On Zizek and Opus Dei

LHG was recently challenged to draw a link between rock star Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek and Opus Dei. Here it is: A central insight of pyschoanalysis is that all social orders are based on repression that block challenges to that order. Mental health, in turn, requires liberation from those repressions. According to Zizek (and LHG likes this argument) contemporary capitalism works a tad differently. Today capitalism works not by repressing but rather by presenting us with the possibility of satisfying an ever extending set of desires - social control comes not from repression, but from the satisfaction of those desires. Liberation, therefore, requires abandoning the pursuit of such satisfaction.

What does have to do with Opus Dei? Paul Fortunato - an Opus Dei member who openly admits to using the cilice (that spiky thing on the leg) and a professor at the University of Houston - gives us a clue in his Op Ed piece in today's New York Times. He writes: "One key element behind corporal mortification is to feel solidarity with the poor and the suffering, denying oneself some comfort, whether it be by fasting or wearing a cilice. I have explained what a relief it is to make my life uncomfortable, how liberating it is to unplug from the consumerist, instant-gratification culture that dominates us. Without the cilice, I find my life as an American consumer unbearably comfortable."

Here's the connection with Zizek: Corporal mortification runs against what are perhaps the strongest desires within our contemporary capitalist order - those of the flesh. Opus Dei's use of the cilice can be understood as a way to step aside from the pursuit of bodily satisfaction. It goes against the capitalist glorification of bodily pleasure. From this standpoint, the cilice is far from a medieval leftover - it's actually 21st century liberation.