Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle (Wo Es War Series) [Paperback]

Slavoj iek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 2005 | Series: Wo Es War Series

Zizek analyzes the background of the attack on Iraq.

In order to render the strange logic of dreams, Freud quoted the old joke about the borrowed kettle: (1) I never borrowed a kettle from you, (2) I returned it to you unbroken, (3) the kettle was already broken when I got it from you. Such an enumeration of inconsistent arguments, of course, confirms exactly what it attempts to deny—that I returned a broken kettle to you ...

That same inconsistency, Zizek argues, characterized the justification of the attack on Iraq: A link between Saddam’s regime and al-Qaeda was transformed into the threat posed by the regime to the region, which was then further transformed into the threat posed to everyone (but the US and Britain especially) by weapons of mass destruction. When no significant weapons were found, we were treated to the same bizarre logic: OK, the two labs we found don’t really prove anything, but even if there are no WMD in Iraq, there are other good reasons to topple a tyrant like Saddam ...

Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle – which can be considered as a sequel to Zizek's acclaimed post-9/11 Welcome to the Desert of the Real – analyzes the background that such inconsistent argumentation conceals and, simultaneously, cannot help but highlight: what were the actual ideological and political stakes of the attack on Iraq? In classic Zizekian style, it spares nothing and nobody, neither pathetically impotent pacifism nor hypocritical sympathy with the suffering of the Iraqi people.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As Slovenian public intellectual and provocateur Zizek puts it in his pungent sequel to Welcome to the Desert of the Real, a major motivational problem with the U.S.'s Iraq adventure has been "too many reasons for the war." As each pretext collapsed in the face of events, another rose to take its place. Thus, he says, the "war" has been as much on logical consistency as on Iraq. As piercing as Zizek can be about the rhetorical excesses of the Bush administration—his Lacanian reading of Rumsfeld's infamous "known knowns" speech is a tour de force—he doesn't spare what he sees as the smug complacencies of "Old Europe" and the left, putting them under the general rubric of convenient pacifism and selective outrage. Structured as an essay with two long appendixes, Zizek's book is consistently funny, engaging and accessible whether discussing Hitchcock or Heidegger. If some of the philosophical excursions in the book's second half threaten to derail the cogency of its arguments, they generally reward patience. And if the sheer exuberance of Zizek's biting invective acts as something of a tonic, the sobriety of his basic message—that we have entered a permanent, Orwellian "state of emergency" that threatens the very freedoms we are supposedly defending—is never lost. Simultaneously invigorating, depressing and maddening, Zizek's book reveals him to be an intellectual made for these times, a mixed blessing if ever there was one.
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Review

“Zizek will entertain and offend, but never bore.” (The Stranger )

“Hopping from peak to peak, and periodically descending into the valley of present-day culture for refreshment, Zizek outlines a topology of activity that recovers revealed truths.” (Counterpunch )

“Zizek is a stimulating writer; with a knack for turning scenes from movies into little parables, and he is adept at spotting other people's nonsense.” (New Yorker )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Verso; Pbk. Ed edition (November 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844675408
• ISBN-13: 978-1844675401
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,460,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"The most dangerous philosopher in the West," (says Adam Kirsch of The New Republic) Slavoj Zizek is a Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic. He is a professor at the European Graduate School, International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London, and a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His books include "First as Tragedy, Then as Farce;" "Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle;" "In Defense of Lost Causes;" "Living in the End Times;" and many more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Its not about WMDs dummy., January 24, 2005

By 

Samuel A. Stern (Geneva, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle (Hardcover)

I think its interesting to note that the irony of the two comments above, who claim that Zizek is actually wrong in the book since now they found those old shells with sarin residues, perfectly reinforces the logic of the book. The War was not about the weapons, and neither is book, as its focus was rather the pretexts under which modern war can be waged. The actual weapons here were irrelevant (plus finding a few artillerly shells with expired toxins surely dont qualify as the thousands of liters of deadly chemicals that were promiced to us before the invasion)- and yes Saddam did have WMDs at one point, we should know, we sold it to him - the focus of the book is on the status of "reality" and "truth" in the modern media culture, which are very disturbing.

Rather the book explores the implications and fallout of what might be considered a grand political experiment that was tried by the Bush administration on America and the world: make up a fake reason for war and handouts, break international law, put the media machine to reinforce your claims, see it be proven false, dont even bother covering ass but just change the topic (WMDs > Freeedom), refuse to talk about a blatant lie, get reelected, and then watch the world leaders come to make amends. This is what the Left is ignoring, and this is the challenge to "reality" that needs to be addressed.

So yes put down the New York Times, and read this book.

19 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars away from the main discourse,we have Zizek, September 16, 2004

By 

scarecrow "scarecrow" (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle (Hardcover)

The real value of Zizek is he stimulates a discussion in a certain direction that you will never find within the establishment media press,(Michael Moore included here) for they own and control the discourse. Zizek is independent enough (and he knows he's an intellectual supported by the system) where he need not simply fall like sheep into line with the various/nefarious propaganda machines as practiced by The Heritage Fnd.Wm.Kristol,Thom.Freidman, Wm.Safire. They all have easy jobs simply make some nice waverings from Right to Left,Neoliberal is the buzz these days(you needn't be consistent either)summoning the time honored icons of truth,justice,civilization,terror where is it? etc. or in Safire's case simply Right-Wing all the way, no swinging allowed!, there is simply evil out(The "Other" or today "Islam"(those who have oil) (it was communism) there to be extinguished or made docile, so the discourse is further made one-dimensional.

So let's turn to the real world and that's where Zizek begins. Zizek uses Lacan's conception of reality where what is real is never really really "real" because it is "tainted" or "diseased" with the imaginary and the symbolic. So the line of arguments and facts he follows are always placed within this Lacanian context and it makes for interesting reading.
It is fairly commonplace now that Bush and Company always knew that Saddam had no weapons(WMD) otherwise why would Washington send over 150,000 troops ready to be slaughtered by these weapons. (We are talking about, well they, Washington etc. talked about weapons of MASS destruction, what does that mean?) Well weapons that can be sent to New York,intercontinental?It really doesn't matter for the WMD symbolic has been and continues to be grist for the mill of the media and now the Presidential Election.So Zizek is telling us; it is all a distraction from the real issues.And he here clearly sees it's all propaganda, and summons the "borrowed kettle" story from Freud as a means of identifying the "missing" component here.
As the book progresses(For Iraq is only the first part) there is/are some nice dialogues between pure theory, Lacan,Hegel and real facts, here, and Zizek is simply doing the intellectuals job relating philosophy and culture, politics to the reality,or "reality" which is now, or was "now".

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Allegories Ad Absurdum, February 6, 2006

By 

Paul Pope (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle (Wo Es War Series) (Paperback)

...A long yarn consisting of provisional conclusions about the state of global politics from a critical theorist's perspective. The first part of the book directly relates to the war in Iraq, introduced by the very appropriate question "They Control Iraq, But Do They Control Themselves?" ... A question that only a theorist schooled in psychoanalysis would ask, perhaps, but a very interesting question nonetheless.

In addressing this question, Zizek observes that "the problem... was that there were TOO MANY reasons for the war," and goes on to say "I should emphasize that Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle is not a book about Iraq - but the Iraqi crisis and war were not really about Iraq either" (but rather about the stakes of international politics).

The first third of the book (first 66 pages) is interesting and thought-provoking, although some of Zizek's analyses of the global context of war become superficial after a few pages. The second two parts ("appendices"), which comprise the majority of the book, don't really have anything to do with the war per se. Zizek takes the opportunity of the Iraq war to go off on a psycho-marxist rant about ethics and global affairs for 110 pages in these two appendices. A few thought-provoking ideas, here and there, but the profound conclusions that the reader expects never arrive.

Again, the conclusion of the book is quite interesting, but how and why the reader has arrived there is so osbscured by the morass of allegories that Zizek employs that it is not clear whether a such a path even exists. As a work of political theory, this book is testament to the vain, undisciplined character of much contemporary "critical" thought. Are there no rigorous taskmasters at Verso? Zizek needs one.

I wouldn't really bother with this book unless you are already interested in Zizek and/or you have a close familiarity with Marx (and Hegel), Freud, and Lacan (and maybe a little Foucault and Derrida). Otherwise, forget it. I already did.

If you are just interested in what Zizek has to say about the Iraq war, his articles are splayed all over the Internet. Just type "Zizek and Iraq" into a search engine.