I and four Citizens took a first crack at discussing The Year of Dreaming Dangerously
Since Freud and Jung, psychotherapy has been used to try to make sense of group behavior, and Lacan himself applied his insights to the political realm (among other places). Zizek follows in that tradition, doing a Marxist analysis of the various events of 2011 using Lacanian language: Capital is, according to Zizek, the "real" behind all of these various conflicts that seem to be between individual groups. Capitalism is never itself confronted as a system, but serves as the underlying force and the principle by which this force itself is made invisible to us.
Sound kooky? Well, yeah. Become a citizen, go to the Free Stuff page, and download the discussion. If you've already read the book or can read it quickly, you may still have time to join the group; there may be a second discussion scheduled, since some of the key group players couldn't make it this time.
-Mark Linsenmayer
Mark–as usual you were able to keep the group discussion well focused regarding (Zizek) a truly difficult to interpret rock-jock of Hegelian philosophy and Lacanian psychoanalysis whose views border on the phantasmagorical (no small task).
If we replace the concept of Capital (what ever happened to Das Kapital?) with desire/greed/objet petit a then perhaps it is not so “kooky”, but inevitable, perhaps not so random, but universal (wouldn’t you like to have all the money in my wallet?) Is there not an underlying sense of excessive greed in the world of economics? (Zizek usually makes his statements into questions.) Can I have your money? Capitalism (Kapitalism) says, why of course and enjoy your buggery Mr. Big Other, while I surrender to the Real (Fckd).
Dial in to the Not For School reading of Year of Dreaming Dangerously to finally answer these questions.