Against the Double Blackmail: Refugees, Terror and Other Troubles with the Neighbours (the Forum)

Slavoj Žižek talks about his new book, Against the Double Blackmail: Refugees, Terror, and Other Troubles with the Neighbours.

From within the safety of Europe, we face two versions of ideological blackmail—open-door solidarity with refugees and drawbridge-minded protectionism. Both prolong the problem—so, confronted with this double blackmail, we find ourselves back at the great question: what is to be done? The refugee crisis offers to Europe an opportunity: a unique chance to redefine itself. The only way to truly get to the heart of one of the greatest and most urgent issues confronting Europe today is to insist on the global solidarity of the exploited and oppressed. Maybe such global solidarity is a utopia. But if we don’t engage in it, then we are really lost. And we will deserve to be lost.

Speaker
Slavoj Žižek, Senior Researcher, Institute for Sociology and Philosophy (University of Ljubljana), Global Distinguished Professor of German (New York University), and International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities

Chair
Danielle Sands, Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Culture (Royal Holloway) and Forum for European Philosophy Fellow

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