Bob Cuspe and Western Entropy
The old comic book characters became more real than reality itself.
According to Brazilian journalist Luis Nassif, many people in the Lula government tries hard to please Faria Lima Avenue (urban symbol of Brazilian financialized capitalism), in São Paulo.
When I reviewed this, I remembered the fall of the CEO of Boeing, an engineering company whose credibility was destroyed because in recent decades it was limited to pleasing greedy shareholders. The Brazilian press fiercely attacks the Lula government because Petrobras refused to please speculators.
In the last Zizek interview I saw on YouTube the philosopher tries to be funny in a miserable world. He pleased the interviewer by supporting the deployment of French troops to Ukraine, something that has the potential to trigger a nuclear war.
In a world where neoliberal capitalism and money-grabbers cannot be displeased, the choices available to the public are equally discouraging: nuclear war, catastrophic climate events, or both together and mixed.
Zizek's case is serious. He is already unable to admit the facts: NATO is not a defensive organization and Russia has historical reasons to reject the proximity of this organization that should have been dismantled when the Warsaw Pact ceased to exist.
In the commented interview Zizek said the truth is out there, but he placed himself within the group of mortal enemies of the majority of Russians who elected Vladimir Putin. Putting philosophy at the service of a nuclear war is a laughable paradox, but it seems the Slovenian philosopher has surrendered to the magic of a system of power that does not accept unpleasant truths. Does he know that he will be ignored by the media if he breaks the main rule of the game?
When I saw the aforementioned interview, I came to the conclusion that Zizek had become a creature of the media, totally addicted to receiving attention from journalists. He is capable of killing philosophy to gain visibility. The problem: in a nuclear war his audience will be exterminated and all means of producing visibility will be destroyed.
And since we are talking about philosophy, it can be said here in a tight summary that the Cynics and Epicureans laughed at the Stoics' predilection for an almost tragic seriousness wrapped in severe morality. But only the Epicureans were followers of the good and comfortable life. Like the Stoics, the Cynics did not care much about economic deprivation and even preferred it to luxury. The pleasure principle was valued by Epicureans and Cynics and rejected by the Stoics.
None of these three philosophical schools gave much importance to politics. Cynics rejected it as a product artificially created by men. Stoics would accept politics only if they could moralize it. Pragmatic, the Epicureans could live well with any type of political regime.
Cynics, Stoics and Epicureans defended their points of view without worrying about whether or not they would displease their interlocutors or the audience. Brazilian journalist Luis Nassif challenges the neoliberal consensus by doing journalism and valuing the economic theory despised by speculators and their “dirty pens” in the press.
Submissive to the rules of the game, Zizek distinguishes himself from the Cynics, Stoics and Epicureans and from the editor of Jornal GGN because he strives to please the neoliberal media. In this, the famous philosopher is more similar to the CEO of Boeing and the members of the Lula government who abandoned the developmentalist political and economic platform so as not to displease Faria Lima Avenue and the Brazilian press.
As a lawyer for more than three decades, I learned that it is not possible to represent interests that are the object of intense resistance without a healthy disposition to be unpleasant. My professional mission is to obtain the best possible result and to do this I have to displease opposing lawyers, prosecutors and even judges. Hardened by my profession, I am forced to consider the neoliberal world an excrescence dominated by hypocrisy that can only accelerate corporate and State entropy.
I confess that I appreciated Zizek's work. Fortunately, I don't need to please him and I can say that from now on I will ignore everything he has to say about global reality. I will be better off in the company of Cynic, Stoic and Epicurean philosophers.
Sometimes you have to show contempt by farting like a Cynic in front of someone who is authoritarian and unpleasant. Other times it is necessary to mock one's personal tragedies by drinking and eating like a good Epicurean. The best way to deal with modern Stoics is to reinforce their beliefs so that they become harder on themselves until they become less happy.
Is the neoliberal world a stage where everyone wants to be applauded and the powerful just want to be pleased? Better to spit on this theater of crazy people. Long live Bob Cuspe*.
*Famous punk character from Brazilian comics, whose main characteristic was to spit on everything and everyone.