Being Nicholas, The Wired Interview by Thomas A. Bass http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/nn/bd1101bn.htm
“Think about the strangeness of today's situation. Thirty, forty years ago, we were still debating about what the future will be: communist, fascist, capitalist, whatever. Today, nobody even debates these issues. We all silently accept global capitalism is here to stay. On the other hand, we are obsessed with cosmic catastrophes: the whole life on earth disintegrating, because of some virus, because of an asteroid hitting the earth, and so on. So the paradox is, that it's much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism.”
Žižek! (2005); as Žižek notes on p. 1 of Mapping Ideology (1994), the observation that it is easier to imagine the end of the earth than the end of capitalism was originally made by Fredric Jameson.
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Slavoj Žižek 99
Slovene philosopher 1949Related quotes
“We are all on earth to help others. What on earth the others are here for, I can't imagine.”
Often cited as by Auden without attribution, this quotation has been traced to John Foster Hall (1867-1945), an English comedian known as the Reverend Vivian Foster, Vicar of Mirth. Full history with sound recording http://audensociety.org/vivianfoster.html
Misattributed
Source: Evolution (2002), Chapter 16 “An Entangled Bank” section I (pp. 509-510)
From his opening address at United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen December 7, 2009.
2000s, 2009
especially political things
Page 5.
New Age Politics: Healing Self and Society (1978)
At a concert, commenting to the audience about The Used's song "Burning in the Aftermath", reported in Jason Newell (July 8, 2003) "Teens chill at hot concert", Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.