I have a lot more posts to put up here and I promise I'll do it soon. But until then, have a look at this excellent dynamic animation of a speech by my second favorite Slovenian, Slavoj Žižek, on the ethics of charitable giving.
An RSA Project
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Žižek on Charity
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2 comments:
Never did take to Žižek all that much. He's always struck me as a bit of a fraud.
You might've seen the following interview with him. If not, read it through. I have to give a little respect to his brazen, looney attitude though: A few paragraphs from the bottom of the interview he shares how much of his latest work is pure bullshit and bluff. Quite a lot, apparently! :)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jun/27/slavoj-zizek-living-end-times
Jesse
Been meaning to comment on this for a while ever since reading it a few weeks ago.
He articulated exactly why I felt uncomfortable about those 'give us your pennies to build a water well in a poor village' type charities.
Those charities are noble I guess, but don't address the underlying factors i.e. why it takes a charity to build a well in a village.
Plus, where does it stop? How many more wells would we need to build?
Charity should definitely being about changing the fundamental structure of things, not superficially addressing issues like getting you to pledge a box your old clothes to some poor family. You might feel better but that family will still be poor at the end of the day..but with more tatty clothes.
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