Slavoj Žižek: evaluation

Transcript context

…Yes. I take as an example, and I was there — I talked with people — Husák’s Czechoslovakia in the ’70s. Material needs were basically satisfied. Nobody was doing that, and as you said, you always had an excuse. There was too much rain or drought. Communists screwed it up. Then — very important — you had a nearby country, West Germany, which was the ideal other, but it was not too far away, and so on. That’s why I’m against happiness. Happiness means no responsibility, relatively comfortable life because already after Khrushchev, basically, with Brézhnev — you must know this. Communists in power made a pact with population. They admitted, “We will never reach the West.” But the message was, “You leave us political power. We leave you your private niche where you can enjoy your life.” And so on, and so on. I think that Khrushchev was paradoxically — don’t you agree — the last guy who somehow, paradoxically . . . He was sincere in that — you must know it — United Nations speech where he — Of course.…

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