:This reminds me of Slavoj Zizek's article in the most recent NEW LEFT
REVIEW about Bukharin's show trial. yeah, saw that recently on a trip back to Lancaster - looked interesting, i've usually quite liked Zizek's stuff - he article on the Kosovan war was highly apt, I felt, and could easilly be transfered back to the haider issue in Austria, it also formed a plank of my master's thesis...
:Bukharin, says Zizek, was willing to
go along with the show trial, with the confession and with his own
execution, for the sake of the Party, but what tortured him the most
about the whole ordeal was the thought that Stalin might REALLY THINK he
was guilty, that Stalin might actually believe the lies were being
promoted for the sake of the Revolution in the "show trials." Any lies
for the revolution, even if they kill me!
In another article, in an obscure journal called 'Cultural Values', he discusses the way in which these people at the show trials made the supreme sacrifice for the cause - desperately understanding that 'the master', i.e. communism, had no power, they sought to re-build its symbollic authority (power being virtual), and so, like the masochist, they laid down to suffer to make a bigger daddy - going beyond Christian matyrs, who could be assured of the immortality of their soul, these people were laying down their 'immortal soul', in that they knew that their reputation would be forever sacrificed for the good of the cause.
Fascinating stuff, really. I also recomend his 'Multiculturalism, the cultural logic of multinational capitalism', NLR august '97.
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