Slavoj Žižek: "We already live in the end of the world"

North Korea, quantum entanglement, and the end of history

We often, especially in the modern age of geopolitical uncertainty, fear the end of the world. But, Slavoj Žižek now argues, the end of the world might already be here. Žižek argues that the end of history is not one of global peace, or even global catastrophe, but an endless repetition of the same. Drawing on what he calls the 'quantum entanglement' of North and South Korea, Žižek argues the end of history is found in a tension between a mobilisation against an emblematic enemy and a relaxed indifference.

 

Images of the end of the world, imagined and otherwise, pervade our media. Alenka Zupančič noted ironically that one should not expect too much from the end of the world – it may disappoint us. I offer a similar sentiment, only phrased slightly differently: don’t worry, sooner or later the end will come. This reassurance addresses the underlying belief that, if we talk and worry enough about the end of the world, it may not happen. This leads naturally enough to the question: What if the true end of time is not a mega-catastrophe but the endless repetition of the same endless deferred, and endlessly deferred, moment? A moment epitomized by the standard coda to an episode of a TV show, asking us to wait until next week (or in streaming life, simply the next episode) for the narrative to be continued – to quote Alessandro Sbordoni: ‘As the end gets nearer, more is yet to come.’ So maybe we already live (in) the end of the world. An end which stretches on endlessly, with no possible resolution.

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