What is a crisis? Ignoring the fact that the cause of the crisis is found in the very germs of the economic system that produces it, Zizeck tries to address this question by analyzing the behavior of the individual and of capitalist society as a whole in the face of the consequences of an economic collapse. In this way, without focusing so much on the causes already known to all, he analyzes how these behaviors drive the impregnable perpetuation and justification of the system, so that the capitalist system is perpetuated while the lower classes can only abide by the consequences.
One of the fundamental pillars with which the capitalist machine works in this sense, is the greatest of the sponsors concepts, freedom. For the lower class individual it represents the freedom to vote, while for the bank agent it represents the freedom of growth and development. It is well known that the freedom that the capitalist system preaches is the freedom to act, beyond having previously stopped to think about the consequences of actions, the famous prerogative: don't think, act! In this way, in capitalist societies everything must be practical, useful, and profitable, so that bank agents allow themselves to speculate on the risk that a society as a whole really assumes. Risk societies defend themselves in this way against an economic collapse: while risk imposes itself as an unavoidable destiny for the lower class individual, those who know the risk, the bank agents, withdraw, taking responsibility for the economic collapse. .
Politically, the capitalist network also has its own methods. One of the great capitalist inventions of political liberalism was to socialize the banking system in order to stabilize the system. Said in more everyday terms, to pay the debt that the banks left because of their destructive behavior, with public money. If we reflect a little, we can see that this political behavior is even more serious when it comes to acting in the face of collapse and crisis because it adds a moral hazard: if the capitalist machine is saved, things can continue to go well. The banking system then has an advantage, a priori, the beliefs that whatever it is, money should be managed and distributed by the political-banking system and not by the one that has generated wealth. What we can conclude from all this behavior is that state interventionism exposed in this way is not healthy, in such a way that the question that should ultimately concern us is not whether there should be intervention, that is taken for granted, but rather what type of intervention is. necessary.
Of all the attitudes that drive the great capitalist machine in the face of crises, it is that of naturalizing behaviors that are above all cultural realities, the one that most justifies the foundations of a system, just as fascism does. For example, by naturalizing history, the idea that capitalism should continue as a natural law is perpetuated. In this sense, the idea of Naomi Klein is relevant: the crisis as shock therapy. The history of the free market is written based on instilling fear with the possibility of a destabilization of what "is natural", so that the establishment allows itself more repressive and radical measures that imply more control over the population, especially over the classes lower and segregated. The system must allow itself to "keep dreaming", on the one hand it will provide the necessary means for "structural or creative adjustments" and all kinds of "technical measures" while on the other, it will not face the problem face to face (what to produce or consume, or what energy to lean on). In this way, the lower classes are convinced that the crisis shows the possibility of progress within the system while ignoring that the only thing it reveals is its contradiction.
We see that the situation that capitalism tries to perpetuate is impregnated with pure ideology, later being confused with theology because according to Zizeck, "it defends the existing order against any serious criticism, since it is legitimized as a direct expression of human nature." In this way, all classes ignore the imperfection of the system, taking it as "the best of all possible worlds". Having reached this point, it is worth asking, what is the role of propaganda in all this? First of all, propaganda tries to annihilate the inadvertent possibility of the situation (a potential revolution), relying if necessary on technical or structural adjustments as we have already said, creating what is known as the "subject of the supposed knowledge" that acts self-interestedly. for his own benefit, the one who is called in the propaganda “creative capitalist”. In this way, liberal cynicism develops a double standard: in private it knows that the subject of the supposed knowledge does not exist while publicly it defends its perpetuation, thus ensuring that the lower classes trust the system more. Finally, the culture war becomes a class war, so it is important to reflect on the new forms of charity (ecocapitalism); When analyzing this situation, keep in mind the difference between legitimate investments and wild speculation, since the latter borrows everyone's future.
The consequences, as seen, are always collective, so individual subjects should not be blamed for economic collapses due to their greed or excess consumption, since this would amplify the spiritual strength of the capitalist machine. Rather, it is about being aware that individual and collective behavior within the system is doubly irrational: on the one hand, the system works without taking into account the consequences, and on the other, the lower class votes against its own interests, influenced by the material power of ideology. This fact is conclusive proof that the society that defines itself as post-ideological, however, is immersed in the complete ideology. The fact that the common people consider current rights as natural consequences of the development of capitalism shows us the ideological humanization that has taken place in the system itself. The relationship between capitalism and democracy is neither natural nor contemporary in its birth. In this way, the wealth of the inner world of the capitalist is useless if it is in contrast with the responsibilities of public life, in the same way that the wealth of the inner life of the fascist or of war does not exist. History also has no inner richness if what must be faced humanistically is faced as a threat and is solved with a kind of "responsible anti-Semitism." This ideological humanization reveals how the ideology itself works: nobody takes justice and democracy seriously, we just assume that the system works even if we don't believe in it.
The fact that ideological humanization triumphs has a lot to do with postmodernism, the new spirit of capitalism. Now the ethics of the product is bought, the so-called "cultural capitalism" covers the construction of its super ego with the image of a happy and post-ideological community, approving permits that are disguised as rights, thus blurring the line between power and knowledge, establish their experts, judges over the fate of the lower class, forcing them to live as if they were free. In this condition, the subject acts thinking he is asking what I want, while in reality he acts asking what others want from me. This is literally the fetishistic society, not the repressed society, as it clings to its repression through cynicism and fundamentalism, choosing slavery as its true freedom.
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