Week 9_3/19/16_Taking Care of Our World

       When watching Zizek’s videos, I had no idea what was going on. His accent was very strong, and the way he presented his ideas were very confusing. Not to mention that all of his nervous ticks (sweating, wiping his nose, and pulling his sweaty shirt off him) were very distracting as well. But in the first video, I really liked the point Zizek was trying to make. In the first video, Zizek stated that people do not really care about the environment. The overall point is talking about the environment and the importance of ecology. At :30 Zizek states “part of our dialy perception of reality, is that this (the trash) disappears from our world forever. I would have to agree with Zizek, because most people do not really like to acknowledge that problems like this exist. The problem is that trash does not disappear (1:02). It is there, and it is not going away.

       Zizek seems very passionate about this subject, and that is what makes the videos easier to watch. He refers to the phrase “temptation of meaning.” Zizek states “one of the elementary ecological mechanisms I claim what I call temptation of meaning. When something horrible happens, our spontaneous tendencies search for a meaning, it must mean something.” (1:38). I agree 100 percent with this claim Zizek makes. It is true that when something bad happens, people always look for an answer as to why it happened, or what did they do to deserve this. No one really accepts what happens, and sometimes it can be hard, but people always look for answers. Tying that into nature, when something bad happens in the environment, people often ask “why did this happen?” And in nature, most incidents are because of humans. Zizek makes a point that “nature is a perfect thing, disturbed by humans.” (3:30). Again, I agree because I know that I am guilty. I do not purposely go out and start wildfires, but there is the occasionally flower picking, or in the woods, breaking off a branch because why not? People get so worried and want to take action about global warming and air pollution, but they do not realize that it them causing these problems to the environment.

       People in the United States waste a lot of materials whether it be food, clothes, etc. I find it funny that Zizek makes a sort of joke towards that. He states “you can have half of a hamburger, some of a cheese sandwich, you can have a muffin, and some juice.” (4:52). I found this humorous because he shows a fridge in the dumpster area and there is still food in it, which shows clearly that people waste food.

       Zizek is very passionate about ecology and the environment, and so should we. This is the world we live in, and if we want it to last, we have to take care of it. Recycling is something that has become popular, but people still do not recycle. Taking action to get more recycling bins and more recycling options is a step forward to help make our world last.