Week 9_3/19/16_Ecology as the new Opium of the People.

         


            To Start off, I can say that I agree with Zizek at the beginning of the video called "In Examined Life" (0.42 sec.) where he is trying to argue about our daily perceptions on how some wastes disappear from our lives and we never think about it again, whereas trash on the other hand may leave your home but doesn't disappear. He then connects this rational idea to what is called ecology. Ecology can be defined as the political movement that seeks to protect the environment from pollution. He compares this concept of ecology to ideology which helps form reality ideas according to Zizek (1.32 min). I believe he compares these two concepts together in a way to help promote new ideas on how to help the environment. (1:58 min) Zizek is trying to tell us it about temptations of meaning comparing it to human catastrophes. At about (2:00 to 2:30 mins), He says how it would be better to be in the middle of a catastrophe knowing that you're being punished by God rather than being punished because it just randomly happened and goes back to saying thats where ecology and ideology enter. This is a very confusing point. I feel like he is jumping from one topic to another and trying to compare them with each other. They don't really match together if you take a moment to think about it. How can us as humans who are destroying the world from our actions such as factories, automobiles and wastes be a punishment from God?

         At about (3:09 mins) I totally agree with Zizek when he says the world is a balanced world and is disturbed by human actions. Our actions are what caused Global Warming, the extinction of certain animals and many of the diseases that are in the world today. We aren't aware of the damage we are implementing. "If all the insects were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years all of life on earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the earth, within 50 years all forms of life would flourish."- Jonas Salk. At (4:01 mins) Zizek says nature doesn't exist and it is a series of unimaginable  catastrophes. But we benefit from it. I believe that humans are what make it a catastrophe with our disturbance to nature. At (5:34 min) Zizek begins to say how ecology is beginning to take over Karl Marx's theory of "Religion as Opium of the people". Opium according to the Oxford dictionary can be defined as: A reddish-brown heavy-scented addictive drug prepared from the juice of the opium poppy. Used as a narcotic and in medicine as an analgesic. Pretty much saying with the definition of ecology that it is becoming the drug of our daily lives.

       Karl Marx believed as religion being the opium of people because it was thought that the oppressors use religion as an excuse to keep the people from doing such things. Oppressors could use the religion guilt in a sense to get people to do what they want when they want. (6:02) Zizek is saying the same thing when conservatives set limits on scientists when it comes to new discoveries. Except that they use Ecology instead of Religion as an excuse. I Also agree with Zizek at (7:00) when he says that humans shouldn't forget we are not just theorists or scientists who study nature, yet we shouldn't forget that we ourselves are part of it.

Overall, in this video Zizek had some very interesting views and some very poor views. It is a little confusing at first to understand what he is exactly talking about, but if you watch over it twice you'll interpret what is being said better.



Sources:

Cline Austin, "Religion As Opium Of The People", atheism.about.com, 2016.

Oxford dictionary for definitions of Ecology, ideology and opium.