Backstage: Violence & the Left in Dark Times: LIVE Shorts

"Violence & the Left in Dark Times," BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY & SLAVOJ ZIZEK in a debate instigated by Paul Holdengräber, LIVE from the NYPL Lite, September 16, 2008. Bernard-Henri Lévy, France's "rock-star philosopher," and Slavoj _i_ek, the Slovanian "Elvis of cultural theory," will scrutinize the totalitarianisms of the past as well as those of the future, as they argue for a new political and moral vision for our times and investigate the limits of tolerance. Does the advent of capitalism cause more violence than it prevents? Is there violence in the simple idea of the neighbor? asks Zizek in Violence: Six Sideways Reflections. Are human rights Western or Universal? How is it that progressives themselves-those who in the past defended individual rights and fought fascism-have now become the breeding ground for new kinds of dangerous attitudes? asks Lévy in "Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against New Barbarism."