Reading Journal: On Belief By Slavoj Zizek - The Holocaust

I've just finished reading On Belief by Slavoj Zizek which was counter-intuitive and brilliant. I don't think I've read nearly enough Freud and Lacan to take it all in so it merits some research reading before a (definite) rereading. He doesn't seem to be easy to find aroud these parts (neither is Lacan) so I'm thinking that I'll probably end up driving to buy/borrow the books I need.



One interesting passage about the Holocaust has gotten me thinking. (I married a into Dutch-Jewish family - decendants of Russian Jews which has lead me to think alot lately on the holocaust.) One of Zizek's points was that we do the holocaust a dis-service when he venerate it as "evil", "demonic", "horrible". When we invoke the uncanny to describe the holocaust, Zizek would argue, we venerate it beyond humanity's grasp, and thus also beyond humanity's responsibility. No Nazi took a "byronesque" vow to serve darkness, or made a Miltonesque vow "Evil, be my Good." No Nazi was a demon, every Nazi was human. Each death camp was a human death camp; each crime a human crime.



This is the draw of shadenfreude, or what I think I'd now call the wolfenstein fantasy. Shadenfruede is pleasure taken when other falls. Wolfenstein was a series of computer games in which you battle Nazi's in prisons and old gothic castles. In every game, you began fighting aginst humans but ended up fighting the undead, the demonic, the monsters in the catacombs. This fantasy latches onto our desire that Nazi's truly be byronesque EVIL men, instead of fallen men. The occult, the mutant are conjured to set us at ease in the midst of an evil that is human.



Movies like American History X are useful antidotes to the wolfenstein fantasy, watching the very human spiral from fear, to hatred, to violence, to revenge. I also wonder weather that is why we hear so much of terms like "axis of evil" or "islamic terrorism" lately. Are these terms employed precisely to invoke the uncanny and detach us from responsible thinking about how to destroy these HUMAN evils?



I went to see Fiddler on the Roof with my wife and was struck again by the detached character of the Russian Constable. Who likes Tevye "even though" he is a Jew. "Even though" is the mark of the uncanny. Even though you are a jew, or black, or Christian, or Arab. I agree with Zizek. Too often the uncanny is invoke so we don't have to deal with the world in its real human uglyness.



That's why we label, isn't it? That's why we have to us/them the world. So "we" can dismiss "them" into the realm of the unhuman, the ignored or the demonic. Which is really an admission that we cannot deal with others as they are...



But I deal with me as I am. I love me in spite of my history, in spite of my darkest shades, in spite of my most desteable actions, thoughts, and motivations. Damn, the hardest teaching in the world is "love your neighbour as yourself". Especially when the good samaritain makes "them" my neighbour. Treat "them" (no matter how scary thte scare quotes) how I would treat me.



There are more thoughts (on marriage) but they can wait for another post.



Next book: Renewing the Center by Stanley J. Grenz

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