Berlusconi is a significant figure and Italy an experimental laboratory where our future is being worked out. If our political choice is between permissive-liberal technocratism and fundamentalist poplarism, Berlusconi's great achievement has been to reconcile the two. The wager behind Berlusconi's vulgarities is that the people will identify with him as embodying the mythic image of the average Italian: I am one of you, a little bit corrupt, in trouble with the law, in trouble with my wife because I'm attracted to other women. Yet we shouldn't be fooled: behind the clownish mask there is a state power that functions with ruthless efficiency.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Zizek on Berlusconi
Berlusconi is a significant figure and Italy an experimental laboratory where our future is being worked out. If our political choice is between permissive-liberal technocratism and fundamentalist poplarism, Berlusconi's great achievement has been to reconcile the two. The wager behind Berlusconi's vulgarities is that the people will identify with him as embodying the mythic image of the average Italian: I am one of you, a little bit corrupt, in trouble with the law, in trouble with my wife because I'm attracted to other women. Yet we shouldn't be fooled: behind the clownish mask there is a state power that functions with ruthless efficiency.
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