First as Tragedy, Then as Farce

Slavoj Zizek who was interuppted by the police while giving a lecture at Cooper Union, New York. Photo Olivier Zahm

The fact tha Deleuze, just before he died, was in the middle of writing a book on Marx, is indicative of a wider trend. In the Christian past, it was common for people who had led dissolute lives to return to the safe haven of the church in old age, so they might die reconciled with God. Something similar is happening today with the many anti-communist Leftists. In their final years, they return to communism as if, after their life of depraved betrayal, they want to die reconciled with the communist Idea. As with the old Christians, these late conversions carry the same basic message: that we have spent our lives rebelling vainly against what, deep within us, we knew all the time to be the truth. So, when even a great anti-communist like Kravchenko can in a certain sense return to his faith, ou message today should be: do not be afraid, join us, come back! You’ve had your anti-communist fun, and you are pardoned for it — time to get serious once again! — The last chapter of Slavoj Zizek’s newest book

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