Ideological fantasy and belief in Žižek

Abstract

Ideology, a central concept in the social sciences introduced by Marx, links thought to social activity. Although it was initially consolidated in Marxism, it was questioned by the Frankfurt School in the 1930s due to the distance between expectations of emancipation and reality. Slavoj Žižek, in “The Sublime Object of Ideology,” argues for the relevance of the concept today, suggesting a reinterpretation through Lacanian psychoanalysis. He proposes that ideology is not just a “false consciousness,” but an illusion that is structurally part of reality. Žižek analyzes commodity fetishism, where social relations become relations between things, and points out that, in capitalism, this fetishism shifts to objects. In contrast, Peter Sloterdijk’s critique argues that we live in a “post-ideological” era, where ideology becomes cynical. Accepting this, Žižek argues that ideology can be understood as an illusion that guides our practices, supported by beliefs that are objectively imposed. This reconceptualization poses new challenges for social emancipation, suggesting that our beliefs are fundamental to our knowledge and social action.