In Defense of Lost Causes

In this combative major work, philosophical sharpshooter Slavoj Zizek looks for the kernel of truth in the totalitarian politics of the past. Examining Heidegger's seduction by fascism and Foucault's flirtation with the Iranian Revolution, he suggests that these were the 'right steps in the wrong direction'. On the revolutionary terror of Robespierre, Mao and the Bolsheviks, Zizek argues that while these struggles ended in historic failure and horror, there was a valuable core of idealism lost beneath the bloodshed. A redemptive vision has been obscured by the soft, decentralized politics of the liberal-democratic consensus. Faced with the coming ecological crisis, Zizek argues the case for revolutionary terror and the dictatorship of the proletariat. A return to past ideals is needed despite the risks. In the words of Samuel Beckett: 'Try again. Fail again. Fail better.'

“"Zizek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is a master of the counterintuitive observation."- New Yorker "The giant of Ljubljana provides the best intellectual high science since Anti-Oedipus ."- The Village Voice "Zizek is a thinker who regards nothing as outside his field: the result is deeply interesting and provocative."- Guardian "Zizek is one of the few living writers to combine theoretical rigor with compulsive readability."- Publishers Weekly”

The most dangerous philosopher in the West. -- Adam Kirsch The New Republic
Addictively eclectic . He contrives to leave the reader, as usual, both exhilarated and disoriented, standing in the middle of a scorched plain strewn with the rubble of smashed idols. -- Steven Poole Guardian
A wealth of political and philosophical insight. -- Terry Eagleton TLS
Exhilarating, inspiring, thought-provoking. -- David Schneider Prospect

Slavoj Zizek is a Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic. He is a professor at the European Graduate School, International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London, and a sen-ior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His books include Living in the End Times, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, Less Than Nothing, six volumes of the Essential Zizek, and many more.

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