The Courage of Hopelessness

The maverick philosopher returns to explore today''s idealogical, political and economic battles, and asks whether radical change is possible

In these troubled times, even the most pessimistic diagnosis of our future ends with an uplifting hint that things might not be as bad as all that, that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Yet, argues Slavoj ¿i¿ek, it is only when we have admit to ourselves that our situation is completely hopeless - that the light at the end of the tunnel is in fact the headlight of a train approaching us from the opposite direction - that fundamental change can be brought about.

Surveying the various challenges in the world today, from mass migration and geopolitical tensions to terrorism, the explosion of rightist populism and the emergence of new radical politics - all of which, in their own way, express the impasses of global capitalism - ¿i¿ek explores whether there still remains the possibility for genuine change. Today