Oppositions

“The true opposition today is not between the First World and the Third Worlds (the American global Empire and its colonies) and the remaining Second World (Europe)….Something (…) seems to be occuring today at the political level: a weird pact between postmodern global capitalism and premodern societies, at the expence of modernity proper. It is easy for the American multiculturalist global Empire to integrate premodernlocal traditions- the foreign body which it cannot actually assimilate is European modernity. Jihad and McWorld are two sides of the same coin; Jihad is already McJihad….

…many liberal warriors are so eager to fight anti-democratic fundamentalism that they will end up flinging away freedom and democracy themselves…Some of them love human dignity so much that they are ready to legalize torture-the ultimate degradation of human dignity- to defend it…

Back in the 1930’s, Max Horkheimer wrote that those who do not want to speak (critically) about liberalism should also keep silent about Fascism. Mutatis mutandis,one should say to those who attack the new imperialism of the USA: those who do not want to engage critically with Europe itself should also keep silent about the USA.”

Iraq: the borrowed kettle by Slavoj Zizek (2004)