Žižek in America

Žižek always shares funny little stories about his encounters with the overly PC academics in the US. One of the most memorable anecdotes was about a visit of his to an American university where faculty members sat in a circle and introduced themselves not with their names but with strings of identity labels that scared the poor European philosopher out of his wits. When he heard academics introduce themselves as, “John Smith, cis-gendered heterosexual Irish American male” and “Jenny Smith, cis-gendered lesbian female,” Žižek was terrified that he would also be expected to report to a group of complete strangers on his own sexual practices that, he believed, were none of their business.

In his recent book The Year of Dreaming Dangerously, Žižek tells another hilarious anecdote of this kind. During a recent visit to California, he and a European colleague of his were invited to the house of a local scholar. After dinner, the European politely asked if he could step outside to smoke. The host responded that he couldn’t allow anybody to smoke in close proximity to his house.

The European then suggested that he would walk down the street and smoke there. The Californian got even more scandalized and responded that it would damage his reputation with his neighbors to have smokers emerge from his house.

The European realized that smoking was not on the cards for him in California and resigned himself to a smoke-free evening. After which the Californian took out his marijuana stash and offered everybody a smoke.