philosopher Slavoj Zizek on his new book Heaven In Disorder

(12/13/21) As we being to emerge from the pandemic, other crises move center stage—outrageous inequality, climate disaster, desperate refugees, mounting tensions of a new cold war. The abiding motif of our time appears to be relentless chaos. Acknowledging the possibilities for new beginnings at moments of catastrophe, Mao Zedong famously proclaimed, “there is great disorder under heaven; the situation is excellent.” As Slovenian philosopher and international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities of the University of London Slavoj Žižek examines in his new book Heaven In Disorder, the modern relevance of Mao’s observation depends on whether today’s catastrophes can be a catalyst for progress or have passed over into something terrible and irretrievable. Join us for a look at what the fracturing of the Left, the empty promises of liberal democracy and the tepid compromises offered by the powerful mean for the rest of us in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.