==''Introduction''==
=====Enjoyment===== ''[[Ideology]] relies on an unassimilable kernel of [[enjoyment]]''.<ref>{{Z}} ''[[The Plague of Fantasies]]''. London: Verso, 1997. p. 50</ref>
This means [[subject]]s are attached to an [[ideology|ideological formation]] not simply because of a set of [[identification|identifiable]] [[cause|reasons]] or [[cause]]s but because of something [[surplus|extra]].
[[Ideology|Ideological formations]] rely on an extra, nonrational nugget that goes beyond what we [[knowledge|know]] to produce our sense of who we are and what the world is for us.
This nugget Again, the idea of enjoyment can be what we desire but can never achieve, as ina political factor is that some contingent element of reality takes on a special, sayexcessive role and so attaches us to a socio-political formation. In Zizek's words, national unitythis element "becomes elevated to the dignity of a Thing." =====Ideological Formations===== [[Enjoyment]] is a category that can help [[political theory|political theorists]] account for differences among [[ideology|ideological formations]] Zizek differentiates among ideological formations in terms of [[enjoyment]].
A primary task for the political theorist, then, is to grasp how a given formation organizes enjoyment.
It can also be what we want to eliminate, but never can, as in, for example, political corruption. Again, the idea of enjoyment as a political factor is that some contingent element of reality takes on a special, excessive role and so attaches us to a socio-political formation.
In Zizek's words, this element "becomes elevated to the dignity of a Thing."=====Totalitarianism=====
It becomes a fantastic stand-in for enjoyment.
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[[Category:Slavoj Žižek:Politics]]
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