In letters exchanged from a Russian prison hospital in Siberia, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova discusses the ailments of global capitalism with famed cultural critic and philosopher, Slavoj Zizek. Tolokonnikova is serving a two year sentence for her role in the March 2012 Pussy Riot performance at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, where the group protested support for Vladimir Putin’s reelection by Orthodox leaders. To Western eyes, the letters are almost surreal—like something from an age (happily) gone by. Yet for all their romantic appeal, the letters lack the substance of their Stalin-era predecessors.
Both committed communists, Tolokonnikova and Zizek focus mainly on the role of global capitalism in creating the “society of risk” that precipitated the 2008 financial collapse, and which, they agree, persists in Russia’s “seized up” and “feudal” political society under Putin. Also mixed with their economic critiques is a broader reaction to traditional social norms, lumped unhelpfully into discussions of “oppression,” “violation of rights,” and the “middle ages.”
It’s clear that the exchange—organized and published by Philosophie magazine—is something of a popularity stunt. The same is true for Pussy Riot’s raison d’être. Yet ironically, each displays elements of the undiscerning egoism that is most heavily criticized in the “global capitalist system.” Indeed, while it’s easy to agree that instrumentalizing citizens in the name of avaricious gain is wrong, it should also be apparent that economic recklessness and traditional moral values are not two sides of the same coin.
At one point, Zizek remarks:
The Pussy Riot performances cannot be reduced just to subversive provocations. Beneath the dynamics of their acts, there is the inner stability of a firm ethico-political attitude. In some deeper sense, it is today’s society that is caught in a crazy capitalist dynamic with no inner sense and measure, and it is Pussy Riot that de facto provides a stable ethico-political point. The very existence of Pussy Riot tells thousands that opportunist cynicism is not the only option, that we are not totally disoriented, that there still is a common cause worth fighting for.
While I can agree with the idea that our society (both generally and locally) is “caught in a crazy capitalist dynamic with no sense of inner measure,” I find it impossible to grasp how “it is Pussy Riot that de facto provides a stable ethico-political point.” Contrary to Zizek’s claim, the existence of Pussy Riot does not convey an alternative to “opportunist cynicism;” it rather confirms it in the “common cause” of emotivist reactions.
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