What is Real?

That’s the question, which went through my mind when I tried to summarise this piece.
What is right and what is wrong? Are we having that recession or not? If I cant see it, it doesn’t exist? Are the politicians telling the truth? Is the television right? Are the movies telling the truth? Is my mum telling me the truth about eating the carrots or drinking milk is good for me, going to see better or grew taller?

We have a saying in Hungarian: this is like ‘Ostrich-politics’, when the ostrich feels fear it panicky puts his head in the ground - not to be able to hear or see anything. If we do so, we are not going to get involved, not going to get hurt.

Badiou is cleverly comparing todays financial crisis to the cinema, to what he is calling : “the ready-made hit machine”. I have smiled on this phrase a lot, probably because this is so true. Many people, oh who am I kidding, most of the people in the whole word have no idea what is happening, they are just watching the news, but its like in one ear in- through the other out- kind of situation. People are turning the blind eye on these problems, not only the economical crisis, but also war situations or environmental issues..etc.
He is suggesting that if we save the banks, everything will turn out well, we don’t want the capitalism to end just yet. We have to trust them, which is just getting us back to the beginning: how can we believe in something if we cant understand it? Maybe we don’t even want to?

Alain Badiou This Crisis Is the Spectacle: Where Is the Real?