RSA Animate - Choice

[Video - RSA Animate - Choice by RSA on YouTube]

In the recent most recent instalment of the series RSA Animate Slovenian philosopher Renata Salecl discusses her recent research into the anxiety of choice in capitalist society. Following the argument of her new book The Tyranny of Choice Salecl argues that capitalism pacifies and prevents social change through its promotion of an ideology of choice and self-making.


In a lively discussion, which ranges over the reading habits of Yugoslavian communist party members and the sex lives of British journalists, Salecl develops a Lacanian critique of choice which is argued to generate anxiety in three ways:
1. We choose what other people are choosing because we are obsessed with the way the choices we make will be judged and validated by society, the 'big Other'.
2. We try to make an ideal choice which leads to dissatisfaction when what we have chosen does not match the ideal we imagined.
3. Choice always involves a loss which we seek to avoid even when this is not possible.


The result implied by Salecl is a society of subjects either totally overwhelmed by choice, or else busily labouring away, in both their leisure as much as their work, to satisfy and manage the unending and impossibly competing demands of the Other.

In order to accept the analysis as presented here the viewer would have to be quite charitable. As such the presentation is bset taken as an invitation to engage with the psychoanalytic (Lacanian) and Marxist (Althussarian) background that inform it. Without doing so it would be extremely easy to be reductive. For those interested in learning more a video of the complete lecture on which this RSA Animate episode was based can be found here.

RSA Animate - First as Tragedy, Then as Farce

[Video - RSA Animate - First as Tragedy, Then as Farce by RSA on YouTube]

Provocative as ever, in the most recent RSA Animate irrepressible Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek proposes that 'it is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property'. The lesson he seeks to establish from this proposition is that the form of charity associated with corporate and social responsibility schemes such as Starbucks 'coffee ethics' is an essentially hypocritical and cynical gesture. What he terms 'capitalism with a human face' then remains complicit with the exploitation of the poor it is supposed to help, and all the more effective for the redemptive good conscience it leaves the consumer.

Personally I've always felt that there is something inherently wrong with the demonically perverse desire people harbour for a cup of Joe. I hate their smugness as they storm down the street brandishing their disposable cardboard and plastic cups, waving them aloft as if they were Prometheus bearing their torch for the people. FILTH! Basically makes me want to punch them in the face.

Spleen aside, the video above is an abridgement of the full lecture here, delivered on the release of his most recent book First as Tragedy, Then as Farce.

RSA Animate - Crises of Capitalism

[Video - RSA Animate - Crises of Capitalism by RSA on YouTube]

In the video above Marxist geographer and urbanist David Harvey offers an overview of his recent research into the current economic crisis: The Enigma of Capital and the Crisis of Capital. Key for Harvey is the idea that 'capitalism never solves its crisis problems', rather 'it moves them around geographically'.

This excellent video is the most recent in a of a series produced by the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce). Like the videos on TED these are designed to make new ideas and research accessible to the public. In the case of the RSA animations

Those interested in learning more about the Marxist ideas informing Harvey's analysis are encouraged to visit his website which includes a course of 13 video lectures on Marx's Capital: Volume 1.

The animation above is an abridged version of the full RSA hosted lecture which can be found here.