Fear of the Martians: On Slavoj Zizek's Uses of Argument

This article offers a critical examination of the arguments that underpin Slavoj Zizek's political utopianism. It maintains (1) that Zizek's rejection of liberal democracy and market capitalism is sustained by highly problematical rhetorical strategies and (2) that his purportedly Marxist plea for a new social order is based on an essentially Romantic, more specifically Nietzschean, conception of modern man's existential predicament.