HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

Oxford Indymedia

Slavoj Zizek Speaks at Amnesty Lectures

Suzie | 29.01.2004 23:28 | Culture | Globalisation | Repression | Oxford

Slavoj Zizek, a leading philosopher and theorist, came to speak at the Oxford Amnesty lecctures on the theme of Asylum, Migration and Displacement.

Slavoj Zizek’s provocative address presented the case against the universalisation of human rights, recalling Susan Okin’s contribution to the lecture series in past years, though from a greatly differing perspective. Zizek noted how rights were once something with which only select individuals were endowed (the bourgeois, White male), and have since been extended to « all » Whilst this move towards liberal tolerance has been seen as a progressive gesture, Zizek was not convinced. He argued how the universalisation of human rights has facilitated recent military interventions that defy international law, on the basis that they are protecting human rights. Thus what Western liberals consider to be a conscience-salving progressive gesture, becomes, paradoxically, an instrument of oppression.

Zizek argued that this has been achieved by replacing what was once a gender/class/race bias in the distribution of rights with a cultural one. Whilst the notion of universal human rights suggests that every individual has inalienable access to them, in fact the claim to impartiality conceals a Western capitalist bias. When the progressive Western liberal believes her/himself to be defending the other by endowing her/him with certain inalienable rights, the other who is thereby defended is never in fact the true other, but a Western construction of the other : the « de-caffenated other » as Zizek puts it. The other to whom one is supposedly displaying tolerance is only ever the other who is precisely most like those who distribute the rights, an other minus the otherness. That other is not the fundamentalist, intolerant other, or, in other words, not the other who is capable of asserting and appropriating her/his own rights, but only the helpless victim who is devoid of all agency to the extent that s/he waits passively for the heroic westerner to come and endow her with rights, and then defend them on her/his behalf.

Although Zizek’s lecture raised as many questions as it answered (as was surely his intention), it certainly presented a challenge to the kind of lazy, p.c. liberalism one finds in the main-stream media. It is not enough, Zizek says, to make human rights universal and feel the job is done. Though he was clear to point out that he is not against the idea of human rights per se, he sees it as a site of struggle. Rather than considering all the ethical problems of international problems resolved by the universalisation of human rights, Zizek suggests that this only heralds the start of a whole new set of problems and an altogether more insidious form of oppression. We must not sacrifice complexity in order to quiet our liberal, humanitarian conscience. We shall have to do better than that.

Suzie

Publish your news
-->

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Oxford Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech