Norm comments on Žižek's approval of liberty-seeking Egyptians. Precise, short and painful.
He concludes with:
From which one may infer either that Žižek has now had a change of heart, or that he says whatever suits the moment, or that democracy for him is precious except when it isn't.I would offer a fourth explanation: Žižek doesn't really care about being correct or consistent. What he cares about is the visibility value of his verbal shenanigans.
In this regard he reminds me of the Russian expression "эпатировать обывателя", so popular in Russian arts and letters circles somewhere in the first two decades of the last century. The most close translation will be probably "to shock and confuse the philistine". For a short while Žižek was good at it. But only for a short while.
Update: That Russian expression (thanks to Miriam) comes from French "epater les bourgeoisie".
