Most of this discussion was stuff I'd heard before---even in more recent videos---but I almost always enjoy listening to him.<fn> <media href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSyZ46PyF7U" src="https://www.youtube.com/v/TSyZ46PyF7U" source="YouTube" width="560px" author="How To Academy Mindset" caption="Slavoj Zizek - Israel, Palestine & the Future"> He said something at the end that I found to be, if not new, at last well-formulated. I've transcribed it below. At <b>01:24:20</b>, he says, <bq>What's the problem today? I will point to this paradox. You know that, on the one hand, we perceive our situation as powerless, totally manipulated---you don't control anything. But, at the same time, the hegemonic ideology today is elevating us into the free individuals. [...] For example, the most disgusting ideology today, for me, is the ideology that sustains precarious work. It's a very nice message---[reading] between the lines---[that message] is: precarious workers are really like small capitalists. We are all capitalists! [spreads arms to encompass room] You have a little bit of money and you can freely decide. Do you go to a holiday, do you invest in your health, or do you buy a car and are you an Uber driver, or ... whatever. So, did you notice that, at the same time, [that] with this idea the system dominates us. [It] is the idea that everything ... that we are ultimately radically responsible for ourselves. We have this attitude of [...] make an effort individually, do it, you can do it ... So. The things I would have done here is to precisely turn this around, in the sense of: <b>yes, we are most enslaved to the system precisely when we perceive ourselves as free, consumerist individuals.</b> You know, you buy a cake, whatever you want, you go here, you go there. This apparent freedom [...] this type of freedom, which is based on the model of [...] big life decisions are decisions like---you go to a patisserie and [decide between] strawberry cake and cheesecake---no! <i>There are much more radical decisions.</i> The true decisions, where [...] you choose yourself, what you are. You don't just choose objects, or even other persons. You choose your own identity. And, here, a true change has to begin. And, that's why, <b>I think that the first step out of this domination of the anonymous system, is to see how fake your individual freedom is. Not in the sense of 'I am totally manipulated,' but in a much more radical sense that you are totally manipulated <i>precisely</i> when you think you are free.</b> Like, what is more free than just surfing on the web, you go from this pornographic site to another site, or whatever? [I argue that] at that point, you are <i>completely enslaved</i>. And I accept this paradox to the end. I will now sound the totalitarian, I know. <b>There is <i>no freedom without strong self-discipline.</i> Freedom is not relaxation. Freedom is duty.</b></bq> <hr> <ft>Especially now that the conflict in Gaza has shocked him back to his senses from the odd moral position he found himself in when discussing the Ukraine conflict. See <a href="{app}/view_article.php?id=4860" author="" source="">On Žižek’s Ukraine position</a> for my analysis of another recent video.</ft>