Slavoj Žižek is a philosopher and cultural theorist. Rory Sutherland is The Spectator’s Wiki Man. We arranged for them to have a chat. They spoke for more than four hours about identity politics, Elon Musk, Hollywood, free speech and more.
Introductions & ‘luxury beliefs’
Rory Sutherland: I’m recording this on a Meta Portal moving camera, which no one seems to have bought, because I assume nobody wants Mark Zuckerberg spying on them in their living room. I don’t mind though: no one wants to spy on an overweight 57-year-old advertising executive.
Slavoj Žižek: I know what you mean. Perhaps we should do this interview naked from the waist down! By the way, Rory, I like that your bookshelves are completely empty. You are not walking around going: ‘I am a big intellectual.’
‘The European tradition is the only one which contains streaks of its own self-criticism’
RS: There’s a more boring reason for that which is that I’ve just had my bookshelves painted.
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