{"product_id":"zero-point","title":"Zero Point","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe essays in \u003ci\u003eZero Point\u003c\/i\u003e ask how we distinguish defeat from disaster, and how we confront despair without collapsing into it - questions never more pertinent than the current moment in the wake of electoral victories for authoritarian populists and unceasing news of violent atrocities.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The ''zero-point'' of the title is ground level, rock bottom, the place to which one retreats and where one regroups. Taken from Vladimir Lenin''s 1922 piece ''On Ascending a High Mountain, in which Lenin considers the complexities of how one ''retreats'' while keeping faith in the cause, the central simile of the climber offers a blueprint for resilience, flexibility, and the persistence of hope. This is the revolutionary as living out the Beckettian motto: ''Try again. Fail again. Fail better.'' In Žižek''s hands, this becomes the formula for confronting the antagonisms of existing world order. With a particular focus on the Middle East -the point at which all our tensions threaten to explode – Žižek argues nothing can be addressed meaningfully without such a confrontation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe consequences of eschewing apolitical acts of solidarity and choosing to attempt to speak truth to power are reckoned with in the second half of \u003ci\u003eZero Point. \u003c\/i\u003eIn a unique piece assembled chronologically from unpublished writings, Žižek wrestles with the fallout from his controversial speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2023 - a speech which saw him interrupted, condemned and accused of anti-Semitism. The reader bears witness as Zizek processes the criticism, evolves his thinking and explores the full ethical, political and personal ramifications of the question: When is the right time to speak?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57395310887294,"sku":"NW9781350537842","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781350537842.jpg?v=1779610950","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/en-usa\/products\/zero-point","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}