• Work
  • Blog
  • Media
  • About
  • Contact
Menu

Justin Clark

Public Historian & Digital Humanist
  • Work
  • Blog
  • Media
  • About
  • Contact

BLOG

Image: Jeremy Bishop/Ling Gigi/Mark Seliger

Image: Jeremy Bishop/Ling Gigi/Mark Seliger

The Injunction of Happiness: Slavoj Žižek and Capitalist Buddhism

August 27, 2019

Buddhism in the western, capitalist context is the same kind of hollow experience that the fleshlight is for sex; it makes one feel better in the short term but doesn’t actually remedy one’s issues in the long term. In this variant, Buddhism is no more a challenger of our material conditions then right-wing Christianity. As Žižek writes, “Although Buddhism presents itself as the remedy for the stressful tension of capitalist dynamics, allowing us to uncouple and retain inner peace and Gelassenheit (self-surrender), it actually functions as capitalism’s perfect ideological supplement.” 

Read More
In Philosophy Tags Slavoj Žižek, Žižek, Slavoj Zizek, Zizek, Buddhism, Capitalism, Mindfulness, Religion
Comment

recent

Featured
Short Book Reviews: Science and Society II
Apr 16, 2025
Short Book Reviews: Science and Society II
Apr 16, 2025
Apr 16, 2025
Crypto and Financial Euphoria
Mar 17, 2025
Crypto and Financial Euphoria
Mar 17, 2025
Mar 17, 2025
Short Book Reviews: Presidential History
Feb 17, 2025
Short Book Reviews: Presidential History
Feb 17, 2025
Feb 17, 2025
Obsession and Desire: Stephen King and John Carpenter’s Christine
Jan 15, 2025
Obsession and Desire: Stephen King and John Carpenter’s Christine
Jan 15, 2025
Jan 15, 2025
Hope in the Machine: Towards a Humanistic Technology
Nov 1, 2024
Hope in the Machine: Towards a Humanistic Technology
Nov 1, 2024
Nov 1, 2024
Short Book Reviews: Politics and the American Empire
Aug 21, 2024
Short Book Reviews: Politics and the American Empire
Aug 21, 2024
Aug 21, 2024
Short Book Reviews: Rick Perlstein’s History of the American Right
Jun 17, 2024
Short Book Reviews: Rick Perlstein’s History of the American Right
Jun 17, 2024
Jun 17, 2024
Short Book Reviews: Science and Society
Jun 3, 2024
Short Book Reviews: Science and Society
Jun 3, 2024
Jun 3, 2024
In Praise of Idleness for the 21st Century
Jun 14, 2023
In Praise of Idleness for the 21st Century
Jun 14, 2023
Jun 14, 2023
Getting at the Root:  Revisiting Christopher Hitchens’ god is not Great
Jun 5, 2023
Getting at the Root: Revisiting Christopher Hitchens’ god is not Great
Jun 5, 2023
Jun 5, 2023

Powered by Squarespace