Programs

Monday 3 October, 2011

A very dangerous Q&A

The Questions Transcript Tweets Panellists

Audience: ALP 36%, COALITION 46%, GREENS 12%

Discuss the Questions

Here are the questions our panel faced this week. Tell us what your answer would be or what you think our panellists need to say. SEXUAL ENERGY STEWART LUNG asked: This question is related to sexuality. More and more people are openly embracing other forms of sexuality that are previously considered taboo e.g. polyamory. What is the panel's opinion of openly embracing these other forms of sexuality as an avenue of releasing previously suppressed sexual energy hence improving the overall well-being of our society?
What do you think?

PSYCHOPATHS IN POWER JOSEPH ACKLAND asked: Can psychopaths integrate into society or is society already full of psychopaths occupying the roles of our high-flying leaders and power-brokers?
What do you think?

PSYCHO MPs ROB CRASTI asked via facebook: How can we recognise a psychopath in politics? Before we vote for a politician what signs, behavioural and verbal, should worry us that they may be a psychopath?
What do you think?

ARAB SPRING OR WINTER? FARID FARID asked: Slavoj Zizek - You've been compared most recently in an Al Jazeera op-ed to Qaddafi for being out of touch and sticking to an old ideological world view when faced with the rapid changes undergone in the Arab uprisings. What is your view now of what is happening in Libya, Egypt and Syria? Do you think what is commonly called as the Arab Spring has turned into an Arab winter of discontent?
What do you think?

WIKILEAKS AND ASSANGE ELEANOR DOYLE asked: Slavoj Zizek - You are a supporter of Julian Assange. I too support his push for open, transparent government. However, I don't believe the anonymity & safety of dissidents should be sacrificed to the cause. Do you agree? Or are redacted documents like sex with a condom - just not as good?
What do you think?

CAPITALISM AND EVOLUTION OLIVER DAMIAN asked: If the selfish & blind pursuit of genes to propagate is what drove single cells to evolve into complex life forms, which includes us - Can we say that the blind pursuit of profit is what drives civilization forward, and we should not stop it just because we don't like what we see now, because the future cannot be fully imagined by someone on a lower level of evolution?
What do you think?

TONY JONES: Good evening and welcome to this special edition of Q&A, live from the Sydney Opera House and the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Im Tony Jones and answering your questions tonight: legendary BBC foreign correspondent, Kate Adie; firebrand Marxist philosopher, Slavoj Zizek; the author of The Men Who Stare At Goats and The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson; Egyptian born democracy activist, Mona Eltahawy; and the foreign editor of The Australian Greg Sheridan. Please welcome our panel. All right. Well, Q&A is live from 9.35 pm Eastern Time. Its simulcast on ABC News 24 and News Radio and you can join the Twitter conversation using the hash tag that's just appearing on your screen. Well, our panel tonight includes some quite dangerous thinkers, so let's go straight into peril with our first question from Stewart Lung. SEXUAL ENERGY00:01:15 STEWART LUNG: This question is related to sexuality. More and more people are openly embracing other forms of sexuality that are previously considered taboo, for example,

polyamory. What is the panel's opinion of openly embracing these other forms of sexuality as an avenue of releasing previously suppressed sexual energy, hence improving the overall wellbeing of our society. TONY JONES: Stewart, can I just keep you on your feet just for a moment. STEWART LUNG: Sure. TONY JONES: Because at least some of our audience are going to wonder what polyamory is. Could you just explain that for us? STEWART LUNG: Well, the way I understand, polyamory is where you you love more than one person, with honesty and integrity. TONY JONES: Okay. All right. Let's start with Kate Adie. KATE ADIE: This time of night I have to consider this? We live, I hope, in more liberal societies, where we don't actually impose rules which were thought up by old men a long time ago. I think what you have to do is not think about, gosh, how many different ways you can have different relationships and conduct them. You have to think about what sort of person you are and what you mean to someone and what someone means to you and never betray. Don't ever go out to do something which will hurt so much. Just be a loving person and if that takes you into different relationships and you behave decently, I don't think we have too much to worry about. TONY JONES: Slavoj Zizek? SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Im unfortunately I would like to agree with you but my evil nature pushes me in the opposite direction. KATE ADIE: You don't love me? SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Sorry? KATE ADIE: You don't love me. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Er er- er... KATE ADIE: Oh. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: I take I take the Fifth Amendment. I refuse to answer because the answer may incriminate me and so on. TONY JONES: Also you are pledged to Lady Gaga, or so they say. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: This is a mystery. I am an old conservative who thinks everything that happened in pop music happened between '65 and '75. That's another story. But, listen, you know we are entering a strange era where hedonism, do you know this, is more and more the ruling ideology. Today, society doesn't pressure you onto sacrifice yourself to your country, but be authentic, be what you truly are and so on and so and my psychoanalytic friends are telling me that people today more and more feel guilty, not if they give way to their perverse desires but if you don't enjoy. We live in strange times

where, if you are not able to enjoy sexuality or whatever you feel guilty. So I think and that is the paradox today. We live in permissive times. The result is not everybody is happy screwing around words dirty words are permitted, you told me - the result is on the opposite. There is more frigidity/impotence than ever and so on and so on. JON RONSON: Isn't it true you advocate outsourcing sex so other people have sex on your behalf? SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Oh, this was - no, Im quite romantic, here. That there is, unfortunately a bad taste joke. What I am advocating quite seriously... JON RONSON: I thought it sounded like a great idea. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: ...stop. Is love, naive Love. I claim I have nothing against sex without love but I think the structure like we usually say what is masturbation? You do it to yourself just with a partner you are dreaming about. But what if... TONY JONES: A sort of mental outsourcing? SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Yeah, but we most of our real sex, I think, is masturbation with a real partner. You have real partner there but you just use the real partner to realise your dream. So is all sex like that? No, it's love, which is why today I claim this is very oldfashioned romantic idea, what is transgression is not sex. You can do it with animals, with dogs, cats, no problem. Falling in love is a problem. Which is why, as I mentioned yesterday, more and more you have this dating and marriage agencies advertising their services in this way: We will enable you to be in love without falling in love. Without the fall. Everything will be safe and so on. TONY JONES: Okay. Slavoj, I'm going to throw to Jon because you picked up the outsourcing point. Do you have your own view? JON RONSON: Well, just because... TONY JONES: I mean, the question was should non conventional forms of sexuality be embraced as a means of releasing previously suppressed sexual energy? JON RONSON: God. I don't know. Can I just say that I'm glad to be in the centre of the panel because my ideological position is one of uncertainty. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Centre left you are. Social democratics who pretend they are on the left but... JON RONSON: I was a business disappointed that polyamory was something so nice. I thought it was going to be something like slamming your penis in a filing cabinet. I'm in favour of that but ... TONY JONES: That doesn't sound like as much fun as you make it. JON RONSON: Well, you know, I'm with both Kate and Slavoj on the idea that naive love sounds like quite a good idea. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: And even a dangerous idea today.

JON RONSON: Do you think? TONY JONES: Let's throw the dangerous idea to Mona. What do you think? MONA ELTAHAWY: Okay. Well, I think as long as you have consenting adults who are choosing to live this way, but - and this is a huge but this is something both open to men and women, I'm all for it, because youll find, and it is not just Islam, but religions like Mormonism, and others that do allow multiple marriages, the multiplicity is always given to the men and there is this bizarre idea that men's sex drive is somehow higher than womens and thats just total crap because women have just as much of a sex drive as men do and in many cases womens sex drive outpaces mens sex drive. But the way so many people are socialised is that no, no, no, the men have to enjoy as many women as possible because they have this insatiable sex drive, whereas women, you know, you are taught to be good, youre taught to be virginal, youre taught to be chaste. So in the case of societies where youre socialised like that, I think sex is a political act. Getting out there and getting over the sexual guilt that is put, especially on women in conservative societies, is a political act. So as long as what youre saying is open to all genders and men and women, if we are now just talking about men and women, are able to enjoy that kind of lifestyle equally, I'm all for it. But, unfortunately, a great deal of hypocrisy goes into this and women are told, accept that, you know, the three or four of you will share the one guy because hes just so insatiable and thats just bullshit. Its not true. Its something that just it just massages men's egos and its crap. TONY JONES: Let me just quickly jump in there. Would polygamy be okay, in your view, if women were able to take multiple husbands? MONA ELTAHAWY: Yeah, if women could but the thing is they cant and so I I want to ban polygamy as long as women cant. Are you gonna are you gonna be my third husband? Are you to be my third husband, Zizek? TONY JONES: He was tapping me on the shoulder, not you. MONA ELTAHAWY: Both of you? SLAVOJ ZIZEK: I just wanted to make and please, don't stop me, I need a domina, a woman. No, quite seriously, don't be too much in love with I think its called polyandry, the other way round. MONA ELTAHAWY: For women, yeah. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: You know, they have it in traditional Tibet and I can tell you the explanation is quite a vulgar Marxist one. You have a farmer who has four, five sons. The problem is how to prevent the farm being split. You marry to all of them to one women and its strictly hierarchic. No. No. Its not you who says in the evening, Tonight its your turn. MONA ELTAHAWY: Hes not talking about that. But hes not talking about that. Hes talking now about getting over these taboos. I understand and actually and that lifestyle is dying out now as societies like Tibet and India become more modernised and people dont live like that anymore.

SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Yeah. MONA ELTAHAWY: But hes talking about getting over taboos. and for me the biggest taboo is to cut this crap that pretends that men have higher sex drives than women. They dont. TONY JONES: Okay, lets... SLAVOJ ZIZEK: But... TONY JONES: I want to hear from the other end of the panel first, Greg Sheridans been dying to get in on this. MONA ELTAHAWY: Hello, Greg. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Why do you want to hear from the other... GREG SHERIDAN: Tony, this is this is... MULTIPLE SPEAKERS TALK AT ONCE GREG SHERIDAN: Look, sitting on the far left of the panel, as I am, this is a question which Irish Catholic boys often contemplate as they grow up and become News Limited journalists where, of course, we are labelled now by Bob Brown as the love media and everybody knows that we have a loving relationship, a polyamorous relationship, with our millions and millions of readers. But, look, I would just make one... TONY JONES: I hate to think about what you are doing when you are writing your columns. GREG SHERIDAN: Im communing on a higher plane, Tony. In fact, the ABC asked if they could commission a series 'At Home With The Foreign Editor' and I said, no. I said there had to be limits. But look, Id like to make one serious point. One of the madnesses of our society is it can never do anything in balance or in proportion. We are a society determined to take every stupid idea to its most extreme possible conclusion. So we are all of us reacting against the Victorian rules that, as kids, we read about in English novels and we spend our whole lives rebelling against these rules which haven't existed for 100 years and then we recognise no end point, no point of restraint, no point of commonsense and no point of balance. I would agree with Slavoj. I'm an old-fashioned romantic and I think if you just fall in love and stay in love, that's the best thing. TONY JONES: Okay, Im going to cut it off on that point of agreement because we can't spend all night talking about sex. Weve got other subjects. Youre watching Q&A, where you ask the questions. Our next question tonight comes from... SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Are there other subjects? PSYCHOPATHS IN POWER00:11:30 TONY JONES: Youll get your chance. Joseph Ackland. JOSEPH ACKLAND: Can psychopaths integrate into society or is society already full of

psychopaths occupying the roles of our leading high flyers and power brokers? JON RONSON: Oh, okay. TONY JONES: Yeah, Jon, this is your specialty subject. JON RONSON: Yeah, well, that I mean, I should start with a statistic. The statistic is, according to Hare, the inventor of the checklist, 1 in 100 regular, walking around people is a psychopath. So there is how many theres 300 people in this room, so theres three psychopaths in this room. GREG SHERIDAN: Are they all on the panel? JON RONSON: Well, Im rather hoping that theyre not the ones sitting behind us because, you know, theyll have the advantage. So one in 10 regular people is a psychopath but 4% of CEOs are psychopaths. Youre four times more likely to have a psychopath at the top than you are to have one as your subordinate because capitalism rewards psychopathy and this is the problem, is that the more ruthlessly - I spent time with a man who used to live here called Chainsaw Al Dunlap, who used to work with Kerry Packer, and he allowed me to do he was a ruthless asset stripper and he allowed me to do the psychopathy checklist on him, so I went through it. I said, okay, grandiose sense of self worth, which would have been hard for him to deny, because he was standing underneath a giant oil painting of himself at the time. He said, Youve got to believe in you, and kind of went through the checklist and identified many of the items on the psychopath checklist as business positives that are rewarded in our capitalist system. So that's the problem. The problem isn't so much the kind of maverick, ruthless psychopaths in charge, it the system that rewards them and cheers them on and the more psychopathically people like Al Dunlap behave, the more the share prices shot up and you only have to look at the American health care system, for instance, to see that, you know, its a system that echoes, the psychopath checklist. Its a real problem. TONY JONES: Okay, weve got a question ... JON RONSON: Psychopathy is the reason its the ... PSYCHO MPs00:13:34 TONY JONES: Weve got a question that's come in via our Facebook page. Its from Rob Crasti and its for Jon Ronson: How can we recognise a psychopath in politics? Before we vote for a politician, what signs, behavioural and verbal, should worry us they may be a psychopath? JON RONSON: Okay. Well, its a 20 point checklist. Youve got grandiosity. Youve got glibness, superficial charm. I mean, so far were with all politicians, right. Youve got lack of remorse and lack of empathy. Again, most politicians. Are you putting your hand up as a somebody whos like fessing up to this? TONY JONES: No. No. He wants to make a comment. JON RONSON: Okay, so...

TONY JONES: And you can. Go ahead. AUDIENCE MEMBER: In fairness, Jon, I read the Hare psychopathy checklist before coming here tonight and I did want to ask you, in your considered opinion, is our Prime Minister a psychopath? JON RONSON: You know, Im not going to start. I think its... AUDIENCE MEMBER: Oh, come on. JON RONSON: I think it is unlikable to diagnose people without having met them. AUDIENCE MEMBER: We can tee it up. JON RONSON: So, I mean, that's the truthful answer. I think if you... TONY JONES: Let's go for the extremes. JON RONSON: Okay. TONY JONES: What about Hitler and Stalin, psychopaths? JON RONSON: Well, I think, you know, if youve got like if youve got a kind of grotesque costume, a kind of uniform thats kind of garish, plus a penchant for genocide, that's a big clue. So if you get them onto the subject of empathy, what they hate is weakness. They hate weakness and so if you can get them to talk about how empathy really is a weakness, that's a big clue. However, I don't want people to get drunk with power. I dont want people to read either my book or the Hare checklist and become, like I did, a power crazed psychopath spotter, because that can turn you a little bit psychopathic. So be slightly wary of that. TONY JONES: Lets hear from the rest of our panel. Kate, was going to jump in there. KATE ADIE: What does it profit us to actually label people as psychopaths, to actually analyse and say they are psychopaths, partly because to me you seem to be describing the kind of ruthless bastards who get to the top in every kind of walk of life? And if youre going to label them and say these are psychopaths, what are you going to propose to do about it? Do they live in a pen somewhere, saying "Don't let them out"? Dont give them something to run? GREG SHERIDAN: Its called Parliament House. JON RONSON: No, you don't do that and, in fact, they are trying to do that in America. They are trying to - people who are coming up for parole are being scored on the psychopath checklist and if (indistinct)... KATE ADIE: What about people sitting for President? I mean, you know (indistinct)... JON RONSON: And, yeah, and Kate, so I totally agree with you. Labelling is clearly, in our society, a tyrannical and problematic thing. KATE ADIE: Yeah.,

JON RONSON: However, psychopathy exists. Its a difficult situation there. TONY JONES: And you say it can't be cured. JON RONSON: And the evidence is that it can't be cured unless you get them very, very young and its a very real thing. KATE ADIE: Okay, once youve got them, what do you do with them? JON RONSON: You know what... TONY JONES: Lets hear from Slavoj. He might have an answer. JON RONSON: No, I have an answer to that. TONY JONES: Oh, okay. Go ahead. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: I actually think there are much more - would you agree or not - a so called serious question - when we talk about people like Hitler and so on, listen, I read a book on the history of SS, SS German, and especially a chapter on Reinhard Heydrich. He organised , you know, Wannsee Conference, Holocaust and so on. What strikes me so much is that, you know what, this guy, if there ever was an evil guy, its him. You know what he was doing in the evenings? He gathered with his SS friends and they... TONY JONES: Playing Mozart? SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Even better, Beethovens string quartets and I think thats the really tragic, depressing thing. You cannot say, oh, they must have gotten it wrong or whatever. No, the tragic lesson of history is, and I can go on through like read a book which is the Bible for me, Brian Victoria, a Zen monk, its called Zen at War. It demonstrates how the large majority of Zen Buddhist in Japan not only totally supported Japanese military expansionism but provided the properly Zen Buddhist justification for it. To amuse you very shortly, you know (indistinct) where we are young hippies, the glorious propagator in the hippy west of Buddhism, he not only fully supported Japanese invasion of China but he faced this problem: I have to kill you in war. He said, if I remain caught in the illusion of my ordinary reality, I perceive myself as an agent killing you. I may hate you, who knows, but its difficult for me. Then, he says, if you go through a Buddhist enlightenment, you see that you have no self. You became a passive observer of your acts and I no longer perceive me stabbing a knife into your eye as my act but just, as he puts it, my knife is dancing around and in the cosmic dance of phenomena, your eye seems to stumble upon it (indistinct). Was he a psychopath or not? (Indistinct) JON RONSON: That score is... SLAVOJ ZIZEK: You know (indistinct)... TONY JONES: I am just putting my pen on this side. JON RONSON: Yeah. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. No.

TONY JONES: Lets hear from Jon. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: No. No. Just one more, then I will stop. TONY JONES: One more. Okay. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: The main definition of psychopath for me is also a person who is too identified with what he is like, for example (indistinct) my favourite dogmatic reference. He said something very nice. He said a madman is not only a beggar who thinks he is a king. A madman is also a king who thinks that he is a king and I think this is why, I think, the The Kings Speech I wonder if you will agree, its an extreme reactionary film. It tells the story of the... TONY JONES: No, no, we know. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Hes a good, normal guy. TONY JONES: Its a very long story. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: No. No. No. (Indistinct) MULTIPLE SPEAKERS TALK AT ONCE SLAVOJ ZIZEK: (Indistinct) a sign of morality. He knows its stupid to be a king and your Australian guy (indistinct) to become stupid enough to believe that he is really a king. TONY JONES: Okay. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Okay. TONY JONES: All right. All right. Jon. JON RONSON: Okay. TONY JONES: And well hear from the other side of the panel. JON RONSON: Okay, I can answer the two questions very briefly. Yes, say that this person's eye got in the way of my knife is an indication of psychopathy because they do tend to blame the victim. And the answer to Kate's question is, you know, I completely sympathise with the notion that mental health labelling is a very, very difficult and, you know, in worst case tyrannical thing. However, psychopathy exists. Its a real condition and I think, you know, one shouldn't shy away from really understanding the crazy ways we behave when our brains go wrong. And what to do with them? The answer is, of course you dont lock them up. You dont end up like some villain in a Orwell novel. What you do is you just you just be aware. You just be wary. You just dont let them fuck with you. TONY JONES: Lets hear from Greg Sheridan. Youve dealt with an awful lot of Australian politicians. Have you ever noticed any that exhibit psychopathic tendencies? GREG SHERIDAN: Tony, I have interviewed and written about a lot of psychopaths in my

GREG SHERIDAN: Tony, I have interviewed and written about a lot of psychopaths in my time, but let me give you the two ends of the spectrum. Normally when you interview a politician, you start with flattery and now matter how outrageous the flattery, its never enough. You say, Kevin, Tony, whoever, Youre the greatest orator since Cicero, and the response is Why do you think he was so great?" you know. But I interviewed once Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, and I started with my flattery, "Youve changed the course of the river of Indian human life with your economic reforms." His response was, "If youre going to talk rubbish like that, leave now. If you want to talk about economic policy you can stay". Now, the other end of the spectrum, I spent an evening once with Saif Gaddafi, Muammar Gaddafis most famous son. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: The doctor from (indistinct). GREG SHERIDAN: Yeah, (indistinct) and great artist and, you know, hole in one seven times, swam, you know, 100 miles in eight minutes and so on. And during the course of the interview, I said, What's it like being Colonel Gaddafi's son? He said to me, well, you know, "Our dad doesn't realise that were just normal Libyan kids. We like to ski in Switzerland, shop in Paris, just like every other normal Libyan" and I thought "Theres a guy who doesn't have much empathy". So Im glad Manmohan Singh is Prime Minister and Saif Gaddafi is not. MONA ELTAHAWY: Well... KATE ADIE: I... TONY JONES: No, lets hear from Mona, because, look, there have been an awful lot of psychopaths in the dictatorships of the Middle East. Saddam Hussein, the Assad father and son, Gaddafis just been named. MONA ELTAHAWY: Yes. I did not meet Saddam Hussein. I attended news conferences with senior and junior Assad but I want to share my Gaddafi story, which I travelled around the world with and it has more to do with sex than psychopathy, but why not, well combine both questions and it ties in exactly with this, our father, not so much the sons, but the guards and not the female guards of Gaddafi, and I call it nipplegate. Because I was attending a news conference in Libya in 1996 when it was actually a colleague - a former colleague worked - she actually still works for the BBC. We saw Gaddafi standing on the podium, standing by myself, so me and my friend from the BBC went to ask him some questions and he said, "Yes. Yes. You can ask us." And hes standing on the podium at a news conference, impromptu news conference and then all of a sudden the psychopaths from the Ministry of Information, now, these are the minders who follow you around we were talking about China earlier these are the minders who follow you around in Libya - well, tried to push me out and someone tried to grab my tape recorder, so I bit his hand and this is all being filmed in the news conference. And then one of the male bodyguards, and again this is an indication of just how when at psychopath is at the top it trickles down. I mean, the economy in Libya didn't trickle down but the madness certainly did and so the guard is standing there with his AK 4 and hes trying to push me out and I push him back. He pushes me. I push him back and then he twisted my nipple in the middle of the news conference. Just like that. Titty twister, I think it is called. Im sitting there going, "What the fuck? Oh, my God". And so I turned to Muammar Gaddafi who, in Egypt, we call Brother Colonel, because he took over from the King. He got rid of the King in a coup. He was a captain. He promoted himself to colonel, not to general, so his ego wasnt that crazy but just to colonel and in Egypt we call him Brother Colonel (SPEAKS EGYPTIAN). So Im like "Look, what he is doing to me" and Gaddafi and I

(SPEAKS EGYPTIAN). So Im like "Look, what he is doing to me" and Gaddafi and I make eye contact for about five seconds. And I thought, you know, "Hes going to jump in with his Arab pride and chivalry and say how dare you violate the honour of my Arab sister" and he just looks at me and then just continues like nothing is happening. And I thought, these people are fucking lunatics. And so I push the guy and I kick him and it goes on and on and then the news conference finishes. My press badge has disappeared, so I thought, okay, this madness was because they want to get rid of my press badge. Then this Algerian journalist comes up to me and hes like, Mona, are you okay? Are you okay? I go, Do you see what he did to me? He goes "They were saying just shoot her. Just shoot her". So I share this story because, again, when the mad when the psychopathy is up there and its not checked, it goes not just into the sons but it goes into everybody. It poisons the water. JON RONSON: Exactly. KATE ADIE: Well, hang on. Hang on. Its not so much psychopathy. Having interviewed Gaddafi a number of times, I decided, like a number of my colleagues... MONA ELTAHAWY: Did he twist your nipple as well, Kate? KATE ADIE: He didnt. I worked out he wasn't really bright enough to actually belong to your pantheon of psychopaths. What actually keeps a lot of people who are in power there, what trickles down is not a psychopathic attitude, its fear. There is, in all people who attain a certain amount of power over others, it then a creek. It then spreads and everybody gets more and more scared. All the little minions around him just quaked. I once saw a number of ministers in front of him. He came into the room. One of them was so scared that he shook so much he fell over in sheer fear. Its not that they become psychopaths Its that a lot of very powerful people maintain their style, their power, because they actually threaten other people. They don't change their character, they just make them scared. TONY JONES: I am going to interrupt there because let's move on to the moment where that fear seems to have evaporated in the Middle East. Weve got a few questions. This is Q&A. Its live and interactive. Our next question comes from Farid Farid. ARAB SPRING OR WINTER? 00:25:35 FARID FARID: This is to Professor Zizek. Youve been compared most recently in an Al Jazeera op ed, maybe unfavourably, to Muammar Gaddafi for being out of touch and sticking to an old ideological world view when faced with the rapid changes undergone in the Arab uprisings. What is your view now of what's happening in the Middle East and do you think what is commonly called as the Arab spring has turned into an Arab winter of discontent? SLAVOJ ZIZEK: First, I would like to know the precise nature of that - in what sense was I compared with Gaddafi? My only link with Gaddafi is my friend's enemies from Libyan School of Economics, ones called London School of Economics, where attacking me as being totalitarian but, my God, I mean they were getting all the money from Gaddafi and so on. TONY JONES: I think it was sort of an analogy by Al Jazeera saying you were as out of touch as Gaddafi really thats...

SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Out of touch with what? My public reaction to Arab Spring was a text published by the Guardian on Tahrir Square miracle and so on, where I absolutely emphasised what I think is crucial. The Western, okay, hypocrisy, everybody knows this, but what type of hypocrisy? This was my metaphor. The official desire of the West all the time was, oh, my God, the only way to mobilise Arab people is through religion, antiSemitism, fanaticism and so on, if only there were to be some secular, purely democratic uprising. Now that we got it, we are afraid. Like what's going on? New dangers and so on, and I compared this in my tasteless nature, since we talk about sex, with did you see Francois Truffauts film Day For Night? Well, its a sad story. A young boy wants to sleep with a street girl. Finally they are alone and he tells her "Okay, now we are alone by a lake. Let's do it quickly, and so on. Oh, I am dreaming for years to screw you" and the girl simply says "Okay, why not? and starts to unbutton her trousers and he is in a total panic. Like, how, do you mean just like that or whatever? Aren't we a little bit like that, towards Egypt, I mean? You know why? Because they did what we demanded from them and the result is shock. So the tragedy is another one. My hope is with Tahrir Square. My hope is with Musabi. I was deeply involved supporting Musabi in Iran. Why? Because Musabi precisely was the way I see it and I know very well the situation there. He is definitely not the (indistinct) corruption but he is also not a so called pro-Western liberal and so on. Hes something authentically third way, which is why we, in the West, get such difficulty to place where does he belong, Musabi. For some people its the same as (indistinct). It doesnt matter. For so again, all my admiration goes to Tahrir Square and my whole point was precisely "Don't assimilate it into a simple pro-Western uprising" and so on and so on. TONY JONES: Okay, lets hear from Mona. MONA ELTAHAWY: Well, Zizek, you know why - you know why the West - so called West - is having such a hard time with this, because for such a long time they only saw the people from the Middle East and North Africa, where I come from, as either psychopaths or dictators or lunatic fundamentalists and the rest of us who were in the middle and we kept saying, look, hello, theres a whole bunch of us here that are neither... TONY JONES: Why do you say the west is having a hard time with this when... MONA ELTAHAWY: Ill tell you why. TONY JONES: ...another way of looking at it would be that many in the West are sighing with relief that democracy is finally coming to these companies. MONA ELTAHAWY: Let me tell you... TONY JONES: Im not necessarily talking about the leaders that back the dictators but people. MONA ELTAHAWY: Yes. Let me tell you what happens when I give these talks in various American campuses. I get questions like, What in the Egyptian fabric prepares you for freedom? like were some kind of fucking barbarians who don't know how to live our own lives and the reason that we have been unable to live our own lives in our countries is because these very people who elected these very governments stood in our way and they knew it and I want to talk about the leaders though, because the United States right now, just four or five days ago, they called our Supreme Council of Mubaraks, which are

now, just four or five days ago, they called our Supreme Council of Mubaraks, which are the 19 military men who currently run Egypt, all Mubaraks friends, Hillary Clinton called them a force of stability and continuity, just what she used to call Mubarak. The United States is about to sell Bahrain $53 million of weapons, to do what: Kill its own people. And the United States says were doing this because Bahrain is a force of continuity and stability. And American people do not - I mean not just American people but the whole point of my lecture here yesterday, for anyone who attended - for those who didnt attend it was called Hypocrisy rhymes with Democracy - right here in Australia too, you guys are having a hard time because you guys also are scared of the Muslim men with beards because you guys do not see the nuances of where I come from. Its not just in America. TONY JONES: Let me throw that to Greg Sheridan to see if he agrees with you? GREG SHERIDAN: Well, you know, I don't want to be a party pooper here and spoil the good fun but we actually have to take each of these countries separately and the situations are very complicated and theyre very contested. We don't know how to feel about the Arab Spring yet, because we don't know how it is going to work out. One thing that we don't discuss very often is that the Egyptian economy... TONY JONES: We do support democracy thought, don't we? GREG SHERIDAN: Of course. TONY JONES: I mean, thats - so we know about that. GREG SHERIDAN: Of course. Of course, yeah. TONY JONES: We know that much, dont we? GREG SHERIDAN: Yeah, of course. But the mere fact that somebody votes you doesn't make you a good guy. A lot of people voted for Adolf Hitler. Doesnt make him a good guy and one thing we dont discuss in Egypt, for example... TONY JONES: So, well, let me just ask you very briefly, would you rather see Mubarak still there because of the stability he represents? GREG SHERIDAN: No. No. No. Of course not. No. No. No. No. Certainly not. TONY JONES: No. GREG SHERIDAN: No, and I - and theres a lot to be encouraged about about the Arab spring and wonderful people, liberals, friends of mine are involved in it and working their guts out. But two points I want to make to you, Tony. One is that the Egyptian economy is absolutely on the rack and eventually every political system, whether its democracy or something else, has to deliver something to its people. One of the things it has to deliver is bread. The second point Id make is that the situation in Egypt and in all those North African countries is fiercely contested and some of the people Im privileged to know, who are great people who are involved in the contest, and some of the people in the contest have very evil ideologies. The people who... MONA ELTAHAWY: Who? Who has the evil ideology? GREG SHERIDAN: Well, I think the Muslim Brotherhood, according to my friend Tarek

GREG SHERIDAN: Well, I think the Muslim Brotherhood, according to my friend Tarek Heggy, is unreformed. Its moderation is fake. Its temporary and tactical and its internally split. I understand there are a lot of nuances. You cant do it all in a short TV program but there are a lot of diehard serious Islamists there filled with extremist ideology. MONA ELTAHAWY: But let's talk about the Muslim Brotherhood getting into Parliament, which they will, because they will be voted in because they are Egyptian and they represent a good number of Egyptians. They don't represent me. I am not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I would vote for someone else. But lets talk about the Muslim Brotherhood getting... GREG SHERIDAN: Well, according to them youre not never allowed to be President because you are a woman. MONA ELTAHAWY: Hold on. Hold on. And thats wrong and if they don't change that platform and that platform - that point in their platform is coming under a great deal of attack by young members of the Muslim Brotherhood. But lets talk about the Muslim Brotherhood entering parliament. The Muslim Brotherhood will then have to deliver to the people who voted for them. The Muslim Brotherhood and whoever else is in the Egyptian Parliament will have to fix roads, will have to fix subway lines, will have to fix the curriculum, i.e. they will have to be politicians. What concerns me, as an Egyptian who is secular and liberal and not going to vote for the Muslim Brotherhood, is that we have a constitution that guarantees I can vote them in and vote them out, so you cant just sit there and say the Muslim Brotherhood is evil. No, the Muslim Brotherhood will be evil if they don't deliver on what the constituents want them to deliver. So I urge you not to just let this evil ideology... GREG SHERIDAN: I hope that democracy works that way. I hope that democracy works that way. TONY JONES: Im going to interrupt this dialogue over here just to bring in this side. KATE ADIE: I do think - I do think that we have a contemporary habit of expecting democracy to spring instantly. If you look at Iraq and Afghanistan, its going to take a long time, particularly in Afghanistan and I think we expect it. We expect next week somebody to get parliamentary elections. We expect people to sort out political parties ala western states. Its not going to happen like that. We took 800 years in Britain to get from a king running everything, with the religious people right next to him laying down the law, to a form of parliamentary democracy. It took us 800 years. TONY JONES: Hang on, weve got a couple of people in the audience with their hands up... SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Can I... TONY JONES: Actually you will but I want to hear from our audience as well. So a quick comment from both of these two people with their hands up, starting with you. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, Mr Sheridan, communism in its purist form is about spreading the wealth around and whoever people are, they may be able to concede there have been some bad Labor Prime Ministers in this country but whenever (indistinct) TONY JONES: Okay, Im sorry you are - Im going to interrupt - Im going to interrupt you

TONY JONES: Okay, Im sorry you are - Im going to interrupt - Im going to interrupt you because youre actually off topic. No, sorry, youre off topic. Let's go to this person. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Do you think democracy could work better if there was a separation between religion and state. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Yeah, okay, Slavoj. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Yeah, first, if I may just return to the previous question. Its a very important point. Where I nonetheless disagree and I think I will say something terribly politically correct now, it just may be slight racist overturns is this idea of, oh, but Arabs need hundreds of years. Sorry, Afghanistan, as I said yesterday, 40 years ago was a very tolerant multicultural country. Afghanistan is not an old traditional country, which now we slowly have to bring to civilisation. When I was young I was in Afghanistan as a child. I saw in Herat, the other city (indistinct) Afghanistan, as you know, 40 years ago shared a relatively enlightened pro-Western monarch, had a strong local communist party and so on. The way Afghanistan was caught into world politics made it fundamentalist. It is not there a primitive country that we have to civilise. We screwed it up. MONA ELTAHAWY: Zizek. Zizek. I want to say something else to what you were saying, Greg, and it touches on what youre saying, religion and politics. You know, you talk about the Muslim Brotherhood, lets took about the Christian Brotherhood of the United States because I always tell my American friends we might have the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt but there is a Christian Brotherhood in the United States and the Christian Brotherhood in the United States, unlike the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, has actually had an impact on foreign policy because George Bush apparently heard God tell him to invade Iraq and in the name of this... GREG SHERIDAN: Where did George Bush ever say that? Thats ridiculous. MONA ELTAHAWY: You want me to get that for you from the news conference? GREG SHERIDAN: Yeah, you show me the quote. MONA ELTAHAWY: I will. I will. I will email it to you. GREG SHERIDAN: That is complete rubbish. MONA ELTAHAWY: I will send it to you by Twitter. No, its actually true. GREG SHERIDAN: George W Bush never said that. MONA ELTAHAWY: He did. He did. GREG SHERIDAN: You made it up. MONA ELTAHAWY: No, I did not make it up. GREG SHERIDAN: Theres something in your coffee. MONA ELTAHAWY: No, actually, no. I wish. TONY JONES: Hang on. Hang on. Jon wants to get in here.

TONY JONES: Hang on. Hang on. Jon wants to get in here. MONA ELTAHAWY: Wait. Wait. Wait. Let me finish. Let me finish. TONY JONES: On his behalf, Im going to say, please let Jon come in. JON RONSON: No, can I just say that, just to support what Mona said, George Bush not only said that, but he had his... MONA ELTAHAWY: Thank you. TONY JONES: He had a presidential prayer team who would meet every week and pray for... MONA ELTAHAWY: Exactly. Thank you. Thank you. And the Christian Brotherhood of the United States... GREG SHERIDAN: You can mock George W Bush for saying prayers ... JON RONSON: Im not. But - no, no. This isnt mocking. GREG SHERIDAN: ...but thats not same as saying... MONA ELTAHAWY: Its not about prayers he said - didn't he say, God told me to liberate Iraq"? GREG SHERIDAN: ...that God told him to invade Iraq? JON RONSON: Yeah, this is... MONA ELTAHAWY: He did. He did. And not just that... TONY JONES: And this is the... GREG SHERIDAN: No, he didn't. No. No. No. That's completely crazy. Thats... MONA ELTAHAWY: And beyond that, the Christian Coalition in the United States has consistently had an impact on US foreign policy vis--vis Israel, on US foreign policy generally. You have a Christian Coalition in the United States that has power, even though I live in a country that supposedly has separation between religion and state. So dont breach to the Middle East and North Africa about separating religion and state when you have a Christian fundamentalist president who says, Im invading a country because God told me to give them freedom. TONY JONES: Okay. Okay. GREG SHERIDAN: No, thats complete rubbish. MULTIPLE SPEAKERS TALK AT ONCE GREG SHERIDAN: Thats complete rubbish. Complete rubbish. TONY JONES: Hold on. Hold on.

TONY JONES: Hold on. Hold on. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Sorry, but in... GREG SHERIDAN: He never said that. He never said that and nowhere in any of his justifications for the actions of Iraq or any of John Howards justifications is there anything like that. MONA ELTAHAWY: I cant speak for John Howard. I dont know how fundamentalist he is... GREG SHERIDAN: Thats just complete baloney. MONA ELTAHAWY: ...but Ill get you Bush. TONY JONES: Okay, Im going to change tack. GREG SHERIDAN: Just absolute rubbish. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: No. No. No. Sorry. Sorry. TONY JONES: No, Im sorry, Im in charge here. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: No. No. But... TONY JONES: Im sorry. Lets move along. Our next question comes from Eleanor Doyle Markwick. WIKILEAKS AND ASSANGE00:37:50 ELEANOR DOYLE This question is again for Slavoj. Youre a supporter of - I apologise, Tony. Youre a supporter of Julian Assange. I too support his push for open transparent government; however, I don't believe the anonymity and safety of dissidents should be sacrificed to the cause. Do you agree or are redacted documents, like sex with a condom, just not as good? SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Okay, let me... TONY JONES: Okay. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: It is a long story, yes, but let me be very... TONY JONES: Just go to the summary. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Yeah. Yeah. But just, okay, I will start with, you know what... TONY JONES: No. No. No. No. Were... SLAVOJ ZIZEK: No, when you said God and so on, sorry, but the standard argument with all my mega sympathy for Israel, but it worries me how the western civilisation can pretend to be secular and so on and then the answer I get from American politicians, it can be put in a more refined way, like it is cultural. My God, one of the guys (indistinct)...

TONY JONES: Slavoj, no, Im going to interrupt you. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: ...said - said Israel, God gave them the country. Sorry, in the state of Israel (indistinct)... TONY JONES: Were not talking about God now. Were talking about Julian Assange. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Okay. Okay. TONY JONES: Some people... SLAVOJ ZIZEK: I will go back to Assange. TONY JONES: Some people may think they are the same thing. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: What to say about that condom stuff and so on. Listen, I know the story in detail because I have friends in Sweden. I think this is a ridiculous excess of political correctness which will backfire on the women because it is a fake thing. TONY JONES: No. No. No. No. No. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: She asked about condoms? TONY JONES: No, that was - no. No. No. MONA ELTAHAWY: It was an - sorry. Im sorry but that was an analogy. She was simply saying that the lack of protection for the dissidents who actually were named in the cables, exposed by WikiLeaks... MONA ELTAHAWY: Protection. The theme is protection. MONA ELTAHAWY: ...meant that they didn't have the sort of protection you might have with a condom if you were having sex. Its an analogy. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let me go quickly then. You know whats for me the - why do I support Assange? First, I think that, on the contrary, what he did with documents was extremely restrained, double checking and so on. Where did this crazy idea come that hes just throwing them out? But something else is important. TONY JONES: Well, it came right from the very beginning actually when the first tranche of Afghan military documents were released and people who were informants were named. So people who had been talking to the American and Australian military were named in the documents. Their names were not redacted. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Then, okay, lets not go into detail. We can go there but... TONY JONES: Well, theyre important these details. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Well, no, no, no, no, no, because I would contest this in detail. I know in detail the story. TONY JONES: Okay.

TONY JONES: Okay. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: What fascinated me in Afghanistan or Northern Iraq, its crucial, is that shot, shot from a camera from a helicopter, where you can clearly see - I don't know who are, maybe Taliban, I dont care - but some soldiers clearly explicitly wanting to surrender to the Americans. The helicopter pilot phones back what do? Basically he get the message, Shoot them. We take no prisoners" and so on. So, okay, but another point... TONY JONES: Sorry, that was in Iraq, so they weren't Taliban. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But let me get to my point finally. The point about Assange is not what we learn. Did we really learn anything new globally? No, it just what we expected. Its, you know, life is hypocritical in the sense that there are things that are going on but we allow those in power to pretend to act as if they don't go on. That's why it is important. It is not what we learned. Its that those in power cannot pretend to act as if this is not going on. TONY JONES: Yeah. Slavoj, No, just - just... SLAVOJ ZIZEK: And I think this far outweighs all the problems. TONY JONES: Yeah, weve got to find an end to a sentence at some point. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Yeah. Yeah. TONY JONES: Just We will go to Jon. JON RONSON: Slavoj, in saying let's not go detail, what you did with a wave of your hand was dismiss somebody who puts ideology over human life and human safety. It was despicable what Assange did to send out these documents and he was asked, wasnt he, at one point "Well, what about the safety of the people that you named?" and he said, "Well, if they work for - I mean, I believe this is true. He said, well, if they work for the government, then they're fair game". I mean thats - to put ideology over life is a terrible thing and, you know, is this not what we are all doing here? Are we not just kind of reaching, you know, because of this kind of fetishisation of extreme ideological positions on television and in politics and so on? You know its, you know, the more respected somebody is, it relates to how ideological, how extreme their position is and, you know, this is a problem in our world, uncertainty and doubt. MULTIPLE SPEAKERS TALK AT ONCE TONY JONES: No. No. All right, but I just want to hear this... SLAVOJ ZIZEK: (Indistinct) TONY JONES: Fair enough. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: I think the (indistinct) of life that you are using here is pure ideology. TONY JONES: Okay. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: I don't have time to explain it but...

TONY JONES: No, fair enough. I want to hear from Kate. KATE ADIE: Well, as a journalist, I think I begin to wonder and looking at all that Assange did is, first of all, what governments do and that very few of us actively think about how much governments keep secret and what they do in their name and what they do to protect people who do things which they do not want public and whether that desire not to have it public is right or wrong. We are all, in democracies, lazy about this. Vast numbers of countries have all kinds of laws which say "Whatever the government does can be kept secret for years and years and years" and we go "Mmmm". And we don't think Why? And I think were lazy about deciding what should be secret, what your government should keep from you, as an ordinary citizen, and what it should do to protect, if we agree, those people who might be vulnerable, whom the government thinks should stay out of the public eye. Were lazy about it. We just say "Oh, yeah, the government doesn't tell us". Well, if in a democracy, we should be inquiring. We should know where those decisions are made. We have... TONY JONES: Im going to go across to Mona and you can perhaps give us an assessment of whether WikiLeaks played a significant role in the Arab Spring? MONA ELTAHAWY: Right. Im so glad you asked me this. You mean the WikiLeaks Revolution? Not. Nothing - nothing pisses people off in the Middle East more than hearing these revolutions and uprisings were WikiLeaks revolutions, for many reasons. Primarily, in a country like Tunisia and even in Egypt, none of the major media outlets especially those state controlled, were allowed to publish cablegate, so we were reading about these things outside of the region. So the scenario didn't go Muhammad Bouazizi picked up the newspaper in Sidi Bouzid, thought "Oh, my God, my regime is so corrupt, Im going to go out there and overthrow them." It didn't work like that. And, second of all, the people in the region, just like you were saying, Zizek, they all knew of the stuff. They all knew - they were dying for the international community to say something. They pleaded - all these activists used to plead with the various Western governments that propped up the dictators to stop propping them up because they were so corrupt. So they knew all of this. TONY JONES: Mona, can I just interrupt there, because Assange makes the argument because of cablegate, because of all this material being out there, that the Western governments were not able to intervene to prop up those dictatorships during the Arab Spring? Thats his argument. MONA ELTAHAWY: Oh, they continued to. My God, did you see - did you see how long it took for the US Administration, for example, to actually get on the right side and say the right thing? They fumbled around for days and to this day they continue to say the Supreme Military Council of Mubaraks, as I call them, is a force of stability and continuity. If anything, cablegate and what WikiLeaks has been revealing is the need - there should be a revolution in DC. There should be a revolution here. The revolution belongs outside because basically whats happening is the supposedly democratically elected governments are hypocrites and if you didnt know before, now you know. What are you going to do about it? Thats the revolution. MULTIPLE SPEAKERS TALK AT ONCE TONY JONES: Yeah, lets hear from...

KATE ADIE: Weve all got lazy about it. That is what it is. GREG SHERIDAN: I actually think... KATE ADIE: In are so many democracies now, we take having a vote for granted. GREG SHERIDAN: I actually think the less... TONY JONES: Okay. All right. KATE ADIE: We just dont get off our butts and do anything. TONY JONES: Im just going to hear from Greg down the end. GREG SHERIDAN: I think the political lesson out of WikiLeaks is something quite different and youll be astonished to hear, Mona, that I may disagree with you on this point. MONA ELTAHAWY: I'm shocked. GREG SHERIDAN: I know you are. I know you are but, you know, thats we aim to - we aim to please, we in the love media, but I think the big lesson out of WikiLeaks is that democracies tell the truth and dictatorships tell lies. MONA ELTAHAWY: What? What? How? How? GREG SHERIDAN: What was fascinating out of WikiLeaks - well, if youll let me, Ill explain. What was fascinating out of WikiLeaks was Mahmoud Abbas begging Israel to take action against the Hamas, the Saudis begging the Americans to take action against the Iranians and in the broader sense, everything the Americans and the Australian governments was telling us was broadly true. You remember, Tony, on this program, John Pilger said I should be scared about the WikiLeaks mother-load because it would have all this terrible stuff. I finally found myself in a cable the other day. I was so thrilled but I can't get into the paper because it was quoting a published column that I wrote. TONY JONES: Okay. All right. Okay. GREG SHERIDAN: And we - we journalists have nothing to fear from WikiLeaks. MONA ELTAHAWY: Tony, Tony, Tony. TONY JONES: Yeah, okay, very briefly, because weve got another question at least, we need to come to, and weve got very little time to do that. MONA ELTAHAWY: I cannot believe that you spew such nonsense as democracies tell the truth. How, based on what WikiLeaks showed, are you able to actually say that with a straight face? What WikiLeaks showed us is that these governments knew what was happening but they were so hypocritical and they did nothing and said nothing and continued to sell weapons... GREG SHERIDAN: No, thats not true.

MONA ELTAHAWY: ...and continued to have business deals with these bastards. What are you talking about? GREG SHERIDAN: Almost - almost everything - almost everything that weve found in WikiLeaks as Slavoj said, we already knew. Almost everything we found we already knew. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, everybody else. TONY JONES: Okay. All right. Thats what Mr Zizek said. So very briefly, Jon, you want to get in. JON RONSON: Yeah, well, I mean, talking about cables that come out, the students in the Arab Spring who went into the security buildings and took out the papers that hadn't been shredded, it was full of British companies offering, in secret deals, to tell equipment to Mubarak. Buying equipment through email and so on. So to say... GREG SHERIDAN: But British companies aren't the British government and I wouldn't defend the Brits. I'm an Irishman for God's sake. TONY JONES: Okay. All right. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Sorry. Weve got another question. You won't be disappointed. This is Q&A live from the Festival of Very Dangerous Ideas. Our next question comes from Oliver Damian. CAPITALISM AND EVOLUTION 00:48:40 OLIVER DAMIAN: My question is to the panel. If the selfish and blind pursuit of genes to propagate is what drove single cells to evolve into complex life forms, which includes us, can we say that the blind pursuit of profit is what drives civilisation forward and we should not stop it just because we don't like what we see now given that the future cannot be fully imagined by someone on a lower level of evolution. TONY JONES: Slavoj? SLAVOJ ZIZEK: It may be too philosophical question but just a brief point. You know we dont have time for theory now, I know, but, you know, people usually claim capitalism is egotist just profit seeking. No, I claim that what all good Marxist anthologists know Capitalism is implicitly, in a perverted way, religiously ethical. Its capital must circulate, even if we all drop dead and so on, like its - you have a metaphysical entity which has priority over our most immediate utilitarian concerns. So, for me, what we need against capitalist greed is not some Christian morality but good, old fashioned utilitarian egotism. TONY JONES: Are you calling for the return of Marxism, aren't you? I mean... SLAVOJ ZIZEK: That's another complicated question but nonetheless to answer idiot stuff. TONY JONES: Not so complicated. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: You know I will give you a prediction... TONY JONES: No. No. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Very short. Very short, really.

SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Very short. Very short, really. TONY JONES: Yep, okay. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: What - to the gentlemans question before, what will happen? What will happen probably, 90%, not 100, is in Egypt a pact between the army and the Muslim Brotherhood. MONA ELTAHAWY: Its already happening, Zizek. Its already happening. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Yeah. The deal will be you, Muslim Brotherhood, get more or less ideological hegemony. We keep our corruption. And I guarantee you this pact will be blessed by the United States as force of (indistinct). TONY JONES: The question was... MONA ELTAHAWY: It pays 40% of the Egyptian Army budget. It continues to bless it. TONY JONES: To all of you, yeah, its good to be able to continue the previous question but weve had another question. You said it was philosophical and it is. Its actually about the nature of capitalism and whether its actually the best way forward. Let's hear from Kate. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: I only claim its just the structure of religion. TONY JONES: Lets hear from Kate Adie. KATE ADIE: One of the things politicians so frequently talk about is that there must be more growth. More jobs means better incomes for people, means a house, means having a nicer life in a material sense and there is quite a lot of thought nowadays perhaps, coming from some quarters, about, well, is growth the thing we mean? When we go over the green fields, we eat all the field, we suck the goodness from the land so it is hard to do anything. We do ever more in the way of smart travel and at greater speed and I think there is a good argument but not a popular one and when - its one of the things which we are all embracing: wouldn't it be wonderful if we just grew our own vegetables and we didnt get into the car and use all of this petrol and we didn't need new clothes every so often. Its a wonderful idea, except for me. But the idea of growth, per se, I think does need to be questioned, not at the cost of not letting people who are hungry stay hungry and theres the difficult thing in this world. But I do think we need to think about how we could live life and be happier and warm, comfortable and full of food without endlessly building more, destroying the environment and living at a greater speed. TONY JONES: Let's go to Jon. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: I agree with you only on one point. I dont think people want to be (indistinct) TONY JONES: Slavoj, your name is not Jon. This is Jon. JON RONSON: Yeah, no, Kate is absolutely right. Capitalism isn't the problem, growth is the problem. When you have companies I know youre going to hate this but when you have companies that take psychopathy as a business model, like the American health insurance industry, where theyll try everything they can to deny claims - I told the story a

insurance industry, where theyll try everything they can to deny claims - I told the story a couple of weeks ago of a little girl who died of leukaemia because her health insurance company found a loophole and denied her the claim, that's the problem. Now, you know, is capitalism to blame for that? No, what the problem in that is this kind of lust for - for growth. KATE ADIE: And theres a classic one in the pharmacology companies and the pharmaceutical companies in the medicalisation of the human conditions. You need a bill. You do this, you do that and you get a pill. It costs money. JON RONSON: Well, you know that the manual of mental disorders used to be a pamphlet 65 pages. Its not 886 pages. Now, its got... GREG SHERIDAN: But my problem is I dont think evolution explains all of life so it shouldnt explain all (indistinct). JON RONSON: And you realise that the Pharmaceutical Institute of American is actually creating disorders, such as (indistinct)... MONA ELTAHAWY: Tony... SLAVOJ ZIZEK: (Indistinct) TONY JONES: Can I just ask you, Slavoj, I will take the risk and ask you a question. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Your own risk. Your own risk, yeah. TONY JONES: Okay. Well, I mean, do you really see a return to communism, Marxism, as the answer? SLAVOJ ZIZEK: No. TONY JONES: Because... SLAVOJ ZIZEK: No. No. As I said yesterday... TONY JONES: Don't be afraid, join us. Come back. Youve had your anti-Communist fun. Its time to get serious again. SLAVOJ ZIZEK: Okay, I can tell you more jokes. TONY JONES: Who said that? SLAVOJ ZIZEK: But what Im simply saying is that we are obviously approaching today some serious problems, ecology and so on. I don't think, in the long term, these problems can be solved within the liberal capitalist democratic frame. I am the first to admit, my gosh Im sorry to inform you, but I was a kind of a dissident. I was five years unemployed. I was not allowed to teach. So all Im saying is that the problems are still here which are the problems of commons - the problems of communism. As I said yesterday, communism is obviously not an answer, the 20th century Communism. But sorry to tell you, the problems are here. They will not run away. MONA ELTAHAWY: Tony. Tony.

MONA ELTAHAWY: Tony. Tony. TONY JONES: Yeah, Mona. MONA ELTAHAWY: Id like to answer your question actually, by answering it along with two other questions. So its going to be your question, WikiLeaks and the Arab Spring, quote, unquote, because... TONY JONES: As long as its quick. MONA ELTAHAWY: I will try to talk very fast. If you follow the hash tag Occupy movement that is spreading across the United States, it started in New York on Wall Street as a reaction against corporate greed and also some people were saying too much money invested in politics. How was it inspired? It was inspired by seeing people across the Middle East and North Africa rising up against their various regimes and chanting things like "Bread, freedom and social justice". Theyre not calling for communism but theyre calling for a system in which everybody - everybody feels a part of and theyre not. In the United States we have more than 40 million people uninsured. I spent five years of my life recently, because I began as a freelancer, uninsured, in a country where you break a leg, go to hospital and youre bankrupt. So its spreading across the US because people recognise this. And I went to the Wall Street thing and it was encapsulated for me, the first day of the protest, where you had kids on the street saying "Where my bail out?" and you had these rich men in suits and women in fancy clothes sipping champagne at Ciprianis and taunting the people on the street and youre thinking this is wrong. This is where its wrong. TONY JONES: Okay. All right. John. Briefly well have to wrap up. JON RONSON: Can I just say that a psychologist called Philip Tetlock recently completed a 20 year study where he studied people like us, sort of pundits on telephone, people who had kind of strong opinions and he asked them 28,000 predictions over a 20 year period. Anyone it turned out that a flick of a coin would have been more accurate, so I just think we should bear that in mind when we (indistinct). TONY JONES: Okay, thats quite a good - okay, we dont have time to flip the coin. Sadly, thats all we have time for. Please thank the Sydney Opera House and our wonderful panel of dangerous thinkers: Kate Adie, Slavoj Zizek, Jon Ronson, Mona Eltahawy and Greg Sheridan. Okay. On October 17, well be presenting Q&A in Darwin, so if you can be there on that night, go to our website and register to join the audience. Next week on Q&A we head back to politics with the Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten; the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Julie Bishop; celebrated novelist and essayist Richard Flanagan; the lawyer who led the discrimination action against Andrew Bolt, Ron Merkel QC; and News Limited journalist and author Caroline Overington. Until then, goodnight.

How Q&A unfolded according to a selection from the #qanda twitter stream
In the #qanda studio audience tonight: ALP 36%, COALITION 46%, GREENS 12%. abcqanda 19:05 oooh #qanda is going to be good tonight! Zizek!! dianabossio 19:05 we're off to #qanda at the Opera House thanks to #FODI! applespiel 19:44

we're off to #qanda at the Opera House thanks to #FODI! applespiel 19:44 Looking forward to tonight's #qanda AlexHawkeMP 20:07 ....live from the Opera House...when Tony Jones sings, #qanda begins.. cash_4_comment 20:34 #qanda juicy lineup h_e_l_e_n_j 20:36 Yes! New glasses means I will actually be able to read the tweets on #qanda tonight. nicklaus_mahony 20:39 3.5wks overseas without #qanda ... tonight we are reunited. #EXCITEMENT++ tashtonic 20:39 I've got a feeling its going to be a big #qanda tonight. gelp_helpgovern 20:44 Looking forward to #qanda tonight! Narcissistslife 20:47 #qanda Should be intriguing tonight. Hoping for a fiery night! AnthonyVarenica 20:49 Slavoj Zizek is on #qanda tonight! going to be epic! _stretts 20:54 #qanda Bring it! catherine805 21:05 Writer and psychopath.........expert, Jon Ronson #qanda chrisurquhart 21:19 forecast: livetweetin' me some Zizek on #qanda tdneale 21:20 no politicians on #qanda! I'm getting excited roserosearose 21:20 Everybody prepared? #qanda DrShukhov 21:21 #qanda Zizek: What are your thoughts on Madrid May 15 movement & Occupy WallStreet? fictitiousmoney 21:31 I hope #Zizek gives his Kinder surprise analogy on #qanda tonight. JamesBrann 21:31 #qanda looking forward to see #Zizek 'my god!' theJBJshow 21:32 Commies!!! #qanda benmcginnes 21:33 Go @jonronson on #qanda!! AndyRace 21:33 I'm excited! #qanda KateDorrell 21:33 Slavoj Zizek's Beard > Greg Sheridan's Beard #qanda jonathonoake 21:33 Freshly brewed cup of tea, comfy pants, ugg boots. It must be #qanda time! shannonelawton 21:33 Oh goodie. Jon Ronson on #QandA sezadams 21:34 Checking out the panel for tonight... We have a "firebrand philosopher"... Sound's painful. #qanda jakekapitz 21:34 ZOMG Slavoj Zizek on #qanda jeremy_kennedy 21:34 #qanda time. This one should be good... sallyr 21:35 Ready to #QandA! FakeAshPunch 21:35 Probably a bit too excited... #qanda owrangle 21:36 There he is, charming and dashing as ever. #qanda gmanual 21:36 what do I have to do to become legendary? #qanda katieyelizabeth 21:36 Kate Adie is cool #QandA NicHalley 21:36 The festival of dangerous sexual ideas. #QandA MolksPolitica 21:37 Consensual sex: clearly dangerous. #qanda cibyr 21:37 Oooh, this'll be a good episode. #qanda chrisjrn 21:37 I'm embracing rolypolyamory #qanda tip66 21:37 I can't wait for Zizek to baffle everyone involved #qanda Fashigady 21:37 Dangerous idea is that people can love multiple people? #qanda xayma 21:37 Maybe tonight #qanda will address something other than Abbott's talking points of boats & carbon. DarcyCouncillor 21:38 Starting with sex. I love a pollie-free #qanda isErinLeigh 21:38 #qanda what about rules made by old women Tom_Sawyer11 21:38 Haha love that #qanda starts off with a question about polygamy! theValnt 21:38 Sexuality is a fluid concept and society should recognise it as such. #qanda clareology 21:38

The first question on #QandA is on free love. Where did I put my coupon? Leighlo 21:38 Kate Adie has the most amazing speaking voice. How could you ever be wrong when you sound like that? #qanda tomshearman 21:38 Wow - not the usual suspects on the #qanda panel. troywheatley 21:38 Can you ask Jon Ronsen to explain 'The Men Who Stare at Goats'. Watched it on weekend. A little strange! #qanda NewcMum 21:38 Kate Adie's a bit of a babe isn't she #qanda CassPF 21:38 My question: Would the entire panel prove their open-mindedness by doing each other? #QandA danieljohnhall 21:38 Wow. Something that isn't about Australian politics. This is a breath of fresh air! #QandA JB_AU 21:38 #qanda I can't wait to hear what Jon ronson has to say! Great episode tonight dancingbaconman 21:39 #qanda honesty is the best policy in all relationships iveedeevee 21:39 #qanda lol Zizek looks a character wontletyoufly 21:39 lol I love Slavoj Zizek #qanda SayaReb 21:39 surely polynamy will ruin the sanctity of marriage #QandA psychobutchrant 21:39 YES. This is what #qanda needs every week. A CRAZY SLOVENIAN. binnsy 21:40 Now thats what I call gesticulating #qanda JamieKennedy92 21:40 Zizek's manner of speaking is immediately engaging. No wonder there are no politicians on tonight's #qanda. pedestrienne 21:40 polyamory is complex and challenging, but something worth pursuing for some people #qanda danehunnerup 21:40 I love when #qanda gets philosophical AND sexual LordSpunkington 21:40 I want to be a Vulcan philosopher when I grow up. #qanda emmsyish 21:40 I admire any fellow who follows the philosophy of Groucho Marx. #qanda dolmiogrin 21:40 #qanda "we live in strange times" modernistdream 21:40 This panel would be improved by Meatloaf. #qanda NeilMcMahon 21:41 The word 'masturbation' on #qanda - this is the channel known as aunty right? AndrewMusgrove1 21:41 Slavcjk has a once in a generation mind #qanda dagnabbit_ 21:41 Zizek is not disappointing! #qanda Lobethal 21:41 I believe that is called bigamy? #QandA afrahfazli 21:41 Sexuality is just a way for people to identify themselves. Love is love. #qanda GeordieCrawley 21:41 One person's polyamoury is another person's Saturday night#qanda leisa07 21:41 What is a transgression is not sex. LOL! #qanda Yaking_Jacy 21:41 Zizek is on #qanda ! I'm so happy! Talk sexy to us baby! _Soliloquy_ 21:41 Slavoj is going off like a frog in a sock #qanda raphec 21:42 #qanda no such thing as a selfless act, a partner in sex is extended masturbation kathadactyl 21:42 Sex without love, fine. Sex without respect, you're doing it wrong #qanda pre_dessert 21:42 #qanda is releasing previously suppressed sexual energy VanessaVumbaca 21:42 #Zizek just wants some love #qanda eilnay 21:42 Oh so worth it #qanda minilu 21:42 Don't knock it until you've tried it twice, Tony ;) #qanda RantRotAndRuin 21:42 I am in love with this panel. HELLA awesome! #qanda MiranHosny 21:42 I don't understand the question let alone the answer! #qanda ChiefLocal 21:42 What is dangerous about the idea of someone loving more than one person? #QandA Chrisd_Owens 21:42

Chrisd_Owens 21:42 Zizek very lively, energetic and funny...this is going to be sweet #qanda katielambeski 21:43 oh no, mona clearly hasn't listened to @stephenfry, the expert on female sexuality #qanda caedwa 21:43 Ten minutes in and this #qanda is more interested that anything this year semiordinaryjoe 21:43 Everyone looks likes they r blushing just a tiny bit on #qanda tonight. #cute productivewords 21:43 Isn't polyamoury just another form of pluralism - ie cultural, social, political, religious etc? #qanda KathyReid 21:43 All-star panel! #qanda mattkaplan_ 21:43 We do not care about women's sex drives. #qanda chamberswun 21:43 How is there 'integrity' when a person loves many? #qanda the_rovingeye 21:43 Are you trying to tell me women want as much sex as men? Oh, please woman. #youaintfoolinganybody #qanda EmmaOBarnett 21:43 Greg Sheridan is about to put up his hand and say he's in the wrong classroom. #qanda samcgray 21:43 Greg Sheridan should just leave now. He has been defeated without opening his mouth. #qanda Dr_Tad 21:44 World would be a better place if people were left to get on with doing their own thing #qanda Bill2063 21:44 #qanda can't wait for Sheridan's response SJMcLachlan 21:44 Encouraging women to have frivolous sex as a political statement is just so profoundly misguided. #QandA shauncrowe 21:44 Omigod, could this panel make orgies sound any more tedious? #qanda carolinemarcus 21:44 societies pressure on women is both to be virginal and chaste AND to be sexual and arousing. #qanda feminaust 21:44 Well the concept sounds cool but it's not all that much to look at I guess #qanda Terraball 21:44 Sex and politics. The new #qanda paulzena 21:44 Our society is deeply afraid of sex #qanda Politicus101 21:44 Such a good point! Agree that if its acceptable for one sex it should be acceptable for both. #qanda acolbran 21:44 Yes! Women love insatiable sex with numerous partners! #qanda mzgevious 21:44 Sex is a political act. Personally, i like to hand out pamphlets and organise a sausage sizzle first. #qanda velvetblaq 21:44 So excited to see Mona Eltahawy #qanda Izzywizzy07 21:44 Pollyamory will only lead to tears, someone will get hurt #qanda tatiboomba 21:44 I feel like I should be paying $5.95 a minute for this #qanda sasha_kingston 21:45 This is possibly the funniest #qanda yet. electric589 21:45 Quirkiest #qanda ever. rockpiggery 21:45 But how is all this going to affect the ANZUS alliance? #LetSheridanSpeak #QandA mfarnsworth 21:45 That Egyptian woman is hot. She can totally be my 3rd wife #qanda SmirkingLiberal 21:45 #qanda Slavoj hand movements have me in stitches Charlottelovesu 21:45 #qanda love the panel wfdejean 21:45 You dont need pollies on #qanda to get good arguments RugbyWIS 21:45 How sad that in today's world, love and sex are bundled in as exactly the same thing #qanda michael_paynter 21:46 Polyamory is like chocolate sauce on a wedding cake: why refuse what makes you

Polyamory is like chocolate sauce on a wedding cake: why refuse what makes you happy? #qanda danielmittens 21:46 Digging the comparison between journalism and polyamorous lovin' #qanda #newsorgy AshtonRigg 21:46 I think we really should talk about sex all night, #qanda tsarsally 21:47 psychopaths are not a thing #qanda uueaver 21:47 We can't spend all night talking about sex, we're not a commercial network #qanda josh_shuttlebus 21:47 "We can't spend all night talking about sex, we have other subjects.." Watch the ratings drop #qanda JarrodJ 21:47 Sex and psychopaths - best #qanda ever. narguise 21:47 #qanda psychopaths rule the world...unfortunately!! Jeremy_Mah 21:47 Psychopaths are all the in financial & mining sectors #Qanda dbvalentine 21:47 Wall Street has most of them. #qanda BlogTyrant 21:47 #qanda Sydney needs more cycle paths. Oh he meant psychopaths... mycophile 21:48 the percent of psychopaths is terrifying #qanda jazglo 21:48 Such fantastically philosophical questions so far - love when #qanda moves past politics. sunberryrocket 21:48 Sex and psychopaths? This is bringing back memories from my last relationship #qanda jellis82 21:48 From sex to psychopaths. Last I checked psychopaths kill people #qanda xHausOfPLURx 21:48 If you can't tell which of the 100 people is the psychopath, it's you. #qanda ninjadrybones35 21:48 Psychopaths and sex. Sweet. #qanda diredamsel 21:48 Doesn't research say that a large number of stockbrokers have psychopathic tendencies? #qanda RobertJGCooper 21:48 Capitalism rewards psychopathy because, at it's core, it's a psychopathic system #qanda LainieEiff 21:48 #QandA how scary, society says we need to be psychopaths to get to the top...scary!!! kid_crustacean 21:48 if capitalism is the problem, what's with the suit? #qanda androosimpson 21:49 #qanda capitalism rewards psychopathy? That explains two of my four bosses in the past ten years. MissTaraBelle 21:49 "Capitalism rewards psychopathy" - Jon Ronson #QandA edumariz 21:49 won't someone think of the psychopaths? #qanda JaimePresley 21:49 Most of australias phsychopaths are in politics! #qanda jengreen86 21:49 We should be more concerned that psychopathic qualities are rewarded to those in business #qanda PGulicher 21:49 Refreshing not to have to listen to political spin #qanda AgentBasil 21:49 Abbott. Hands down #qanda LibbyFordham 21:49 This guy is describing Tony Abbott #qanda JennyEjlak 21:49 If #qanda is wanting to find political psycopaths, look no further than Tony Abbott MLRoo 21:49 A "Facebook Question" - That is the low rent version of a Twitter comment. #qanda MichaelByrnes 21:49 Well said. You can't diagnose anyone without meeting them. If you do, YOU have issues. #qanda Ludicrousitys 21:50 #qanda Jon looks just like John Lennon. Another reason to like him. JaneCaro 21:50 I once had a boss who was a psychopath. Awful when you saw the flashes of it. #qanda divacultura 21:50 I want to hear the rest of the checklist #qanda lizmatkovich 21:50 Our PM may not be a psychopath .... but she's definitely a ranga .. does that count?

Our PM may not be a psychopath .... but she's definitely a ranga .. does that count? #qanda tomdavis23 21:50 #qanda everyone is psycho in their own way but it's to what degree and how much that matters. Maybe? allyvodicka 21:50 #qanda...can you be a good psychopath #qanda miss_mel_j 21:50 I find myself attracted to psychopaths #sexy #qanda voteforbuck 21:50 So Abbott's Speedos count as a uniform... #qanda wolfcat 21:50 people who claim to be psychopaths aren't psychopaths.it's the quiet ones that do the damage #qanda arghyagupta 21:51 This panel is so dangerous I feel like James Bond just for watching. #qanda oz_f 21:51 Why is everyone talking about Cycle Paths? #qanda 1159 21:51 we have to warn them. otherwise they'll run the united states again #qanda terrymarc 21:51 So is anyone on the panel tonight a psychopath? #qanda ElWalks 21:51 When they want to date me, it is usually the first indication they're psychopathic.. #QandA newcastlerox 21:51 I just did the psychopathy checklist and got 100% right #qanda istoddisgood 21:51 Empathy is so underrated and under discussed! #qanda harrycoco 21:51 If the PM is a psychopath then what is Abbott? Freddy Kruger. #qanda Fluffula 21:51 I am not a psychopath but... one of my ex colleagues is :) #qanda geeksrulz 21:51 #qanda psych tests should be compulsory for aspiring politicians. main_man 21:52 Polyamory and Psychopathy. Tonight's #qanda is brought to you by the letter P. TashR 21:52 I have no will to comment on #qanda tonight. For once I'd actually prefer to listen. #excellentpanel annetreasure 21:52 psychopath is just another word for ruthless bastard? This explains alot. #qanda neutze 21:52 I've been out with a few psychopaths. Such highs and lows. They put on quite a show. #qanda Kath_Kirk 21:52 just checked out the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, I ticked nearly all the boxes, kind of worrying #qanda alana_madeline 21:52 How about we just replace #qanda with an hour of Zizek every week? redrabbleroz 21:53 The Slovak is the most hyped up panelist ever on #qanda hdecure 21:53 If so many successful, integrated people are psychopaths then what is the problem with being one? #qanda _muul 21:53 #qanda empathy that is why there are no politicians on tonight. nadinedegroot 21:53 Tony looks nervous at the thought of the dancing knife #qanda mechanicalomega 21:53 Opera House is going to explode with passionate debate tonight. #qanda paul_somerville 21:53 #qanda off on a tangent! This guy is the best! nykoproperty 21:53 Sex, psychopaths, nazis, buddist zen. Tonight's eipsode of #qanda is rockin' so far andanin 21:53 Great to see Damir Dockic on the Q&A panel tonight. #qanda clivepugh 21:54 Wow #qanda. just wow. I'm so impressed by Slavoj. He makes me want to study philosphy vananie 21:54 Festival of Dangerous Hand Movements #qanda Cluemark 21:54 #qanda pleasantly unhinged tonight. janetbackstage 21:54 Slavoj is right. Being a psychopath would be a lot of fun! #QandA TheMightyCE 21:54 I'm waiting for Slavoj to break out the Count laugh"ha ha ha haaaa!"#qanda frenchie_frey 21:54 #qanda is channeling QI tonight. Gloriously anarchic! deborahmilligan 21:55 this is a crazy #qanda! Awesome! jongoh12 21:55 Actually this is exactly how I picture Marxists #qanda mtats 21:55

Actually this is exactly how I picture Marxists #qanda mtats 21:55 So psychopaths rule the world while the rest of us just enjoy sex. Suits me! #qanda tbenstead1 21:55 It's like student politics meets Dexter #qanda Carey_Moore 21:55 For Politicians and Empathy - Lets look to their attitudes towards Boat People .#QandA sheppspie 21:55 Jon Rohson very smart person #Qanda Lofts1964 21:56 Dancing knives, polyamory, 'At Home With The Foreign Editor'. Dangerous ideas, indeed. #qanda tollplaza 21:56 I wonder how Andrew Bolt is handling all of this Marxist free speech #qanda jdkurucz 21:56 I wonder if we respected our leaders more they would respect us more... #qanda mickhyam 21:56 #qanda is so interesting tonight I don't have time to tweet. malbrown2 21:56 Greg Sheriden is the only sane panelist tonight. #qanda ArthurParas 21:56 They walk among us. #qanda urallagirl 21:57 Bloody daylight savings! All these #qanda tweets and I can't watch it for another 30 minutes... MahliMoo 21:57 Middle eastern political psychopaths - boy oh boy do I have some stories!! #qanda Eggsotique 21:58 Festival of Dangerously Long Anecdotes. #qanda jennineak 21:58 Lack of empathy doesn't equal psychopathology- it's one of multiple indicators #qanda Dan_Meijer 21:58 Not all psychopaths even know that they are psychopaths. And not all are tyrannical despots. #qanda #labeling AndrewBoocock 21:58 SHE DROPPED THE F WORD. I like her. #QANDA melburnian 21:59 "The economy in Libya didn't trickle down but the madness certainly did"- quote of the year? #Qanda TumbleTwig 21:59 I've heard "penis" and "nipple" in the first 15 minutes. I can go to bed now. #qanda shellity 21:59 #qanda Mona Eltahawy - I love you. So much. fabtasticmusic 21:59 weekly #qanda marriage shout out Mona Eltahawy marry me! MisterMeikle 21:59 #qanda yep nipple twisters are definitely psychopaths! oddaniel 21:59 Cool. Nipple cripples & f-bombs on #qanda Ian__P 21:59 Tweetless. Really I am. #QandA parnellpalme 21:59 #qanda What is going on with the discussion tonight- so glad my asian parents aren't in the room.. skim_92 21:59 amazing women on the panel tonight. #QandA simicsanja 22:01 Zizek's moustache smoothing motion: 10 points. #qanda Elamanor 22:01 hehe Shakespearean references in a question. I just fell in love #qanda ffgeorgie 22:02 Only possible explanation for tonight is that someone spiked every drink in the Green Room bar fridge. #QandA wadelaube 22:02 #qanda should have got Gaddafi for the panel dowsteve 22:02 Sex, psychopaths and the Middle East. What next? #qanda jpanther 22:02 It is incredible how real issues and ideas are only discussed on #qanda when the politicians stay home a_newman 22:02 #QandA that's how Nazi Germany flourished - through fear. JeanPoolAU 22:03 Go Slavoj finally someone takes on the questioner as where he got his information #qanda debrierley 22:04 If an elephant took this long to get to the point he'd get trunkydonked on the head! #qanda MisterShuffles 22:04 Zizek is twitchier than a twitchy thing that's really twitchy. #qanda cfsmtb 22:04 #qanda is it just me or does the sex topic just keep coming up? not that i'm complaining.

#qanda is it just me or does the sex topic just keep coming up? not that i'm complaining. laurenology_ 22:04 #qanda Can't blame Al Jazeera too much for missing the intended metaphor ... I'm lost, too msdwrites 22:04 Is the word "west" code for the USA? #QandA Pinkelstien 22:05 How refreshing to hear discussion on #QandA on something other than carbon tax and gay marriage! Awesome! SueSeegers 22:05 O dear I love Zizek sooo much (intellectually speaking) #qanda evmolesworth 22:05 'But you can't come up with democracy yourself! We have to impose it on you!' #qanda upulie 22:05 I love swearing on my TV #QandA greenat15 22:05 Why were none of my university lecturers like Slavoj? #qanda Gab_is_Miggo 22:05 This is terrific #QandA clairelavin 22:05 So this #qanda is pretty excellent angrygoat 22:05 The emperor's got no clothes on. #qanda TheTiges 22:05 an Arab complaining about America, what a surprise #qanda Chickbeard 22:06 Hypocrisy and democracy - Speaking truth to power #qanda robynnlui 22:06 Some of us here would like to know if Slavoj is a naturist. About to tear his own t-shirt off. #qanda #wellwhynot chickdeadly 22:06 there are so many axes grinding onscreen here that all i see is a shower of sparks #qanda marrowing 22:06 Mona the US is not the whole world ... #Qanda sarahallen772 22:06 #qanda I love it when there are no politicians on the panel! So much more political, less party pushing misschop 22:07 We don't know how to feel about beating the Nazis in Europe, it hasn't all panned out yet #sheridanlogic #qanda octopus_seppuku 22:07 I do not think that most politicians are looking at the Arab Spring with singular nations in mind. #qanda annedunlevie 22:07 #qanda this is a bit intense. Let's get back to sex. SweeterSally 22:07 Greg has friends "working on" the Arab spring? #qanda Lizzie_OShea 22:07 Oh lord, Sheridan really went the "people voted for Hitler" line? #QandA dpn78 22:07 The Arab spring is yet to blossom #qanda Peter_J_King 22:07 #qanda Deary me. You know it's a nuanced argument when Adolf Hitler is used as an example every 3 seconds. edwinabyrne 22:07 #qanda loving these subjects, learning so much! LadyKalypso 22:07 If the Muslim Brotherhood is a problem then it is one for the Egyptians to solve, not us. #qanda Jen_Bennett 22:08 did he just call muslims evil speedyspeedy 22:17 Oh god, @jonronson, I love you! Finally someone calls Assange on his grandiose narcissism. #qanda crazyjane13 22:18 George Bush said the god thing in June 2003, In a meeting with Palestinians #qanda Wyvernsridge 22:18 Google has confirmed quote. Can we get Greg Sheridan to admit he was wrong now? #qanda dsblue55 22:18 I want to hear more from the other panelists #qanda kateleonie 22:18 Ronson's empathy is STRONG. #qanda 10rdBen 22:18 Even the US secretary of defense stated there was no significant risk to lives caused by wikileaks #qanda gen_stewart 22:18 Ideology will ALWAYS trump human life. #qanda trentho 22:18 I can see a new song screaming up the charts - Moves like Zizek. #qanda prestontowers 22:18 Oh, it was despicable of ASSANGE?! Seriously?! He is not the one in the most wrong here. #qanda ana_irim 22:18

here. #qanda ana_irim 22:18 I don't like it when my fake polyamorous-marriage husbands bicker. #qanda eltonswayze 22:18 #qanda he says she says what's the real truth? alienated_dad 22:18 Imagine this guy and Barnaby Joyce in Q&A. #qanda fb2008 22:19 Wonder if god told George bush to bring down the towers #911truth #qanda Chief911 22:19 Thank goodness for Jon Ronson on #qanda Just a pity he isn't getting more of a go. jgto 22:19 *Excellent* point - a lazy and disinterestd citizenry does not make for good government #qanda peregrinari7 22:19 #zizek should be a permanent fixture of #qanda you make my mind boggle, in the best way! #LOVE alotlikelovexox 22:19 Kate has but up the proverbial British Airways privacy screen between her an Slavoj #qanda jasonakerr 22:19 Ah, the voice of reason. It's always British isn't it? #qanda timeimp 22:19 Adie: We're lazy about deciding what should be secret #qanda JLLLOW 22:20 Ronson misrepresents Assange (regardless of my opinion of Assange) and shows how shallow he is in doing so #QandA MarquisO 22:20 #qanda would you trust the government? Minniecrun 22:20 Saw Zizek last night, very funny, very insightful, very rambley. What a great panel #qanda drpiotrowski 22:20 "integrity of life is an ideology" - probably need a whole #qanda to go into that one TheGunslingr 22:20 #qanda The West has no clear rationale for what should be kept secret and what should be made public. scottabc 22:20 and that's why. bravo both #qanda katejacka 22:20 It was Twitter that led to the Arab Spring, not WikiLeaks! #qanda topofthehill 22:20 Kate: We have a right to the information that WikiLeaks exposes #qanda melbourneninja 22:20 #qanda Can we have something light? Local politics, maybe? ShirleyPeters 22:20 #QandA Sometimes secrets are necessary. Lets not be naive. ShipStirrer 22:20 Great to see the #BBC's head of bravery on #qanda JustinMerrigan 22:21 Mohammed didn't pick up the newspaper because he was illiterate #qanda DanLew4U 22:21 Jon Ronson strikes best the balance of passion and calm #qanda siobhanneyland 22:21 "We're lazy about government secrets"- would like to see no secrets in China disappearances #qanda artforaid 22:21 It's so refreshing to have a whole #QandA without hearing whinging about our 'problems' in Australia zenjito 22:21 Do you have to be a psychopath to work for #WikiLeaks ? #qanda rdunn86 22:21 I feel like Tony has to keep pulling these people back on task...Dangerous ideas makes for a difficult #qanda amacdonald56 22:21 Funny, I don't believe I have heard them say that Assange is a 'psychopath'. #qanda AliciaMoreau 22:21 people know about corruption, but do they care? #qanda heartlungthing 22:22 News just in .. Sheridan has checked with his primary source (God) and He denies everything. #QandA Wyld 22:22 Western governments are not interested in democracy in the middle east #qanda alissarG 22:22 Bush Misheard. God told him to " avoid the cake" #qanda ElmerRudd 22:22 The Americans installed nearly all the dictators in power #qanda lawrence75and 22:22 Not only is she beautiful but inspirational. I could listen for hours. #Mona #qanda

Not only is she beautiful but inspirational. I could listen for hours. #Mona #qanda SamuelHimself 22:22 My question is for Sheridan - how far out of your depth are you? #qanda therevmountain 22:22 "broadly true" #qanda mrgrumpystephen 22:22 Democracies disguise the truth and say it was our choice #qanda oakesash 22:22 All governments lie. Full stop. End of. #qanda el_jameso 22:22 I love it when Sheridan (who calls himself a liberal actually meets one and disagrees with them constantly #qanda AshGhebranious 22:22 Agree with Greg here. I knew he's be dangerous. Feel really bad now. #qanda glengyron 22:22 Truth as democracy, lies as dictatorship #QandA gogigert 22:23 News Ltd is a dictatorship Greg #qanda lapuntadelfin 22:23 #qanda Have these panelists been taking public speaking lessons from Bob Katter? sam1pm 22:23 BEST Q&A EVER. #qanda datisi101 22:23 Mona, there is a revolution in progress.. #occupy wall street, the 99% are rising. #qanda livinggently 22:23 Mona rocks! #qanda JaxCullen 22:23 Sometimes you need to keep things from your children in order to protect them #qanda Heraclitus0506 22:23 Take that Sheridan! #qanda benkaralus 22:23 'I cannot believe that you spew such nonsense.' Obviously, you've never read the man. #QandA Jeff_Sparrow 22:23 Slavoj Zizek for PM #qanda danilic 22:23 Why is it everyone on Q&A cheers when they pick on bearded News Ltd journalists with glasses? #qanda Joe_Hildebrand 22:24 #qanda just imagining what a plane flight next to Zizek would be like. BCurran81 22:24 #qanda we need to ask Zizek which came first the chicken or the egg AngusCameron1 22:26 i love Zizek because he's got such strong opinions and he is very good at showing this #qanda JaneBrills111 22:26 "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." #qanda #gregsheridan michaelidato 22:26 The failure of Marxism is that there just wasn't enough of it #qanda johncarneyau 22:26 If Zizek were a woman he would have at least thirty eight cats in a shopping trolley #QandA juzzytribune 22:26 I feel sorry for anyone on the panel with #Zizek. Even when he's wrong he's so brilliant. #qanda jarrodmckenna 22:26 Production is no longer tbe defining activity of all societies. Marxism is irrelevant. #qanda reubenacciano 22:26 Next week on #qanda: Slavoj still benpobjie 22:26 Only capitalism gives us true freedom. Marxism is just another name for indentured poverty. #qanda Patrickavenell 22:26 Zizek's medication doesn't make him drowsy. #QandA TMD05 22:26 Infinite growth with finite resources is impossible. #qanda VincoFive 22:26 Who sucked the goodness? #qanda MIJBender 22:27 My goodness, the passion on #qanda tonight! aplawutsky 22:27 Capitalism and the endless pursuit of profit is a religion. #qanda Mr_AChris 22:27 Zizek needs his own network. Is there a spare digital channel going begging? #qanda mixhelle 22:27 ZIZEK FORGOT TO TURN OFF HIS CAPS LOCK. #QANDA macleanbrendan 22:27 Zizek reminds me of my tutor. Ideological, political, and headstrong. #qanda RoxyM23

Zizek reminds me of my tutor. Ideological, political, and headstrong. #qanda RoxyM23 22:28 Greed is the problem #qanda lyndsayj 22:28 Finally! It's called SUSTAINABILITY, people. And it respects planetary, social and economic limits. #qanda MattRuffin 22:28 The.currency of capitalism could be sex instead of money, if love allowed this to be so. #qanda simonturnbull 22:28 There is a surplus of food in this country. #justsayin #qanda josie_pants 22:28 Problem with the working class today is that we don't demand enough. #QandA RedDragon1917 22:28 Capitalism is not freedom #qanda livmahon 22:28 Ladies on the panel owning #qanda tonight daniigeo 22:28 People always want more and more ...weather capitalism or communism #qanda Shakti_Ram 22:28 How do you have capitalism without growth? #qanda strom_m 22:28 You can't have infinite growth. #qanda jclacherty 22:28 Growth is the problem? Everyone, down tools. Enjoy the sunshine! #QandA nickford 22:28 Capitalism needs govt. regulation or the Earth will be bankrupt #qanda beewingbeewing 22:28 #qanda Fundamentalist Capitalism created the GFC. Senor_Goat 22:28 Capitalism rests on profit. Profit requires growth. #qanda gemoase 22:29 can you separate capitalism from growth though? surely they are intertwined #qanda coopesdetat 22:29 Capitalism without growth, Ronson... Hmmm. How's your psychopath index going? #qanda Praxeas 22:29 #qanda oh those horrible big companies and capitalism that employ people and fund the developing world jsc1476 22:29 growth is fundamental to capitalism not something that can be tinkered with #qanda. Rothkinson 22:29 Capitalism under Marxist regulations. #qanda _pionir 22:29 Marxism and communism are two different things. #qanda soapboxsophie38 22:29 #qanda This is starting to sound like my high school Economics class. wordhappylol 22:30 Greg Sheridan might want to text Rupert to come pick him up early #qanda tidbitsoftedium 22:30 Capitalism means expansion, expansion always occurs at someone's expense #qanda Amy_Rathbone 22:30 #qanda When I think about our future I can only picture a car speeding towards a brick wall. alain_of_melb 22:30 Capitalism needs an independent media to flourish. Like News Ltd. #qanda TheRealAndyBolt 22:30 Gordon Geeko was right! Greed is Good! #qanda leachitup 22:30 climatology is the newest religion & the newest form of socialism #qanda wakeup2thelies 22:30 The pro creationists are the problem & overpopulation is the downfall #qanda Atheistno1 22:30 #qanda Why are those against capitalism always such low income earners? martydownunder 22:30 Communism is never the answer....EVER #qanda theflick93 22:30 Zizek was only unemployed for five years because it took him that long to get through his job interview. #qanda domknight 22:30 #qanda why so much concentration on physical growth? Can't we grown by building our

#qanda why so much concentration on physical growth? Can't we grown by building our knowledge? sfinegan 22:30 #QandA Both Communism and Capitalism are great, if you are the bosses! MWhalan 22:31 Climate change is caused by capitalism #qanda valburge 22:31 The occupation movement in USA is just the usual bunch of feral malcontents. 95% of ppl disagree with them #qanda sheikyerbouti29 22:31 I officially declare Mona Eltahaway the reigning queen of #qanda. Best guest ever. clementine_ford 22:32 Why bring back the pollies? Much more fun without them. #qanda MelTankardReist 22:33

Slavoj Zizek

Slavoj Zizek is a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and a visiting professor at a number of American universities. Slavoj is a cultural critic and philosopher who is internationally known for his innovative interpretations of Jacques Lacan. He has been called the 'Elvis Presley of philosophy. He is the author of The Indivisible Remainder; The Sublime Object of Ideology; The Metastases of Enjoyment; Looking Awry: Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture; The Plague of Fantasies and The Ticklish Subject. He has an encyclopaedic grasp of political, philosophical, literary, artistic, cinematic, and pop cultural currents, and has no qualms about throwing all of them into the stockpot of his imagination. This is the prime reason he has dazzled his peers and confounded his critics for over ten years.
Read articles and watch reports about Slavoj Zizek.

Kate Adie

Kate Adie, author and journalist, was Chief News Correspondent to the BBC, is now a freelance journalist and successful writer. It became something of a joke in the British army that when Kate Adie arrived on the scene, the soldiers knew they were in trouble. The BBC's chief news correspondent became one of the best-known faces on television for her reporting from the major wars of recent years. They include the Gulf War, the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Albania, Rwanda, China and Sierra Leone. Her coverage of the 1980 siege of the Iranian embassy brought her to prominence as one of the few women reporting difficult and dangerous stories at the time. She herself describes the turn her career took as largely accidental. I never desired to go into war zones, she says. I never had any thought about it. It sort of just happened as part of the job. Kate Adie became the BBC's chief news correspondent in 1989. She again came to

the fore when covering the brutal suppression of the student uprising in Tiananmen Square.

Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson is a writer and television presenter. His column in The Guardian, 'The Human Zoo', ran successfully for many years. He has written and presented a number of television documentaries on subjects ranging from the Rev. Ian Paisley to the Ku Klux Klan to TV critics. His first book, Them: Adventures With Extremists, which describes his encounters with some of the world's craziest megalomaniacs and conspiracy theorists, was published in 2001. It received highly laudatory reviews, and spent seven weeks in the top ten of the Bookwatch/Sunday Times bestseller list. The Men Who Stare at Goats describes the extraordinary practices of a secret unit in the US Army who believe that a soldier can adopt the cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and kill goats just by staring at them. His latest title, The Psychopath Test, asks serious questions about how we define normality in a world where we are increasingly judged by our maddest edges.
Read articles and watch reports about Jon Ronson.

Mona Eltahawy

Mona Eltahawy is an award-winning columnist and an international public speaker on Arab and Muslim issues. She is based in New York. She is a columnist for Canada's Toronto Star, Israel's The Jerusalem Report and Denmark's Politiken. Her opinion pieces have been published frequently in The Washington Post and the International Herald Tribune and she has appeared as a guest analyst in several media outlets. Before she moved to the US in 2000 Mona was a news reporter in the Middle East for many years. She was the first Egyptian journalist to live and to work for a western news agency in Israel. Mona is a lecturer and researcher on the growing importance of social media in the Arab world. She has taught as an adjunct at the New School in New York, the University of Oklahoma and the UN-mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. Mona was born in Egypt in 1967 and has lived in the UK, Saudi Arabia and Israel. She calls herself a proud liberal Muslim. In 2005 she was named a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow by the American Society for Muslim Advancement and she is a member of the Communications Advisory Group for Musawah, the global movement for justice and equality in the Muslim family.

and equality in the Muslim family.

Read articles and watch reports about Mona Eltahawy.

Greg Sheridan

Greg Sheridan is The Australian newspaper's foreign editor and is one of Australia's most respected and influential analysts of foreign affairs. Growing up in Sydney, Greg graduated from Sydney University with an arts degree in 1977 and was an active participant in the student politics of the time, along with future high-profile Liberals Tony Abbott and Peter Costello. He began his journalistic career 30 years ago with The Bulletin, and his coverage of Vietnamese refugee stories in the period after the Vietnam War sparked a lifelong interest in Asia and regional politics. He joined The Australian in 1984 and worked in Beijing, Washington and Canberra before returning to Sydney as foreign editor in 1992. Greg knows the structures and societies of Australia's neighbours intimately and has interviewed prime ministers and presidents in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and many other countries. He is also a keen observer of US international affairs and is on close terms with senior figures in Washington. Greg is the author of several books on Asia and Australia's role in the region.
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