This Thanksgiving, I am particularly thankful that I don’t read Slavoj Žižek. My students should be thankful for this too. To that end, I think I might just leave this here all day. I considered adding a quote or two from something that Žižek has published … but that would necessitate reading Žižek and thus violate the spirit of this day.

Instead, I thought I’d just wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all the proletarians who might read this … but a proper Žižekian reading of Lacan would almost certainly call into question the very idea that any of us can attain happiness.

So, instead, let’s all just remember those famous words of Zarathustra:

Alas, the time is coming when man will no longer give birth to a star. Alas, the time of the most despicable man is coming, he that is no longer able to despise himself. Behold, I should you the last man.

“‘What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?’ thus asks the last man, and he blinks.

“The earth has become small, and on it hops the last man, who makes everything small. His race is as ineradicable as the flea-beetle; the last man lives longest.

“‘We have invented happiness,’ say the last men, and they blink.

Ponder this while you watch Žižek blink, today of all days.

(Image via Luis)