In the end times, as Zizek has said, the political solutions that present themselves will often seem counter-indicated. For instance, investment bankers bring world capitalism to its knees and then claim that the real cause of the problem was “socialist” over-regulation. For Zizek, a chocolate laxative that he bought in California is a telling metaphor for this more general social process. Chocolate, a well-known agent of constipation, is packaged as a cure for constipation. We have treated Toronto’s romance with a new brand of Fordism before (the original version of Fordism was based on the quaint idea of employees earning enough money to buy the products they make). This one is a different breed of cat. This summer, it was interesting to watch the employees of Trisan Construction park their SUVs, festooned with Ford for Mayor bumper stickers, on the street as they went about replacing city sidewalks. You had to wonder whether they had read one of the main planks of the Ford respect-for-taxpayers manifesto--an end to Toronto's fair wage policy. I'm sure they'll all be happy in the future working three or four more hours a day to earn the same wages they did this summer. Who knows? Maybe they will. Irony is clearly dead when someone, who looks like he mainlines poutine, could lead a clarion call to end the "gravy train" at city hall. Got trouble making ends meet? Who better to help with the penny pinching than a millionaire blubberbutt?
NOTE: The chocolate laxative part of the Zizek End Times video is at the 10:50 mark. Another great description of the development of Marx Brothers-style western democracy starts at about the 40 minute mark.
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