The Backside of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand

What does it mean to be a revolutionary today?

For the past month, I have watched Zizek's various discussions on this topic and even ventured to read his book, "In Defense of Lost Causes". And yet after this inundation of media and information in the brain, I am still struggling with this question and what the hell Zizek is saying half the time.

I do have to admit there have been brief lapses of epiphany, where I find my self grasping the "dialectic" and his method of materialism. Then I read other blogs and blown away by some pedantic professor take on Zizek (often what they say is cumbersome and after spending a great deal of the last few years studying Marx, Hegel, and Kant, it is boorish, I mean, really, can you see one of these professors inciting a revolution in the first place? Were Che, Stalin, Marx, not that they are model revolutionists more like totalitarians, professors? No revolution was ever taken down by logical ramifications. Gulag, guillotine, yes. Logical, empirical, pragamatic musings, no.

On one of these clear days or lapses, I find myself thinking about Zizek's discussion of Wendy Brown's premise of the democratic paradox, which says that , "a democracy needs a permanent influx of anti-democractic self-questioning in order to remain a living democracy." I think there is a kernal of truth here that Brown and Zizek have unmasked. I am all for the democractic institution and yet, I have thought these thoughts before, that America can only exist as the beacon and the only beacon of democracy. What is this so?

As many philosophers have known, democracy quoted by Zizek (Spinoza and Tocqueville) is inchoate, simply empty without any philosphical underpinning and without any infrastructure. It exists only to dissipate power, I think. Our founding fathers, I believe, understood one thing, that a whole lot of power corrupts and they were witnesses of this. If they can divide power into three different branches they maybe they thought this could be accomplished. But who would've thought that somewhere in the future, banks and greedy executives could concentrate all this power and instead of Adam Smith's invisible hand, you get the invisible slap and mind you, that is the backside of the hand.

Regulatory powers are important in a society. The SEC does have a function to protect it citizens from sinister forces that wear a tie and suit. However, with some empowerment and real change organizations have no effect or influence on society. What we get is not anarchy, but the breakdown of institutions. Zizek knows this and understands this paradox. Minor revolutions or changes are really nothing. They sum to zero in the macro environment. Major ones change all of society. Imagine cultural revolution, Stalin, Marx. What is one to do?

This is one reason there is a need for the understanding of what it is means to be a revolutionary. Gandhi and Martin Luther King promoted it. In today's society, we need to make the message simple and not pedantic. Change is needed, real change -AX