Editing Slavoj Žižek (section)

===Political theory===
====Ideology====
Žižek's Lacanian-informed theory of [[ideology]] is one of his major contributions to political theory; his first book in English, ''[[The Sublime Object of Ideology]]'', and the documentary ''[[The Pervert's Guide to Ideology]]'', in which he stars, are among the well-known places in which it is discussed. Žižek believes that ideology has been frequently misinterpreted as dualistic and, according to him, this misinterpreted dualism posits that there is a real world of material relations and objects outside of oneself, which is accessible to reason.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=McManus |first=Matt |date=2019-04-30 |title=The Politics of Slavoj Zizek |url=https://areomagazine.com/2019/04/30/the-politics-of-slavoj-zizek/ |access-date=2022-08-23 |website=Areo Magazine |language=en-US |archive-date=23 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823173430/https://areomagazine.com/2019/04/30/the-politics-of-slavoj-zizek/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

For Žižek, as for Marx, ideology is made up of fictions that structure political life; in Lacan's terms, ideology belongs to the [[symbolic order]]. Žižek argues that these fictions are primarily maintained at an unconscious level, rather than a conscious one. Since, according to [[psychoanalytic theory]], the unconscious can determine one's actions directly, bypassing one's conscious awareness (as in [[Freudian slip|parapraxes]]), ideology can be expressed in one's behaviour, regardless of one's conscious beliefs. Hence, Žižek breaks with orthodox Marxist accounts that view ideology purely as a system of mistaken beliefs (see [[False consciousness]]). Drawing on [[Peter Sloterdijk]]'s ''[[Critique of Cynical Reason]]'', Žižek argues that adopting a cynical perspective is not enough to escape ideology, since, according to Žižek, even though postmodern [[Subject (philosophy)|subjects]] are consciously cynical about the political situation, they continue to reinforce it through their behaviour.<ref>{{cite book |last=Žižek |first=Slavoj |year=1989 |title=The Sublime Object of Ideology |place=London & New York |publisher=Verso |chapter=Chapter 1}}</ref>

====Freedom====
Žižek claims that (a sense of) political freedom is sustained by a deeper unfreedom, at least under [[Economic liberalism|liberal capitalism]]. In a 2002 article, Žižek endorses [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]]'s distinction between formal and actual freedom, claiming that liberal society only contains formal freedom, "freedom of choice ''within'' the coordinates of the existing power relations", while prohibiting actual freedom, "the site of an intervention that undermines these very coordinates."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=A Plea For Leninist Intolerance |journal=Critical Inquiry |date=2002 |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=542–544|doi=10.1086/449051 |s2cid=162381806 }}</ref> In an oft-quoted passage from a book published in the same year, he writes that, in these conditions of liberal censorship, "we 'feel free' because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=Welcome to the Desert of the Real! |date=2002 |publisher=Verso |location=London & New York |page=2}}</ref> In a 2019 article, he writes that Marx "made a valuable point with his claim that the market economy combines in a unique way political and personal freedom with social unfreedom: personal freedom (freely selling myself on the market) is the very form of my unfreedom."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=Hegel, Retroactivity & The End of History |journal=Continental Thought & Theory |date=2019 |volume=2 |issue=4 |page=9}}</ref> However, in 2014, he rejects the "pseudo-Marxist" total derision of 'formal freedom', claiming that it is necessary for critique: "When we are formally free, only then we become aware how limited this freedom actually is."<ref name="webchat"/>

Žižek co-signed a petition condemning the "use of disproportionate force and retaliatory brutality by the [[Hong Kong Police Force|Hong Kong Police]] against students in university campuses in Hong Kong" during the [[2019–2020 Hong Kong protests]]. The petition concludes with the statement: "We believe the defence of [[academic freedom]], the [[freedom of speech]], [[freedom of the press]], [[freedom of assembly]] and [[Freedom of association|association]], and the responsibility to protect the safety of our students are universal causes common to all."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hongkongwatch.org/all-posts/2019/11/26/renowned-academics-among-over-3700-supporting-the-petition-by-global-academics-against-police-brutality-in-hong-kong|title=Renowned Academics Among Over 3,700 Supporting The 'Petition by Global Academics Against Police Brutality in Hong Kong'|work=Hong Kong Watch|date=2019-11-26|access-date=31 August 2023|archive-date=31 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230831113759/https://www.hongkongwatch.org/all-posts/2019/11/26/renowned-academics-among-over-3700-supporting-the-petition-by-global-academics-against-police-brutality-in-hong-kong|url-status=live}}</ref>