{"id":9228,"date":"2017-05-03T22:39:01","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T03:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=9228"},"modified":"2017-05-03T22:44:22","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T03:44:22","slug":"on-political-volatility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2017\/05\/03\/on-political-volatility\/","title":{"rendered":"On political volatility"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While the French elections arguably offer little choice for those looking for radical eco-political options, there is a tendency to see in them — as in other recent political shifts — something that is altogether more\u00a0negative than it need be.<\/p>\n

Slavoj Zizek, for instance, argues that<\/a> the choice between Macron and Le Pen is a “false choice” and that the reasonable thing to do is to abstain from it altogether. (Yanis Varoufakis provides a powerful response here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

But the choice in these elections was between 11 candidates (along with the two alternative options of spoiling one’s ballot or abstaining from voting). If it is a “false choice,” one should ask, is it because (a) none of the 11 candidates (or 13 options) provided any “real” choice, (b) none of the 4 (or 6) candidates with a real chance of winning provided any “real” choice, or (c) the candidates that, for Zizek, provided a “real” choice have lost? <\/span><\/p>\n

If it’s just the latter, then the point could just as easily be turned on its head. Given that Zizek would likely see Melenchon as a “real” choice — non-establishment, anti-neoliberal, leftist, etc. — it’s actually pretty amazing that Melenchon came within 6% of the first-place winner and 2% of the runner-up (and therefore almost made it to the final round). Similarly, it is amazing that a self-declared socialist non-member of either of the two main U.S. parties (Bernie Sanders) came rather close to winning the nomination of one of those parties (and ultimately, perhaps, the presidency). <\/span><\/p>\n

The idea that the choice is false, that the system is rigged, and so on, is a narrative that doesn’t at all convey the level of volatility and openness that democratic political systems are demonstrating these days. Is that not the real story in the\u00a0political world today? If it is, then there will be debacles and radical slides backward, but there will also likely be openings for changes that, just a few years ago, would have been considered extremely unlikely. <\/span><\/p>\n

The point is to prepare for those openings by working toward the kinds of changes we would like to see.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the French elections arguably offer little choice for those looking for radical eco-political options, there is a tendency to see in them — as in other recent political shifts — something that is altogether more\u00a0negative than it need be. Slavoj Zizek, for instance, argues that the choice between Macron and Le Pen is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[691215],"tags":[455006,455005,455008,455007,455009,455010,377],"class_list":["post-9228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics_postpolitics","tag-france","tag-french-elections","tag-le-pen","tag-macron","tag-melenchon","tag-sanders","tag-zizek"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-2oQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14251,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2025\/09\/05\/love-land-war-and-ecology-ukrainian-style\/","url_meta":{"origin":9228,"position":0},"title":"Love, land, war, and ecology, Ukrainian-style","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"September 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The nearly 400-page, richly illustrated anthology Terra Invicta: Ukrainian Wartime Reimaginings for a Habitable Earth, which I conceived and edited as part of a Fulbright award held in Berlin (originally meant to be held in Ukraine, but displaced due to the war), is now available for pre-ordering. Please encourage your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv-ukrtaz\/files\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-04-at-12.51.50%E2%80%AFPM-680x1024.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv-ukrtaz\/files\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-04-at-12.51.50%E2%80%AFPM-680x1024.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv-ukrtaz\/files\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-04-at-12.51.50%E2%80%AFPM-680x1024.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1091,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/06\/18\/more-on-tehran\/","url_meta":{"origin":9228,"position":1},"title":"more on Tehran","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Planomenology's Reid Kane has posted an extensive analysis of the Iranian events from a perspective informed by Zizek and Agamben, among others -- the first I've seen in this vein, though I'm anticipating others like it in the left-philosophical blogosphere. The piece draws too much, for my taste, on a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/politics_postpolitics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"i31_19363371.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2009\/06\/i31_19363371.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6236,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2012\/12\/11\/zizek-v-buddhism-whos-the-subject\/","url_meta":{"origin":9228,"position":2},"title":"Zizek v. Buddhism: who’s the subject?","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"December 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This started out as a response to Slavoj Zizek's recent talk here at the University of Vermont on \"Buddhism Naturalized,\" but evolved into a consideration of subjectivity, which happened to be the topic of my next post in the pre-G (process-relational ecosophy-G) series. So this can be considered part 1\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1358,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/10\/25\/on-buddhism-objects-zizek-morton-etc\/","url_meta":{"origin":9228,"position":3},"title":"on Buddhism, objects, Zizek, Morton, etc.","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been meaning to catch up on the discussions over Buddhism and objects\/relations, Slavoj Zizek's critique of \"Western Buddhism,\" and related topics, which have been continuing on Tim Morton's Ecology Without Nature, Jeffrey Bell's Aberrant Monism, Skholiast's Speculum Criticum Traditionis, and elsewhere. I haven't quite caught up, but here are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/politics_postpolitics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1094,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/06\/24\/zizek-on-iran\/","url_meta":{"origin":9228,"position":4},"title":"\u017di\u017eek on Iran","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm reprinting Slavoj \u017di\u017eek's (copyright-free) analysis of the events in Iran, which were forwarded to Infinite Thought by Ali Alizadeh, who I mentioned in a recent post. It's vintage \u017di\u017eek: by turns provocative, unpredictable, overwrought, and brilliant, in its verve if not necessarily its accuracy, though I think he gets\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/politics_postpolitics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8777,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2016\/05\/31\/interview-autobio\/","url_meta":{"origin":9228,"position":5},"title":"Interview & autobio","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"May 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Interviews are funny things: you have to think on the spot, but later realize how deeply and profoundly imperfect (!) was your choice of words. The Imperfect Buddha Podcast has an interview with me in which host Matthew O'Connor (of\u00a0Post-Traditional Buddhism) and I talk at length about Buddhism, process-relational metaphysics,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Process-relational thought"","block_context":{"text":"Process-relational thought","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/process-relational-thought\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9228"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9234,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9228\/revisions\/9234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}