HOW EMPTY IS LITERARY THEORY?

It transpires that I'm a voice of reason compared with Emanuele Saccarelli.

Like many other more conventional bourgeois intellectuals, Žižek fulminates against those who dare contest the official narrative about the war in Ukraine, provides political cover for present and future machinations of actual imperialism, and, inciting the further escalation of the war, moves the needle closer to a global conflict of unfathomable consequences.

Žižek brings to this sordid business not only his distinctive brand of spittling buffoonery, but also the influence he still retains among sections of the pseudo-left, particularly in academia. As sober and dull as the reactionary initial theses of his articles may be, what follows them is extraordinarily fanciful: pseudo-philosophical ramblings involving everyone from John Locke to John Lennon, contorted historical analogies according to which, for example, “leftists” who “show understanding for Russia” are like those who advocated neutrality between Nazi Germany and the Allies prior to 1941, and more.

Count me as not a fan of Žižek, but let us use this excerpt as yet another reminder, dear reader, that the quickest way to disabuse yourself of the notion that contemporary academic cultural studies and related disciplines have anything to do with Marxism is to read some Marxian true believers, particularly those who honor Leon Trotsky.