou tried to say similarly that El Baradei would be no improvement over Mubarak– but he certainly would, I’m sorry to say). It makes everything look equally dark by comparison with some coming incredible revolution. It paves the way for cynicism, which is not something I normally find in Žižek’s tone.

Interestingly, Žižek took a rather different tack in the interview by saying that it would be more interesting to critique China than the U.S. Indeed. If you think the U.S. is “reactionary,” try China.

[ADDENDUM: Levi has an interesting post HERE supporting Žižek’s take on Wikileaks. I think his account of Žižek’s view is accurate, I simply disagree with that view. Yes, “we knew the system was corrupt” in approximate terms, but that corruption is not infinite, and the specific forms it takes are often quite stunning. I do think we learned something from Wikileaks, in other words. My worry is that if we take the tack that “we all know the system was completely corrupt and Assange simply had the guts to say it,” then we’re levelling all human behavior onto a single, cynical plane of corruption. In fact, it is possible to distinguish between greater and lesser corruptions, and greater and lesser evils.]