ESPN12, Zizek

Zizek asks at the end of his piece “where have we already seen the same thing over and over again? In working backwards from Zizek, he answers his own question earlier. In talking about September 11th he says “America got what it fantasized about, and that was the biggest surprise.” This quote stems off of his ideas that America has a “passion for the real.” I believe that we do as well how many times do people say while watching TV or playing a video game, wow that looks real? As we continue to look at the many aspects of what reality is and what it does now days we can see that media and the ‘reality’ it produces may not be the best. Both Zizek and Baudrillard I believe would agree with this as well. I think that Zizek would agree with Baudrillard when he said that “there is no ‘good’ use of the media; the media are part of the event, they are part of the terror, and they work in both directions.” Media is the reason that today we have skewed versions of reality and what is real. Zizek mentions that we were forced to see the horrible images of September 11th over and over again. However, because of the media today and such movie like Independence Day (example of where we have already seen the same thing over again), the 9/11 attacks on us, for viewers at home did not seem real. It was as if we were simply watching a movie and the reality of the terror did not hit home. As horrible as it is it is true, I know what for me this was true. As a seventh grader, I did not feel the effects of the terror and was almost intrigued in seeing the towers repeatedly fall. Zizek says “is this not yet further proof of how, even in this tragic moment, the distance which separates Us from Them, from their reality, is maintained: the real horror happens their not here.