Vinay Menon: Here´s how Slavoj Zizek should prepare for `debate of the century´ with Jordan Peterson
(The Star Food)

Jordan Peterson and Slavoj Zizek have more in common than either man might care to admit before they meet on Friday night to debate ideology.Successful? Check. Prolific? Check. Controversial? Check.But in advance of this verbal sparring at the Sony Centre — tickets sold out almost as quickly as Justin Bieber at Madison Square Garden — a thriving subplot is the alleged bad blood between these two renegade academics with big brains and big followings. You know how in the old days a cowboy would challenge a murky antagonist to a draw at high noon? That’s kind of how this started. Only the setting wasn’t a dusty saloon. Peterson issued his challenge to Zizek via tweet last year, after taking exception to an essay the Slovenian philosopher wrote for the Independent that painted the Canadian professor as a ridiculous alarmist prone to half-truths: “ … not only is he often relying on unverified theories, but the big problem is the paranoiac construct which he uses to interpret what he sees as facts.�Paranoiac construct? Them be fightin’ words in the New West.Personally, I’d enjoy seeing these two sling back a few scotches, stagger to their recliners and trade personal insults for 90 minutes: “Is the chief benefit of communism that all beards smell equally like dumpsters? Oh yeah, well your book should’ve been called 1 Rule For Life: BS.�But since cooler heads prevailed, what Friday promises is a discursive dispute in which rival Lacanian (Zizek) and Jungian (Peterson) insights are unleashed to analyze how macro systems of governance in post-industrial societies shape gradated serenity vis-à-vis the means of production and distribution of resources.Or something like that.Read more:Opinion: Has Jordan Peterson finally gone too far?Opinion: I was Jordan Peterson’s strongest supporter. Now I think he’s dangerousJordan Peterson is trying to make sense of the world — including his ...