A review by macloo
Against the Double Blackmail: Refugees, Terror and Other Troubles with the Neighbours by Slavoj Žižek

4.0

Applied philosophy: What can be done about the seemingly insurmountable inflow of refugees to Europe? The refugees are only a symptom of global capitalism, which is proving unsustainable. I found many interesting ideas here, not least of which was that the idea of trying to better understand those who are different from us — whether they be the Other or the Neighbor or both — is not going to help us. Written before the horrible U.S. election of 2016, this short book/long essay does not consider the United States or its deep troubles, but as an American I could not help thinking of them all the while I was reading it. Those who are excluded from the fruits of global capitalism are never going to be included — not most of them, anyway. Žižek calls for a new approach, a new view. Not Marx's Communism but a sober acknowledgment that we are not all alike — we are not all the same — and we have to work with that, together.