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From the [[tragedy ]] of 9/11 to the farce of the financial meltdown.

Billions of dollars were hastily poured into the [[global ]] banking [[system ]] in a frantic attempt at financial stabilisation. So why has it not been possible to bring the same forces to bear in addressing [[world ]] poverty and environmental crisis?

In this take-no-prisoners [[analysis]], [[Slavoj Žižek ]] frames the [[moral ]] failures of the modern world in [[terms ]] of the epoch-making events of the first decade of this century. What he finds is the old one-two punch of [[history]]: the jab of tragedy, the [[right ]] hook of farce. In the attacks of 9/11 and the global credit crunch, [[liberalism ]] dies twice: as a [[political ]] [[doctrine ]] and as an [[economic ]] [[theory]]. The election of Donald Trump only confirms the bankruptcy of a [[liberal ]] [[order ]] on its last legs.

First as Tragedy, Then as Farce is a call for the [[left ]] to reinvent itself in the light of our desperate historical [[situation]]. The [[time ]] for liberal, [[moralistic ]] [[blackmail ]] is over.