Slavoj Zizek Presents Mao: On Practice and Contradiction

These early philosophical writings underpinned the Chinese revolutions and their clarion calls to insurrection remain some of the most stirring of all time. Drawing on a dizzying array of references from contemporary culture and politics, Zizek’s firecracker commentary reaches unsettling conclusions about the place of Mao’s thought in the revolutionary canon.

“Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer, which we use to crush the enemy.” — Mao Zedong

Slavoj Zizek is a Slovenian sociologist, philosopher and cultural critic. He is a professor at the European Graduate School, International Director of Birkbeck College, University of London, and a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is also visiting professor at several US universities (Columbia, Princeton, New School for Social Research, New York, and the University of Michigan).