hankyoreh

Slavoj Zizek

By Slavoj Zizek, Global Eminent Scholar at Kyung Hee University

I am far from having any admiration for Putin and Trump, but Joe Biden's recent remarks about Putin made me almost nostalgic for some aspects of the Trump years.

When Biden was asked if he believes Putin is a killer, he replied, "I do." He also said, while serving as US vice president, he personally told Putin in 2011 that Putin does not "have a soul."

"I wasn't being a wise guy, I was alone with him in his office," Biden said. (Is he implying that Putin could have killed him?) "That's how it came about. It was when President [George W.] Bush had said 'I looked in his eyes and saw his soul.'"

"I said, 'Looked in your eyes and I don't think you have a soul.' And he looked back and said, 'we understand each other'." (What the hell was this supposed to mean? Putin's admission that he has no soul? Or that they truly despise each other?)

Putin's quick reply was masterful, wishing Biden best health and inviting him to a public debate about big existential and ethical issues on Zoom.

Biden's strong words stand in sharp contrast to Trump, who, in 2017, when Fox News host Bill O'Reilly called Putin a "killer," suggested that America's conduct was just as bad.

"There are a lot of killers, we've got a lot of killers," Trump said. "You think our country's so innocent?" Trump displayed a dose of honest realism here – like when he fired John Bolton, who wanted a more aggressive approach to Iran and North Korea.

The Biden presidency signals a more interventionist international politics, a greater threat to world peace. Biden's progressive measures (much stronger stance on the COVID-19 pandemic, more financial help to those suffering its consequences) should not blind us to this darker aspect of his administration.

But let's return to Biden's claim about Putin having no soul, which is simply wrong. Monstrous killers do have a "soul," a rich inner life. They like to produce fantasies that justify their terrible acts. Behind every big political crime, there is a poet or a religious myth.

For example, there is no ethnic cleansing without poetry – why? Because we live in an era that perceives itself as post-ideological. Since great public causes no longer have the force to mobilize people for mass violence, a larger sacred Cause is needed, making petty individual concerns about killing seem trivial.

Religion or ethnic belonging fit this role perfectly. Of course, there are cases of pathological atheists who commit mass murder just for pleasure, but they are rare exceptions. The majority needs to be anesthetized against their elementary sensitivity to the other's suffering, and for this, a sacred Cause is needed. Religious ideologists usually claim that, true or not, religion makes some otherwise bad people do some good things; from today's experience, one should instead stick to Steve Weinberg's claim that while, without religion, good people would have been doing good things and bad people bad things, only religion can make good people do bad things.

So if I am against Putin, it is not because he has no soul but because of what is in his soul. There is a passage in his recent interview where one can feel how he really speaks from his heart. It occurred when he solemnly declared his zero tolerance for spies who betrayed their country: "Treason is the gravest crime possible and traitors must be punished." It is clear from this outburst that Putin has no personal sympathy for Snowden or Assange. He just helps them to annoy his enemies, and one can only imagine the fate of an eventual Russian Snowden or Assange. No wonder that, in another interview, Putin said that he could not understand how Snowden could have done what he did to his country, the US.

Here we get a taste of Putin's soul, of how his mind is clicking. (Incidentally, Trump was again more considerate here when he conceded that many people think Snowden was not being treated fairly.)

Denying that your political enemy has a soul is nothing less than a regression to vulgar racism which rhymes with some of Biden's gaffes – for example, in support of Barrack Obama, he said: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

If the Biden presidency turns out to be better than Trump's, it will not be because of his soul. The less he will rely on his soul, the better for all of us.

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