The old liberal world order is dying and yet new realities are consistently stillborn. We are, as Slavoj Žižek argues in this arresting new book, stuck in time with only the 'morbid phenomena' of Gramsci's chilling words for company: 'the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid phenomena appears'. These phenomena - chaotic economic wars, new forms of Fascism, techno-feudalism, a return to colonial land grabs, planetary destruction and sanctioned genocides - overwhelm us at every turn. What can we do, in such a desperate climate, to stem the flow of despair?We might look to the great triumphs, successes and lessons of the past to guide our path - sifting the annals of history for insights which could disrupt our disastrous trajectory. And yet, this historical knowledge doesn't seem to meaningfully disturb the ruinous repetitions we see throughout human history. What might happen if we look to the future? Could it be that the realm of fortune tellers, star gazers and conspiracists is more predictable, knowable even, than we've allowed ourselves to think? Can we not read the 'morbid phenomena' that abound as concrete predictors of what is to come? From Gaza to Iran, Ukraine to the streets of Minneapolis and Venezuela to Sudan, are we not given such signs - a series of unfathomable and brutal events that, without decisive action now, will remain our future? In Signs from the Future, Žižek's self-coined 'materialist prophesying' provides the tools to read worlds that have not yet been born but make their presence reverberate in the present nonetheless. He asks us to address our lives as 'signs from the future', intimations that warn us but also prompt us - to action, resistance, reparation and the fragile possibility of hope.
Slavoj Žižek is a Hegelian philosopher, a Lacanian psychoanalyst, and a Communist. He is Visiting Professor at the New York University, USA, and Senior Researcher at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Editors’ Note Introduction: The Future, Not the Past, Provides the Key to Our PresentPart One: Morbid Phenomenon1. Materialist Prohesying2. Antichrist3. Daddy Epstein4. Authoritarian without Authority5. The Violent Return of the Human6. Heat Wave7. The United States of Civilizational ErasurePart Two: Artificial Stupidity9. Dead Internet10. Digisexuality11. No Desire, Just Drive 12. The Future Belongs to Those Who Risk it AllPart Three: Between Two Necessities13. Yes, Love is Toxic!14. Censorship on the Run15. Good Ideology16. It’s Dignity, Stupid17. Saint Just18. SolidarityConclusion: Between Two Necessities Notes
The old liberal world order is dying and yet new realities are consistently stillborn. We are, as Slavoj Žižek argues in this arresting new book, stuck in time with only the 'morbid phenomena' of Gramsci's chilling words for company: 'the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid phenomena appears'. These phenomena - chaotic economic wars, new forms of Fascism, techno-feudalism, a return to colonial land grabs, planetary destruction and sanctioned genocides - overwhelm us at every turn. What can we do, in such a desperate climate, to stem the flow of despair?We might look to the great triumphs, successes and lessons of the past to guide our path - sifting the annals of history for insights which could disrupt our disastrous trajectory. And yet, this historical knowledge doesn't seem to meaningfully disturb the ruinous repetitions we see throughout human history. What might happen if we look to the future? Could it be that the realm of fortune tellers, star gazers and conspiracists is more predictable, knowable even, than we've allowed ourselves to think? Can we not read the 'morbid phenomena' that abound as concrete predictors of what is to come? From Gaza to Iran, Ukraine to the streets of Minneapolis and Venezuela to Sudan, are we not given such signs - a series of unfathomable and brutal events that, without decisive action now, will remain our future? In Signs from the Future, Žižek's self-coined 'materialist prophesying' provides the tools to read worlds that have not yet been born but make their presence reverberate in the present nonetheless. He asks us to address our lives as 'signs from the future', intimations that warn us but also prompt us - to action, resistance, reparation and the fragile possibility of hope.
Slavoj Žižek is a Hegelian philosopher, a Lacanian psychoanalyst, and a Communist. He is Visiting Professor at the New York University, USA, and Senior Researcher at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Editors’ Note Introduction: The Future, Not the Past, Provides the Key to Our PresentPart One: Morbid Phenomenon1. Materialist Prohesying2. Antichrist3. Daddy Epstein4. Authoritarian without Authority5. The Violent Return of the Human6. Heat Wave7. The United States of Civilizational ErasurePart Two: Artificial Stupidity9. Dead Internet10. Digisexuality11. No Desire, Just Drive 12. The Future Belongs to Those Who Risk it AllPart Three: Between Two Necessities13. Yes, Love is Toxic!14. Censorship on the Run15. Good Ideology16. It’s Dignity, Stupid17. Saint Just18. SolidarityConclusion: Between Two Necessities Notes