Paranoid Reflections 
Slavoj Žižek
Everyone fears the possibility that the US attack on Iraq will have a catastrophic outcome – an ecological disaster of gigantic proportions, high American casualties, a terrorist attack in the West. If the war is over quickly (perhaps even by the time this is published) and if Saddam’s regime disintegrates, there will be a general sigh of relief, even among many critics of US policy. It is tempting to consider the hypothesis that the US is deliberately fomenting the fear of impending catastrophe, in order to reap the benefits of the universal relief when it fails to be realised.
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Slavoj Žižek, a dialectical-materialist philosopher and psychoanalyst, is co-director of the International Centre for Humanities at Birkbeck. His latest book is In Defence of Lost Causes.
Other articles by this contributor:
‘You May!’ · the post-modern superego
Freud Lives! · dreaming
The Two Totalitarianisms · Stalin applauded too
Nobody has to be vile · The Philanthropic Enemy
Resistance Is Surrender · What to Do about Capitalism
Bring me my Philips Mental Jacket · Improve Your Performance!
Are we in a war? Do we have an enemy? · Love Thy Neighbour
Lenin Shot at Finland Station · Counterfactuality and the conservative historian
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