齐泽克在自由广场上的演讲

Transcripts
Part One

…2008 financial crash more hard earned private property was destroyed than if all of us here were to be destroying it night and day for weeks. They tell you we are dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are. We are not dreamers. We are awakening from a dream which is tuning into a nightmare. We are not destroying anything. We are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself. We all know the classic scenes from cartoons. The cart reaches a precipice. But it goes on walking. Ignoring the fact that there is nothing beneath. Only when it looks down and notices it, it falls down. This is what we are doing here. We are telling the guys there on Wall Street – Hey, look down! (cheering).

In April 2011, the Chinese government prohibited on TV and films and in novels all stories that contain alternate reality or time travel. This is a good sign for China. It means that people still dream about alternatives, so you have to prohibit this dream. Here we don’t think of prohibition. Because the ruling system has even suppressed our capacity to dream. Look at the movies that we see all the time. It’s easy to imagine the end of the world. An asteroid destroying all life and so on. But you cannot imagine the end of capitalism. So what are we doing here? Let me tell you a wonderful old joke from communist times.

A guy was sent from East Germany to work in Siberia. He knew his mail would be read by censors. So he told his friends: Let’s establish a code. If the letter you get from me is written in blue ink ,it is true what I said. If it is written in red ink, it is false. After a month his friends get a first letter. Everything is in blue. It says, this letter: everything is wonderful here. Stores are full of good food. Movie theaters show good films from the West. Apartments are large and luxurious. The only thing you cannot buy is red ink.

This is how we live. We have all the freedoms we want. But what we are missing is red ink. The language to articulate our non-freedom. The way we are taught to speak about freedom war and terrorism and so on falsifies freedom. And this is what you are doing here: You are giving all of us red ink.

There is a danger. Don’t fall in love with yourselves. We have a nice time here. But remember: carnivals come cheap. What matters is the day after. When we will have to return to normal life. Will there be any changes then. I don’t want you to remember these days, you know, like - oh, we were young, it was beautiful. Remember that our basic message is: We are allowed to think about alternatives. The rule is broken. We do not live in the best possible world. But there is a long road ahead. There are truly difficult questions that confront us. We know what we do not want. But what do we want? What social organization can replace capitalism? What type of new leaders do we want?

Remember: the problem is not corruption or greed. The problem is the system that pushes you to give up. Beware not only of the enemies. But also of false friends who are already working to dilute this process. In the same way you get coffee without caffeine, beer without alcohol, ice cream without fat. They will try to make this into a harmless moral protest. They think (??? unintelligible). But the reason we are here is that we have enough of the world where to recycle coke cans…
Part Two

….Starbucks cappuccino. Where 1% goes to the world’s starving children. It is enough to make us feel good. After outsourcing work and torture. After the marriage agencies are now outsourcing even our love life, daily.

Mic check

We can see that for a long time we allowed our political engagement also to be outsourced. We want it back. We are not communists. If communism means the system which collapsed in 1990, remember that today those communists are the most efficient ruthless capitalists. In China today we have capitalism which is even more dynamic than your American capitalism but doesn’t need democracy. Which means when you criticize capitalism, don’t allow yourselves to be blackmailed that you are against democracy. The marriage between democracy and capitalism is over.

The change is possible. So, what do we consider today possible? Just follow the media. On the one hand in technology and sexuality everything seems to be possible. You can travel to the moon. You can become immortal by biogenetics. You can have sex with animals or whatever. But look at the fields of society and economy. There almost everything is considered impossible. You want to raise taxes a little bit for the rich, they tell you it’s impossible, we lose competitivitiy. You want more money for healthcare: they tell you impossible, this means a totalitarian state. There is something wrong in the world where you are promised to be immortal but cannot spend a little bit more for health care. Maybe that ??? set our priorities straight here. We don’t want higher standards of living. We want better standards of living. The only sense in which we are communists is that we care for the commons. The commons of nature. The commons of what is privatized by intellectual property. The commons of biogenetics. For this and only for this we should fight.

Communism failed absolutely. But the problems of the commons are here. They are telling you we are not Americans here. But the conservative fundamentalists who claim they are really American have to be reminded of something. What is Christianity? It’s the Holy Spirit. What’s the Holy Spirit? It’s an egalitarian community of believers who are linked by love for each other. And who only have their own freedom and responsibility to do it. In this sense the Holy Spirit is here now. And down there on Wall Street there are pagans who are worshipping blasphemous idols. So all we need is patience. The only thing I’m afraid of is that we will someday just go home and then we will meet once a year, drinking beer, and nostalgically remembering what a nice time we had here. Promise ourselves that this will not be the case.

(大意)
我们全是失败者，其实真正的失败者就在华尔街里，他们要靠我们付出数以十亿计的金钱救济才能脱困；有人说我们是社会主义者，但其实这里早就存在社会主义——是专为富人而设的社会主义；他们又说我们不尊重私有产权，但在2008年的金融海啸里，许多人辛勤工作买来的私有产业都被摧毁了，数量之巨，就算我们这里所有人日以继夜去动手破坏，几个星期也破坏不完；他们又告诉大家，我们这群人正在作梦，其实真正在作梦的，是那些以为现有的一切将会永远持续下去的人。我们不是在作梦，我们是在唤醒一个正在变成噩梦的梦想；我们没有破坏任何东西，我们只是在目击这个制度如何自我毁灭。大家都熟悉这段卡通片情节：那只卡通猫走到悬崖边上，还是继续跑出去，没理会下面已经空空如也，只有当它向下看时，方才发现这个事实，然后就掉下去了。我们在这里正是要做这样的事情：我们要告诉华尔街那些家伙：“喂！看看下面！”
　　2011年4月，中国政府禁止了电视、电影和小说里一切含有“另类现实”或描写时间旅行的故事情节，这对中国来说是个好的征兆：人们仍然梦想另有出路，因此政府才要出手禁制。在这里我们就连禁制都不必要，因为统治体制连我们梦想的能力也早就压制下去了。看看我们常看的电影，我们很容易就想像出世界末日——比如一颗陨石掉下来杀死所有生命之类——可是我们却很难想像资本主义的末日。那么我们正在这里干甚么？让我告诉大家共产时代一个精采的老笑话：有个家伙从东德给派到西伯利亚工作，他知道自己的邮件都会被人监看，因此他告诉朋友：“我们定一个暗号，假如我的信件用蓝墨水写，里面说的都是真话；如果我用红墨水，说的都是假话。”一个月后他的朋友收到他第一封信：“这儿一切都美好，商店里塞满了好吃的食品，戏院播放著来自西方的好电影，住宅又大又豪华。唯一买不到的东西就是红墨水。”这就是我们的生活模式。我们拥有一切想要的自由，但却缺少了红墨水：能够清楚表达我们“非自由”的语言。我们被教会的那种谈论自由的方式，例如“反恐战争”之类词语，已经篡改了自由的意义。而你们正在给大家送上红色的墨水。
　　这次运动有一个危机：请大家不要自我感觉良好。不错，我们在这里很开心，但请你们记著：搞一个嘉年华会很容易，真正重要的是在我们回到正常生活后那天。到时候是否有任何事情改变了？我不希望大家回忆这段日子的方式，就是“噢，我们那时候多年轻，那次运动真美好……”之类。要牢记著我们最基本的信息：“我们可以思考其他的生活方式。”一个禁忌被打破了。我们并不是活在可能里最好的世界。但在我们面前还有一条漫长的道路，要面对一些真正困难的问题。我们知道自己不想要甚么，可是我们想要甚么？怎么样的社会组织能够取代资本主义？我们希望拥有甚么类型的新领袖？记著：问题不在于腐败和贪婪；问题在于一个把人推向腐败的制度。不只要提防你的敌人，也要防范那些虚假的盟友，他们已经开始把这个运动淡化，就像制造没有咖啡因的咖啡、没有酒精的啤酒、没有脂肪的冰淇淋一样。他们试图把这次运动变成一次无害的道德抗议，一次“脱咖啡因”的抗议。然而我们来到这里的原因，正正就是受够了这个伪善的世界：循环再造一堆可乐罐以捐两块钱做善事，又或者去星巴克买杯卡布奇诺咖啡，把一个巴仙捐赠给第三世界的饥饿儿童，就足以感觉良好。当我们把工作和酷刑都外判了，甚至连爱情生活都外判给婚姻介绍所之后……我们可以看见，在一段很长的日子里，我们容许自己的政治参与也“外判”了，假别人之手进行。现在我们要把这个权力取回来。         
　　我们不是共产主义者——假如所指的是在1990年已经崩溃的那个共产主义的话。别忘记今天的那些所谓共产主义者，只是一群最有效率、最不择手段的资本主义者。今日存在于中国的是一个比美国的资本主义动力更强，却又不需要民主的资本主义制度。因此当你批评资本主义时，不要让别人扣上“反民主”的帽子。民主与资本主义之间的联姻已经终结了。改变是可能的事情。
　　今天的人们相信有甚么是可能做到的？看看媒体的报导。这边厢，由科技到性欲，好像甚么都有可能。你能够去月球旅行，用生物基因科技达到长春不老，可以跟动物做爱，诸如此类。但另一边厢，一碰上社会经济的范畴，几乎一切都被视为不可能。你想加一点富裕阶层的赋税吗？他们会告诉你不可能，我们将因此失去竞争力；要把多些钱投入公共医疗保障吗？他们会说：“不可能！这做法等于极权国家。”当人们得到允诺将要长春不老的同时，却不允许花多一点钱在医疗保障上——这样的世界不是很有问题吗？也许我们应该把事情的优先次序搞明白：我们不是要求“更高”的生活水准；我们要的是“更好”的生活水准！要说我们跟共产主义者有甚么唯一的相似之处，那就是我们关心普罗群众：大自然里的群众；活在知识产权私有化底下的群众；在生物基因科技下的群众。我们应该为此而战斗，也只为此而战斗。共产主义彻底失败了，可是群众面对的问题仍在。那些人告诉你，我们聚集在这儿的都不是真正的美国人。但我们要提醒那些自称“真正”美国人的保守原教旨主义人士：甚么是基督精神？是圣灵。甚么是圣灵？是一群信仰者组成的一个平均主义团体，他们以互爱的精神彼此连系，并且只凭自由意志与义务责任心去实践这个理想。这么看，圣灵现在其实就在这里，而在华尔街那头的银行家，都是一群亵渎偶像的崇拜者。因此我们需要的只是耐心。
　　我唯一害怕的，是我们有一天就此回家，然后每年在这儿聚聚头，喝喝啤酒，怀缅我们在这里曾经拥有过的美好时光。我们要向自己承诺不要变成那样。大家都知道，人们总是渴望一些东西，却又不是真的想争取它。不要害怕争取你渴望的东西。多谢各位！

Transcripts
Part One

…2008 financial crash more hard earned private property was destroyed than if all of us here were to be destroying it night and day for weeks. They tell you we are dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are. We are not dreamers. We are awakening from a dream which is tuning into a nightmare. We are not destroying anything. We are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself. We all know the classic scenes from cartoons. The cart reaches a precipice. But it goes on walking. Ignoring the fact that there is nothing beneath. Only when it looks down and notices it, it falls down. This is what we are doing here. We are telling the guys there on Wall Street – Hey, look down! (cheering).

In April 2011, the Chinese government prohibited on TV and films and in novels all stories that contain alternate reality or time travel. This is a good sign for China. It means that people still dream about alternatives, so you have to prohibit this dream. Here we don’t think of prohibition. Because the ruling system has even suppressed our capacity to dream. Look at the movies that we see all the time. It’s easy to imagine the end of the world. An asteroid destroying all life and so on. But you cannot imagine the end of capitalism. So what are we doing here? Let me tell you a wonderful old joke from communist times.

A guy was sent from East Germany to work in Siberia. He knew his mail would be read by censors. So he told his friends: Let’s establish a code. If the letter you get from me is written in blue ink ,it is true what I said. If it is written in red ink, it is false. After a month his friends get a first letter. Everything is in blue. It says, this letter: everything is wonderful here. Stores are full of good food. Movie theaters show good films from the West. Apartments are large and luxurious. The only thing you cannot buy is red ink.

This is how we live. We have all the freedoms we want. But what we are missing is red ink. The language to articulate our non-freedom. The way we are taught to speak about freedom war and terrorism and so on falsifies freedom. And this is what you are doing here: You are giving all of us red ink.

There is a danger. Don’t fall in love with yourselves. We have a nice time here. But remember: carnivals come cheap. What matters is the day after. When we will have to return to normal life. Will there be any changes then. I don’t want you to remember these days, you know, like - oh, we were young, it was beautiful. Remember that our basic message is: We are allowed to think about alternatives. The rule is broken. We do not live in the best possible world. But there is a long road ahead. There are truly difficult questions that confront us. We know what we do not want. But what do we want? What social organization can replace capitalism? What type of new leaders do we want?

Remember: the problem is not corruption or greed. The problem is the system that pushes you to give up. Beware not only of the enemies. But also of false friends who are already working to dilute this process. In the same way you get coffee without caffeine, beer without alcohol, ice cream without fat. They will try to make this into a harmless moral protest. They think (??? unintelligible). But the reason we are here is that we have enough of the world where to recycle coke cans…
Part Two

….Starbucks cappuccino. Where 1% goes to the world’s starving children. It is enough to make us feel good. After outsourcing work and torture. After the marriage agencies are now outsourcing even our love life, daily.

Mic check

We can see that for a long time we allowed our political engagement also to be outsourced. We want it back. We are not communists. If communism means the system which collapsed in 1990, remember that today those communists are the most efficient ruthless capitalists. In China today we have capitalism which is even more dynamic than your American capitalism but doesn’t need democracy. Which means when you criticize capitalism, don’t allow yourselves to be blackmailed that you are against democracy. The marriage between democracy and capitalism is over.

The change is possible. So, what do we consider today possible? Just follow the media. On the one hand in technology and sexuality everything seems to be possible. You can travel to the moon. You can become immortal by biogenetics. You can have sex with animals or whatever. But look at the fields of society and economy. There almost everything is considered impossible. You want to raise taxes a little bit for the rich, they tell you it’s impossible, we lose competitivitiy. You want more money for healthcare: they tell you impossible, this means a totalitarian state. There is something wrong in the world where you are promised to be immortal but cannot spend a little bit more for health care. Maybe that ??? set our priorities straight here. We don’t want higher standards of living. We want better standards of living. The only sense in which we are communists is that we care for the commons. The commons of nature. The commons of what is privatized by intellectual property. The commons of biogenetics. For this and only for this we should fight.

Communism failed absolutely. But the problems of the commons are here. They are telling you we are not Americans here. But the conservative fundamentalists who claim they are really American have to be reminded of something. What is Christianity? It’s the Holy Spirit. What’s the Holy Spirit? It’s an egalitarian community of believers who are linked by love for each other. And who only have their own freedom and responsibility to do it. In this sense the Holy Spirit is here now. And down there on Wall Street there are pagans who are worshipping blasphemous idols. So all we need is patience. The only thing I’m afraid of is that we will someday just go home and then we will meet once a year, drinking beer, and nostalgically remembering what a nice time we had here. Promise ourselves that this will not be the case.

(大意)
我们全是失败者，其实真正的失败者就在华尔街里，他们要靠我们付出数以十亿计的金钱救济才能脱困；有人说我们是社会主义者，但其实这里早就存在社会主义——是专为富人而设的社会主义；他们又说我们不尊重私有产权，但在2008年的金融海啸里，许多人辛勤工作买来的私有产业都被摧毁了，数量之巨，就算我们这里所有人日以继夜去动手破坏，几个星期也破坏不完；他们又告诉大家，我们这群人正在作梦，其实真正在作梦的，是那些以为现有的一切将会永远持续下去的人。我们不是在作梦，我们是在唤醒一个正在变成噩梦的梦想；我们没有破坏任何东西，我们只是在目击这个制度如何自我毁灭。大家都熟悉这段卡通片情节：那只卡通猫走到悬崖边上，还是继续跑出去，没理会下面已经空空如也，只有当它向下看时，方才发现这个事实，然后就掉下去了。我们在这里正是要做这样的事情：我们要告诉华尔街那些家伙：“喂！看看下面！”
　　2011年4月，中国政府禁止了电视、电影和小说里一切含有“另类现实”或描写时间旅行的故事情节，这对中国来说是个好的征兆：人们仍然梦想另有出路，因此政府才要出手禁制。在这里我们就连禁制都不必要，因为统治体制连我们梦想的能力也早就压制下去了。看看我们常看的电影，我们很容易就想像出世界末日——比如一颗陨石掉下来杀死所有生命之类——可是我们却很难想像资本主义的末日。那么我们正在这里干甚么？让我告诉大家共产时代一个精采的老笑话：有个家伙从东德给派到西伯利亚工作，他知道自己的邮件都会被人监看，因此他告诉朋友：“我们定一个暗号，假如我的信件用蓝墨水写，里面说的都是真话；如果我用红墨水，说的都是假话。”一个月后他的朋友收到他第一封信：“这儿一切都美好，商店里塞满了好吃的食品，戏院播放著来自西方的好电影，住宅又大又豪华。唯一买不到的东西就是红墨水。”这就是我们的生活模式。我们拥有一切想要的自由，但却缺少了红墨水：能够清楚表达我们“非自由”的语言。我们被教会的那种谈论自由的方式，例如“反恐战争”之类词语，已经篡改了自由的意义。而你们正在给大家送上红色的墨水。
　　这次运动有一个危机：请大家不要自我感觉良好。不错，我们在这里很开心，但请你们记著：搞一个嘉年华会很容易，真正重要的是在我们回到正常生活后那天。到时候是否有任何事情改变了？我不希望大家回忆这段日子的方式，就是“噢，我们那时候多年轻，那次运动真美好……”之类。要牢记著我们最基本的信息：“我们可以思考其他的生活方式。”一个禁忌被打破了。我们并不是活在可能里最好的世界。但在我们面前还有一条漫长的道路，要面对一些真正困难的问题。我们知道自己不想要甚么，可是我们想要甚么？怎么样的社会组织能够取代资本主义？我们希望拥有甚么类型的新领袖？记著：问题不在于腐败和贪婪；问题在于一个把人推向腐败的制度。不只要提防你的敌人，也要防范那些虚假的盟友，他们已经开始把这个运动淡化，就像制造没有咖啡因的咖啡、没有酒精的啤酒、没有脂肪的冰淇淋一样。他们试图把这次运动变成一次无害的道德抗议，一次“脱咖啡因”的抗议。然而我们来到这里的原因，正正就是受够了这个伪善的世界：循环再造一堆可乐罐以捐两块钱做善事，又或者去星巴克买杯卡布奇诺咖啡，把一个巴仙捐赠给第三世界的饥饿儿童，就足以感觉良好。当我们把工作和酷刑都外判了，甚至连爱情生活都外判给婚姻介绍所之后……我们可以看见，在一段很长的日子里，我们容许自己的政治参与也“外判”了，假别人之手进行。现在我们要把这个权力取回来。         
　　我们不是共产主义者——假如所指的是在1990年已经崩溃的那个共产主义的话。别忘记今天的那些所谓共产主义者，只是一群最有效率、最不择手段的资本主义者。今日存在于中国的是一个比美国的资本主义动力更强，却又不需要民主的资本主义制度。因此当你批评资本主义时，不要让别人扣上“反民主”的帽子。民主与资本主义之间的联姻已经终结了。改变是可能的事情。
　　今天的人们相信有甚么是可能做到的？看看媒体的报导。这边厢，由科技到性欲，好像甚么都有可能。你能够去月球旅行，用生物基因科技达到长春不老，可以跟动物做爱，诸如此类。但另一边厢，一碰上社会经济的范畴，几乎一切都被视为不可能。你想加一点富裕阶层的赋税吗？他们会告诉你不可能，我们将因此失去竞争力；要把多些钱投入公共医疗保障吗？他们会说：“不可能！这做法等于极权国家。”当人们得到允诺将要长春不老的同时，却不允许花多一点钱在医疗保障上——这样的世界不是很有问题吗？也许我们应该把事情的优先次序搞明白：我们不是要求“更高”的生活水准；我们要的是“更好”的生活水准！要说我们跟共产主义者有甚么唯一的相似之处，那就是我们关心普罗群众：大自然里的群众；活在知识产权私有化底下的群众；在生物基因科技下的群众。我们应该为此而战斗，也只为此而战斗。共产主义彻底失败了，可是群众面对的问题仍在。那些人告诉你，我们聚集在这儿的都不是真正的美国人。但我们要提醒那些自称“真正”美国人的保守原教旨主义人士：甚么是基督精神？是圣灵。甚么是圣灵？是一群信仰者组成的一个平均主义团体，他们以互爱的精神彼此连系，并且只凭自由意志与义务责任心去实践这个理想。这么看，圣灵现在其实就在这里，而在华尔街那头的银行家，都是一群亵渎偶像的崇拜者。因此我们需要的只是耐心。
　　我唯一害怕的，是我们有一天就此回家，然后每年在这儿聚聚头，喝喝啤酒，怀缅我们在这里曾经拥有过的美好时光。我们要向自己承诺不要变成那样。大家都知道，人们总是渴望一些东西，却又不是真的想争取它。不要害怕争取你渴望的东西。多谢各位！