Q & A + Zizek

Last night I watched Q & A (ABC TV) primarily because Slavoj Zizek, senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia was one of the panelists. I've seen him talk before. He gave a lecture at the University of Melbourne a few years back, which I attended. He's always animated and perhaps controversial in his observations (you masturbate yourself or you use another to masturbate). Last night he was particularly twitchy, rubbing his nose and pulling his tee shirt away from his chest in between wild hand gesticulations and fast paced responses. I tried hard to concentrate on what he was saying, but all this movement only served to distract me. He came across as a person used to giving lectures, being the centre of attention and since there was a moderator and four other panelists including Mona Eltahawy, columnist and an international public speaker on Arab and Muslim issues who insisted on using the word 'fuck' at least three times in order to express herself, Zizek found it difficult not to want to take over the whole discussion. But really, I should be fair, Tony Jones (moderator) handled him quite well and at one stage said 'I'm the one in charge here'. Several times he had to explain to Zizek that questions posed relied on analogy, whereas Zizek had taken the questions quite literally! Zizek has an acute mind and this shows in the manner in which he can take a question and run with it, coming up with stories and associations that lead you into the wild labyrinth of his mind and it's a real trip that you can either go with or resist. He is humorous and thoughtful and a delight to watch. I can understand why some people don't like him. He is authoritative and very mercurial & few people could match his speed of thought. So, what did I learn from watching last night? Well, I was astonished that it was so readily accepted there are so many psychopaths in our society and that high-flying leaders and power-brokers could be labeled as such! The panel appeared to agree that capitalism was dependent upon psychopaths and that their qualities were necessary for good business! It was also good to hear that Julian Assange was not perceived anymore as some kind of hero and fascinating to hear that, apparently Bush invaded Iraq because 'God told him to' (of course this statement by Mona, was refuted by panelist, Greg Sheridan, The Australian newspaper's foreign editor). Q & A was held last night in the Sydney Opera House & part of The Festival of Dangerous Ideas, however,  I don't know that anything really alarming was discussed; in fact a show which includes the words 'masturbation', 'fuck', 'polyamory', 'Qadaffi', 'Assange', 'Arab Spring', 'psychopath', 'fundamental Christianity' and the 'Muslim Brotherhood' all together has got to be perceived as pure entertainment!