Slavoj Zizek is a Slovenian philosopher (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org); an author at Spectator USA, he has just written the article "Greta Thunberg Is No Genius – She's An Apostle" (04 October 2019, spectator.us). And I, apostle of Greta, object!
Here is Mr Zizek's very first paragraph:
Greta Thunberg has changed in recent months; no longer the naive and innocent girl saying that the emperor is naked, now a smiling-aggressive sharp-tongued demon. But her message remains the same, simple and repeated.
What same, simple and repeated message? Mr Zizek, you cannot repeat it, so I know you have notbeen paying attention!
Look here for the "same, simple and repeated" message of Greta:
My message is that we'll be watching you. This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!
You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.
And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.
You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.
That is not a sharp-tongued demon, Mr Zizek; that is a genius speaking!
According to your Mr Kierkegaard's differentiation, the genius is "the individual who is able to express/articulate 'that which is in him more than himself,' his spiritual substance," while the apostleis merely "bearing witness to an impersonal truth that transcends him."
You ignore the facts, Mr Zizek!
Greta's Truth is not impersonal and does not transcend her.
And for a girl of 16, with English as her second language, what brilliance!
And what audacity!
And for a girl of 16, with English as her second language, what brilliance!
And what audacity!
"We children are doing this to wake the adults up."
Not since Greta Thunberg has anyone said it like that. And direct to the faces of adults all over the world.
You've got it all wrong, Mr Zizek. You say:
She is proposing scientific data as the base (that) should compel us (to) elaborate a new emancipatory project and act upon it.
No, Mr Zizek, Greta is notrepeating the science. Everyone knows that. What she keeps repeating is this simple, stark, smart message:
You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.
She speaks only for the children – we adults have failed ourselves.
Anyone who does not understand that is part of the problem!@517
Anyone who does not understand that is part of the problem!@517
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