Zizek: Electing Trump will 'shake up' the system

"Only some kind of a shakeup can save us," says cultural critic and philosopher Slavoj Zizek.

Businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump's electoral success has left many worried, but is there a real reason to fear him?

Cultural critic and philosopher Slavoj Zizek says that while Trump is far from the ideal candidate, his victory will "shake up" the establishment and status quo.

"The current political map has to be redrawn; we need new options," says Zizek, a leftist who initially supported Bernie Sanders. "The main thing is political mobilisation of the left, to break out of a status quo.

"In this situation in which we are now, only some kind of a shakeup can save us," says Zizek. "And one good thing about Donald Trump - and it's an obscenity to call this a good thing - is that he put [the system] into great disarray; it almost fell apart.

"He is not a dangerous guy who is appearing to be polite. All his violent outbursts - completely vulgar, tasteless statements - mask the fact that there is nothing extraordinary about him."

In this Web Extra, Slovenian thinker Slavoj Zizek speaks to Mehdi Hasan about Trump's victory in the US elections, and what to expect.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/upfront/2016/11/zizek-electing-trump-shake-system-161116062713933.html