It’s been part of Slavoj Žižek’s schtick for years. He’s mentioned it in talks about Donald Rumsfeld and America’s misadventures in Iraq. In lectures about architecture in Spain. In English-language talks. And other languages too. Maybe you’ve never heard Žižek’s spiel about finding ideology in the unlikeliest of places. Yes, toilets. If you’ve missed out, this new animation has you covered.
If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newsletter, please find it here. Or follow our posts on Threads, Facebook, BlueSky or Mastodon.
If you would like to support the mission of Open Culture, consider making a donation to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your contributions will help us continue providing the best free cultural and educational materials to learners everywhere. You can contribute through PayPal, Patreon, and Venmo (@openculture). Thanks!
Related Content:
Slavoj Žižek Calls Political Correctness a Form of “Modern Totalitarianism”
Slavoj Žižek: What Fulfils You Creatively Isn’t What Makes You Happy
Slavoj Žižek Names His Favorite Films from The Criterion Collection
Anyone notice that the word precisely is spelled wrong.
More the image of the German toilet in the video has it precisely backwards. The image shows a toilet with the hole in the back. A key point of the video is that German toilets have the hole in the *front*.
See: https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=899&q=german+toilet+shelf&oq=german+toilet+shelf&gs_l=img.3..0j0i8i30l2.688.3037.0.3475.19.18.0.0.0.0.138.1727.9j9.18.0.…0…1ac.1.64.img..1.18.1709…0i10i24j0i24j0i30.H4zpv9IrEx0
“More importantly”, I meant to say.
Otherwise, great video. I’d always wondered what on earth was up with German toilets. Very odd if you’d never encountered one before.
Thanks for posting this !! from your friends over at @PhilosophyMttrs ! (LIKE us, eh?)
what a twat. you can interpret any toilet design via metaphor any way you like. and if toilet design does reflect some aspect of local moeurs, well, so what?