Here is insightful discussion of Europe’s crisis from Žižek’s The Year of Dreaming Dangerously:
Although the ongoing crisis of the European Union appears as a crisis of the economy and the financial system, it is in its fundamental dimension an ideologico-political crisis: the failure of referenda on the EU constitutional treaty a couple of years ago gave a clear signal that voters perceived the EU as a technocratic economic union, lacking any vision capable of mobilizing people. Until the recent protests, the only ideology capable of rousing people was that premised on the need to “defend Europe” against immigration.
It is very refreshing to see a Marxist who can abandon the need to see economic considerations as the central motivation for everybody’s every action. I agree with the philosopher in general, but the anti-immigrant feelings in Europe are not the only ideology uniting Europeans. Rather, they are part of a shared ultra-conservative turn that has tints of fascism to it. Only today reader Tim shared a link to an article about UK’s war on sexual liberation and individual freedom. Similar campaigns have been raging in formerly enlightened Scandinavian countries.
Žižek hopes that Europe can turn away from this particular unifying vision and start moving in the direction of what used to be Europe’s great positive mission in the world: spreading the ideas of Enlightenment, liberation, intelligence, and freedom. And I couldn’t agree more with him.
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