Finally, one of the most important influences of The Plague of Fantasies is its observations concerning the role of Jouissance (the push/pull tension) and the phantasmal supplement involved in human cruelty. Most notable was Zizek’s observation of the cruel ritual involved in the morning exercise routines imposed on Jews in concentration camps which gave their Nazi overseer’s the extra kick of believing they were doing so for the health of their victims.
Steven Spielberg was clearly on to this in the movie Schindler’s List. In one scene, the commander of the camp, played by Ralph Fiennes, attempts to present himself as a civilized human being when, inspecting the latest female prisoners, kindly tells one to step back as he had a cold. And this struggle with rationalization can be seen as well in his choice of one of the Jewish prisoners as a mate and the loyalty he shows Schindler when working to get him released from jail.
The same dynamic can be seen as well in movies about sociopaths such as the contemporary version of Last House on the Left when the leader of the antagonists chastises one of the female victims for her resistance then proceeds to stab her to death. Given his power to do whatever he wanted with the victim, and the likelihood that he was going to kill her regardless, the chastisement seems almost superfluous. Yet, it may well have seemed necessary to him in order to justify or motivate the actual act of stabbing her. And we see as much in other movie sociopaths and serial killers: the need to establish themselves as more than monsters.
And the same can be seen in real world serial killers. Take, for instance, Son of Sam’s claim, in a letter he wrote to the New York Times, that contrary to popular consensus, he actually loved humanity, or the voluntary and self justifying role Ted Bundy played in the capture of the Green River Killer.
But to bring it into to more immediate day to day territory and, given its application to acceptable human behavior, creepier, can’t we see a similar MO at work in the hysteria of the more extreme factions of the Tea Party and Neo Cons? We of more moderate and leftist temperaments have traditionally seen such behavior as the result of some kind of solipsistic indifference to the plight of those destroyed by Capitalism: for instance, those who die because of lack of access to healthcare. But couldn’t it be that maybe they do, at some level, feel guilt taking advantage at the expense of others, but find it so unbearable that they have to turn to hysterical measures such as half-assed reasoning rooted in cognitive dissonance? Could it be that their behavior and reasoning is the product of the push/pull tension between guilt and self interest? Jouissance?
I mean like the sociopath in Last House on the Left, they could just argue that they do what they do because it is in their interest to do so and they have the power to do it. But they feel the need to rationalize it and pass it off as true reason: that which most people don’t understand.