Causes for concern: Zizek's politics of loving terror

Open Access

Abstract

An abiding concern in Žižek's writings is with the social miracle and with staking out the space(s) for the miraculous within the contemporary world. But are social miracles possible in today's world? Can they even be imagined? If so, what would such miracles consist of and how might we connect with them in terms of developing a positive transfigurative politics? This paper represents an engagement with the central arguments that Žižek develops in his recent work, In Defense of Lost Causes. In particular it investigates the highly controversial claim that democracy itself has become an enemy of the people.