Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek’s article featured “In These Times” expresses support for the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) in the elections on Sunday.
“What we mostly get is the choice between a center-right and a center-left party whose program is almost indistinguishable,” he writes, adding that the Greek elections give voters a real choice while pointing to the choice between “the establishment on one side; SYRIZA, the radical leftist coalition on the other.”
He said that the moment of choice has thrown the establishment into chaos as they paint “the image of social chaos, poverty and violence if the wrong choice wins.”
He said that the establishment is trying to scare Greek voters with the message, “You think you are suffering now? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet – wait for the SYRIZA victory and you will long for the bliss of the last years!”
There are two alternatives, according to the philosopher. SYRIZA will either step out or be thrown out or a “messy compromise” will be reached. Another fear is that SYRIZA may accept a compromise that could disappoint voters so that discontent continues, only this time moderated by SYRIZA.
He suggests that those in power “do not really want the debt fully repaid.” Instead, they prefer to make the indebted countries feel guilt and accusing them of not feeling enough guilt. “Their pressure fits perfectly what psychoanalysis calls superego,” he says. “The paradox of the superego is that, as Freud saw it clearly, the more we obey its demands, the more we feel guilty,” he writes. The goal is to keep the debtor in permanent dependency and subordination.
Everyone knows that Greece will never repay its debt, says Zizek. He points to one solution – to write the debt off. “It can be done at a quite tolerable economic cost, just with political will,” he says.
