Speech at Occupy Wall StreetSlavoj Žižek Occupy

Slavoj Žižek speaks at Occupy Wall Street : Transcript They are saying we are all losers , but the true losers are down there on Wall Street . They were bailed out by billions of our money . We are called socialists , but here there is always socialism for the rich . They say we don’t respect private property , but in the 2008 financial crash – down more hard – earned private property was destroyed than if all of us here were to be destroying it night and day for weeks . They tell you we are dreamers . The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are . We are not dreamers . We are the awakening from a dream that is turning into a nightmare . We are not destroying anything . We are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself . We all know the classic scene from cartoons . The cat reaches a precipice but it goes on walking , ignoring the fact that there is nothing beneath this ground . Only when it looks down and notices it , it falls down . This is what we are doing here . W e are telling the guys there on Wall Street , ‘ Hey , look down ! ‘ In mid – April 2011 , the Chinese government prohibited on TV , films , and novels all stories that contain alternate reality or time travel . This is a good sign for China . These people still dream about alternatives , so you have to prohibit this dreaming . Here , we don’t need a prohibition because the ruling system has even oppressed our capacity to dream . Look at the movies that we see all the time . It’s easy to imagine the end of the world . An asteroid destroying all life and so on . But you cannot imagine the end of capitalism . So what are we doing here ? Let me tell you a wonderful , old joke from Communist times . A guy was sent from East Germany to work in Siberia . He knew his mail would be read by censors , so he told his friends : “ Let’s establish a code . If a letter you get from me is written in blue ink , it is true what I say . If it is written in red ink , it is false . ” After a month , his friends get the first letter . Everything is in blue . It says , this letter : “ Everything is wonderful here . Stores are full of good food . Movie theatres show good films from the west . Apartments are large and luxurious . The only thing you cannot buy is red ink . ” This is how we live . We have all the freedoms we want . But what we are missing is red ink : the language to articulate our non – freedom . The way we are taught to speak about freedom — war on terror and so on — falsifies freedom . And this is what you are doing here . You are giving all of us red ink .
There is a danger . Don’t fall in love with yourselves . We have a nice time here . But remember , carnivals come cheap . What matters is the day after , when we will have to return to normal lives . Will there be any changes then ? I don’t want you to remember these days , you know , like “ Oh . we were young and it was beautiful . ” Remember that our basic message is “ We are allowed to think about alternatives . ” If the rule is broken , we do not live in the best possible world . But there is a long road ahead . There are truly difficult questions that confront us . We know what we do not want . But what do we want ? What social organization can replace capitalism ? What type of new leaders do we want ? Remember . The problem is not corruption or greed . The problem is the system . It forces you to be corrupt . Beware not only of the enemies , but also of false friends who are already working to dilute this process . In the same way you get coffee without caffeine , beer without alcohol , ice cream without fat , they will try to make this into a harmless , moral protest . A decaffienated process . But the reason we are here is that we have had enough of a world where , to recycle Coke cans , to give a couple of dollars for charity , or to buy a Starbucks cappuccino where 1 % goes to third world starving children is enough to make us feel good . After outsourcing work and torture , after marriage agencies are now outsourcing our love life , we can see that for a long time , we allow our political engagement also to be outsourced . We want it back . We are not Communists if Communism means a system which collapsed in 1990 . Remember that today those Communists are the most efficient , ruthless Capitalists . In China today , we have Capitalism which is even more dynamic than your American Capitalism , but doesn’t need democracy . Which means when you criticize Capitalism , don’t allow yourself to be blackmailed that you are against democracy . The marriage between democracy and Capitalism is over . The change is possible . What do we perceive today as possible ? Just follow the media . On the one hand , in technology and sexuality , everything seems to be possible . You can travel to the moon , you can become immortal by biogenetics , you can have sex with animals or whatever , but look at the field of society and economy . There , almost everything is considered impossible . You want to raise taxes by little bit for the rich . They tell y ou it’s impossible . We lose competitivity . You want more money for health care , they tell you , ‘ Impossible , this means totalitarian state . ‘ There’s something wrong in the world , where you are promised to be immortal but cannot spend a little bit more for healthcare . Maybe we need to set our priorities straight here . We don’t want higher standard of living . We want a better standard of living . The only sense in which we are Communists is that we care for the commons . The
commons of nature . The commons of privatized by intellectual property . The commons of biogenetics . For this , and only for this , we should fight . Communism failed absolutely , but the problems of the commons are here . They are telling you we are not American here . But the conservatives fundamentalists who claim they really are American have to be reminded of something : What is Christianity ? It’s the holy spirit . What is the holy spirit ? It’s an egalitarian community of believers who are linked by love for each other , and who only have their own freedom and responsibility to do it . In this sense , the holy spirit is here now . And down there on Wall Street , there are pagans who are worshipping blasphemous idols . So all we need is patience . The only thing I’m afraid of is that we will someday just go home and then we will meet once a year , drinking beer , and nostaligically remembering “ What a nice time we had here . ” Promise yourselves that this will not be the case . We know that people often desire something but do not really want it . Don’t be afraid to really want what you desire . Thank you very much .