Zizek analyzes the end of the world at the hands of the “four riders of the apocalypse.”
The underlying premise of the book is a simple one: the global capitalistsystem is approaching an apocalyptic zero-point. Its four riders of the
apocalypse are the ecological crisis, the consequences of the biogenetic
revolution, the imbalances within the system itself (problems with
intellectual property, the forthcoming struggle for raw materials, food
and water), and the explosions of social divisions and exclusions.
Society’s first reaction is ideological denial, then explosions of anger at
the injustices of the new world order, attempts at bargaining, and when
this fails, depression and withdrawal set in. Finally, after passing through
this zero-point we no longer perceive it as a threat, but as the chance for
a new beginning. or, as Mao Zedong might have put it, “There is great
disorder under heaven, the situation is excellent.”
Žižek traces out in detail these five stances, makes a plea for a return to
the Marxian critique of political economy, and sniffs out the first signs
of a budding communist culture in all its diverse forms—in utopias that
range from Kafka’s community of mice to the collective of freak outcasts
in the TV series Heroes.
