Came across this Slavoj Zizek article recently (direct link; archived link), some highlights:
The author's claim:
… violent rebellion is unlikely to end with any kind of progressive settlement for the wretched of the Earth …
The events in France and Russia are part of a trend in Europe towards instability, crisis and disorder. Today, failed states are not only in the Global South, from Somalia to Pakistan to South Africa. If we measure a failed state by the crack-up of state power, as well as the heightened atmosphere of ideological civil war, deadlocked assemblies and the growing insecurity of public spaces, then Russia, France, the UK and even the US should also be understood in similar terms
A comment on parallels with Jan 6:
Left- liberals reacted with a mix of fascination and horror. Some of my friends cried, saying: “ We should be doing something like this!” There was both envy and condemnation as they watched “ordinary” people breaking into the pinnacle of state sovereignty, creating a carnival that momentarily suspended the rules of public life
A call:
We are entering a time of insurrection and mobocracy, as well as the unprecedented concentration of power in the hands of a few. It is what the philosopher Catherine Malabou calls “the combination – at once senseless, monstrous, and unprecedented – of savage verticality and uncontrollable horizontality” . And as the state’s “social function” has been eroded through years of austerity, it can now only express itself “through the use of violence” .
The left shouldn’t be afraid to add to its tasks ensuring the safety of ordinary people: there are clear signs of the growing decay of manners, of youthful gangs terrorising public spaces, from stations to shopping malls. Mentioning this decay is often dismissed as reactionary,
A question:
Is our only choice now between parliamentary elections controlled by corrupted elites or uprisings controlled by the hard right
And a punch-line:
Everyday insecurity hurts the poor much more than the rich who live calmly in their gated communities.