Talks at Google
4 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2010–2022
1:17:12 · 791K views · Oct 3, 2008
Slavoj Zizek discusses his book Violence in an Authors@Google talk in New York. He covers ideology, including his idea of the unknown knowns.
Recommended as a relatively clear introduction to Zizek's thinking, especially his account of ideology and unknown knowns.
5 comments from Hacker News
I used to watch some of Zizek's videos, though I hadn't seen the one that was linked until now. I'm no student of philosophy though, just a casual viewer so I don't think I can help much in answering your questions. I will say that he is definitely using uncommon definitions of the words "love" and "evil" as far as I can tell. As to who is this guy, I personally would recommend this video if you are trying to get a better sense of his thoughts as it is relatively clear and covers a large number of stances (the analogy at 7:15 is quite amusing): this video On a side note, I am pleased though that you find him entertaining to watch regardless. I find it disappointing when people take speakers like Zizek too seriously; I think even if 80% of what is said is not insightful/intelligible, the occasional grain of truth can be very much worth it.
This concept has been developed very well, imo, by people like Zizek. I honestly don't care much for his political follies or his real academic research- when it comes to discussing ideology, he's doing the best outreach bar none. Here's him giving a talk at Google: this video A friend of mine also parsed it well like this: > "I think there is something to be said to the effect that laziness is actually where we can find a lot of insight - as it's when we're lazy, when we cannot be bothered, or at least where we think it is not essential to focus our attention for the sake of the work at least, that we tend to defer to the implicit shared attitudes or beliefs about the world to do the lifting for us."
This. The philosopher Zizek has a great bit about the "unknown knowns" (the quadrant Rumsfeld wasn't smart enough to articulate). Meaning, of course, the unperceived fabric of Western ideology -- that works far better than explicit propaganda ever could. Here is exactly when he starts talking about it in his Authors@Google talk: this video
Watch this video of Žižek talking about the "unknown knowns" of ideology to understand why this is such a big deal: this video
"in order to say 'don't be evil' you must already dwell in that space of evil" -Slavoj Zizek at Google: this video