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Against the double blackmail : refugees, terror and other troubles with the neighbours / Slavoj Žižek.

By: Publication details: London : Allen Lane, 2016.Description: 116 ; 21 cmISBN:
  • 9780241278840 (hbk.) :
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 23 325.21
Contents:
The Double Blackmail -- A Decent into the MaelStrom -- Breaking the Taboos of the Left -- The Obscene Underside of Religions -- Divine Violence -- The Political Economy of Refugees -- From the Culture Wars to Class Struggle... and Back -- Where Does the Threat Come From? -- The Limits of Neighbourhood -- Hateful Thousands in Cologne -- What Is to Be Done? -- Notes
Summary: Today, hundreds of thousands of people, desparate to escape war, violence and poverty, are crossing the Medirerranean to seek refuge in Europe. Our response, argues Žižek, offers two versions of ideological blackmail: either we open our doors as widely as possible; or we try to pull up the drawbridge. Both solutions, states Žižek, are bad. They merely prolong the problem, rather than tackling it. The refugee crisis also presents an opportunity, a unique chance for Europe to redefine itself: but, if we are to do so, we have to start raising unpleasant and difficult questions. We must also acknowledge that large migrations are our future. Only then can we commit to a carefully prepared process of change, one founded not on a community that sees the excluded as a threat, but one that takes as its basis the shared substance of our social being. The only way, in other words, to get to the heart of one of the greatest issues confronting Europe today is to insist on the global solidarity of the exploited and oppressed. Maybe such solidarity is a utopia. But, warns Žižek, if we don't engage in it, then we are really lost. And we will deserve to be lost.
List(s) this item appears in: New acquisitions 2016
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Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode
Loanable Book Library General Collection 325.21 Žiž (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 000413898

The Double Blackmail -- A Decent into the MaelStrom -- Breaking the Taboos of the Left -- The Obscene Underside of Religions -- Divine Violence -- The Political Economy of Refugees -- From the Culture Wars to Class Struggle... and Back -- Where Does the Threat Come From? -- The Limits of Neighbourhood -- Hateful Thousands in Cologne -- What Is to Be Done? -- Notes

Today, hundreds of thousands of people, desparate to escape war, violence and poverty, are crossing the Medirerranean to seek refuge in Europe. Our response, argues Žižek, offers two versions of ideological blackmail: either we open our doors as widely as possible; or we try to pull up the drawbridge. Both solutions, states Žižek, are bad. They merely prolong the problem, rather than tackling it.

The refugee crisis also presents an opportunity, a unique chance for Europe to redefine itself: but, if we are to do so, we have to start raising unpleasant and difficult questions. We must also acknowledge that large migrations are our future. Only then can we commit to a carefully prepared process of change, one founded not on a community that sees the excluded as a threat, but one that takes as its basis the shared substance of our social being.

The only way, in other words, to get to the heart of one of the greatest issues confronting Europe today is to insist on the global solidarity of the exploited and oppressed. Maybe such solidarity is a utopia. But, warns Žižek, if we don't engage in it, then we are really lost. And we will deserve to be lost.

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