Slavoj Žižek on Niels Bohr | Zizek on #ideology and #superstition

#nielsbohr #physics #democracy #slavojzizek #zizek

[tarvoc]

"Unfortunately, democracy works."
- Slavoj Žižek

[brynjaraamfuglestad]

Maybe democracy is the friends we made along the way

[GoogleIsNotYourFriend]

Posting this explanation so people understand his point because the short does a poor job. But I think it is a great observation by Zizek that is worth explaining.

He is talking about ideology at large (as superstition which the short usefully points out)...not just democracy.

No one really believes in the ideologies (even you who claims too in the comments ), they are just memes that have very little connection to the underlining reality, yet somehow (the "unfortunately" because we believe our superstition is what works) with us all running around believing in this superstitious nonsense we have working systems (the bureaucracy, legal and cultural structure) of governance in most places.

i.e Go look at the actual design of "democratic" nations, many successful ones are not entirely alike and many failed ones have similarities. Then look at other countries that aren't considered democratic but are successful or failed...

What matters is the design of the actual workings of that system and the culture in it. And then political ideology can (and does) comes along like claiming it for itself but the "ideologies" aren't really that important or even real. As evidenced by many countries swapping their ideological memes without real change, or preserving the meme while making huge changes to the actual systems.

[JasinSki-nd]

I could give you a thousand reasons why you should believe in it and a thousand reasons why it didn't work for you.

[KrkiAlax]

So called "Niels Bohr" story is not accurate. It is story that Niels Bohr himself told about his neighbor.

[Source: Heisenberg's book "The Part and the Whole" (or Physics and beyond), end of 7th chapter].

[eliasmontanez]

Real democracy is the actual solution to many of our problems

[ViralmediaAi]

We need direct democracy. Our politicians don’t work for our best interests. Abolish elector college, campaign finance reform, National citizens initiatives for democracy.

[selambengp]

Yeah, democracy, that has killed Socrates 😅

[brothermine]

The reason why the world's democracies have struggled is their reliance on traditional primitive voting methods, which count only one majority (or plurality), for electing public offices. That makes it easy to assemble a winning coalition consisting of minorities on different issues. This undermines majority rule, undermines policy stability, and destroys the incentive for politicians to support policies preferred by majorities of the voters. It also empowers extremists by making their votes needed by the rest of their coalition.
The solution is to switch to a voting method that counts all the head-to-head majorities. The importance of counting multiple head-to-head majorities is understood by the world's most widely used, most frequently used voting method: the Robert's Rules procedure for voting on motions. Robert's Rules eliminates N-1 of the N alternatives by counting N-1 head-to-head majorities (analogous to a single-elimination sports tournament).
All of the head-to-head majorities can be counted by letting each voter rank the alternatives in order of preference. (No runoffs or primary elections are needed.) The order of finish should be constructed by processing the head-to-head majorities one at a time, from largest majority to smallest majority, placing each majority's more-preferred candidate (or party) ahead of their less-preferred candidate (or party) in the order of finish.

[NotAPacifist]

Democracy has been working extremely well in socialist countries like China and Cuba and I, for one, believe in it.

[kathyd]

I believe in democracy and fortunately it does work. Creating a more perfect union is an ongoing endeavor.

[Meisterdieb]

I believe in democracy. I don't believe in a lot of politicians...
What does Zizek mean "unfortunately" it works?
What would be the alternatives?

[jonasdamion]

believing it works even if you dont believe in it is self-contradictory. the only belief you can have in “it” is that it works or it doesnt and if you didnt believe it then you wouldnt put it up. so much of zizeks (hes a lacanian whos a sophist) is peddling confusing self-contradictory or just confusing statements as if theyre deep insights into the way things are rather than that language can confuse you when used incorrectly

[SkyDarmos]

Anyone who was involved in the development of quantum mechanics would have known that quantum mechanics does not defy so-called superstitions in the same way Newtonian mechanics did. So one could no longer use physics to claim that magic cannot be real. Quantum mechanics taken serious is a reversal of the age of enlightenment.

[flrnGM]

Nice horseshoe theory, but it didn't work against fascist spirits as it turned out... I guess the horseshoe was moral relativist

[Johnirsss]

he repeats the same things over and over again

[leonardmayer]

I would put cameras and other security measures to monitor all unauthorized guests. This way I will know whether my security has been breached. If it had been breached I would take measures to neutralize the threat.

[mikebar]

It usually works when it's not being manipulated

[joyboricua]

Democratic people's Republic.of Korea... It's a Dynasty...& nasty at it too.

[lukesmhudson]

I’m sure he’s saying some impactful stuff