Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses a persistent sense of dissatisfaction with any dualistic framing of crisis which, as such, harks back, or forward, to its own positive overcoming. It begins with Slavoj Zizek’s essay "The Undoing of an Event." which draws on an array of cultural sources and popular themes, as well as on Hegel's notion of the "spiritual kingdom of animals," to propose a critique of capitalist "pseudo-evental interpellation." Zizek argues that one of the most effective ways in which the muted ideology of capitalism works is by surreptitiously transforming the public space into a private one thereby neutralizing the possibility that real events might take place. The book also discusses Herbert Marcuse's analysis of the libidinal compulsion that keeps consumers aggressively attached to the capitalist economy.