Zizek's voilence- Systematic voilence and it's commodification.

Zizek’s violence is a fresh and intriguing outlook onto the concept of violence. Violence is often perceived as being just physical, however Zizek proposes the compelling notion that the violence we see can be epistemologically understood by exploring political and economic systems. More namely, exploring consumer capitalism and Liberalism as systems which have generated systematic violence. The typologies of violence as being objective, subjective, systematic and symbolic are identified and throughout the book, you can begin to see where these terms of violence can be applied to the jigsaw puzzle that is society and individualism.

Empirically speaking, Zizek explores current examples of where violence is displayed on a wider scale. Violent political outbreaks in Israel and Palestine are named examples, as well as drawing conclusions from global terrorism. Political philosophers such as Marx and Engels are also referred too throughout.

I cannot help but agree with the notions that Zizek is arguing. The argument being that violence isn’t merely a physical entity. It is symbolic. This symbolism can be highlighted through exploring political systems. Consumer capitalism is a system in which promotes collective individualism through cultural norms, competition and essentially drives the ideas which makes the consumer feel the need to ‘buy the latest product’. This can be fuelled by the values entrenched through liberalism, whereby we raise the level of aspirations whereby individuals who wish to fit into the societal jigsaw puzzle want to buy the latest goods, items and designs, only to realise that this commodity isn’t actually available to them because of cost and social exclusion. There is now a visible imbalance between the want for materialistic items and its simple unattainability. Systematic violence can come into the next issue which is exploring the system which gives individuals this idea of raised aspiration and competition. The 2011 English Riots is a clear example. After a local protest begun following the shooting of teenager Mark Duggan by Metropolitan Police Officers, the country soon became swept with chaos as rioters hit the streets, targeting big brand shops, small local businesses. After having read ethnographic research conducted by Treadwell, Briggs and Winlow (2013)- Shopocalypse now Consumer culture and English Riots of 2011, the conclusions were made clear that the majority of the rioters who had been spoken too were looking to loot from the shops and escape with designer branded clothes and goods. Items which many of them said, wouldn’t be attainable through legitimate means. Their actions of violence and looting were perceived as nihilistic and an effort to strike back against the state and claim what should be ‘theirs’. Going back to the message that Zizek is portraying in his book, the physical violence we saw on the streets can often be generated by the systematic violence which sustains our political and economic systems. These systems being neoliberalism and consumer capitalism. The English Riots of 2011 is a timely example of that proposition.

Another area of interest which became apparent to me whilst reading the book was the normalisation, glorification and commodification of violence. It can be argued that the mainstream and social media play a major role in the distribution of violence into mainstream society. Television writers, authors, artists, film creators and news writers know that violence is in demand and that consumers enjoy watching recreations of violence through fictional and informative genres. The demand is ever increasing. A relevant example is exploring the video game Grand Theft Auto. (GTA). GTA is a game which can be easily accessed by children. The game throughout gives players the opportunity to escape into the virtual world and become a master criminal. Criminal and deviant acts such as looting, shooting, stabbing, carjacking, mugging, prostitution, car collisions and many more mindless acts of violence can be carried out by players. There have been numerous editions of GTA released year after year, simply because of the demand. The demand for new versions, upgrades and new codes which can be used to commit more acts of violence in the virtual world. The violence contained within the world of GTA has become commodified and readily available to anyone with an Xbox console.

I argue that this increase of commodification has led to society becoming too de-sensitised and normalising acts which if we saw on the streets in real life I think would play as more of a shocker. The arguments that Zizek is making can go hand in hand with the notion that violence is being commodified and the threats that this poses to society is quite detrimental in the way of normalising and eventually morally legalising violence in our own thoughts. Collectively this can become the norm.