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Another article /Far right on rise in Europe: Slavoj Zizek, Slovenian philosopher, reminds a saying, « Behind every fascism, there is a failed revolution. »
Far Right and Anti-Immigrant Politicians on the Rise in Europe: We turn now to Europe, where many are concerned about the growing acceptability of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies. Far from just being expressed by the extreme right wing, the anti-immigrant trend has entered the mainstream. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a gathering of young members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union party this weekend that multiculturalism has utterly failed. A recent German poll found 13 percent of Germans would welcome the arrival of a new « Führer, » and more than a third of Germans feel the country is « overrun by foreigners. » We speak to the world-renowned philosopher Slavoj Zizek, who has the been called « the Elvis of cultural theory. »
Interview with Slavoj Zizek, Slovenian philosopher, psychoanalyst and cultural theorist. He is author of dozens of books, his latest one from Verso Books is called Living in the End Times.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Europe, where many are concerned about the growing acceptability of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies. Far from just being expressed by the extreme right, the anti-immigrant trend has entered the mainstream. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a gathering of young members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union party this weekend that multiculturalism has utterly failed.
-(CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL: [translated] In Frankfurt, on the main, two out of three children under the age of five have an immigrant background. We are a country which, at the beginning of the 1960s, actually brought guest workers to Germany. Now they live with us, and we lied to ourselves for a while, saying that they won’t stay and that they will disappear one day. That’s not the reality. This multicultural approach, saying that we simply live side by side and are happy about each other, this approach has failed, utterly failed).
AMY GOODMAN: The German chancellor later added immigrants were welcome in Germany and that Islam is a part of the nation’s modern-day culture. Her comments are seen as part of a rightward shift and come just days after a study by the center-left Friedrich Ebert Foundation found that more than 30 percent of people believe Germany is, quote, « overrun by foreigners. » A similar number believed immigrants had come to Germany for its social benefits and, quote, « should be sent home when jobs are scarce. » Earlier this year, a book by an influential bank executive in Germany created an uproar, because it blamed the decline of German nationhood on the alleged failure of many immigrants to integrate.
As the debates rage on in Europe, I’m joined here in New York by a controversial public intellectual who’s been called « the Elvis of cultural theory. » Yes, I’m talking about the Slovenian philosopher and critic Slavoj Žižek. He’s the author of over thirty books. His latest, from Verso, is just out, and it’s called Living in the End Times. In a recent piece for The Guardian newspaper of London, he argues that « across Europe, the politics of the far right is infecting [everyone] with the need for a ‘reasonable’ anti-immigration policy. »
Well, Slavoj Žižek, welcome to Democracy Now!
SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK: Glad to be here. Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Put everything together for us, from Angela Merkel talking about the end of multiculturalism—even what that means, « multiculturalism »—to the mass protests that are taking place in France and beyond.
SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK: I really think that usually we Europeans are a little bit arrogant, like we are the model of tolerance and so on. Now something horrible has happened, and what is really worrying is that it’s not only the countries, the parts of Europe, that we usually associate with intolerance, like southeastern Europe, Romania, Hungary and so on, it’s even the very models of tolerance—Netherlands, Norway and so on.
What really worries me is—I will say something very simple, almost commonsensical, that, you know, for me, I’m here always for censorship. Through democracy, tolerance, in an authentic sense, means that you simply cannot say certain things publicly. You are considered—you know, like if you say publicly an anti-Semitic, sexist joke, it’s unacceptable. Things which were unacceptable ten, fifteen years ago are now acceptable. And what I really am worried about is how the far right, what was twenty years ago the domain of the far right, is setting—even if they are a minority, they are setting the general agenda.
The typical rhetorical trick here is in two moves. First, you of course condemn the far right— »no place in our developed democracy. » But then you add, « But they are addressing the real worries of the people, » and so on and so on. So, in precisely—that’s the dirty sophistic trick—in order to prevent hatred outbursts, we have to control the situation. You know what is significant about Sarrazin, the banker, that you mentioned? You know that he was politically close to social democracy.
AMY GOODMAN: Which means? … (full long text).