Skepticism and Certainty
Zizek's account of the decline of symbolic ef.icienC)lj Santner's discussion of the crisis of investiture, and Lacan's teaching on psychosis can help sort through these layers of credibilityj incredibility, and certainty. Together, these ideas help us understand the problem posed by 9 I n truth not as one of credibility but of its absence, that is to say, the �bsence of conditions of possibilty for something like belief or credibility.
As chapter 2 detailsJ the decline of symbolic eficiency. refers to a breakdown in signification. Identities, arguments, or signs that are clear and compelling in some settings car little weight in others. One might imagine Nicole Richie and Jirgen Habermas in an airport waiting area� Neither w uld recognize the other's symbolic weight or be able to assess the other's cultural capital.
That identities, arguments, and signs are limited in their power and range, that they fail to be thoroughly compelling in a variety of contexts, has repercussions for contemporary subjects. We are often skeptical about what we hear. To approach this from the other side, Zizek frequently describes symbolic eficiency with the question, ''"What do you believe, your eyes or my words?" In a functioning symbolic order, we believe the words, no matter what our eyes tell us. We recognize that the judge is not just the man we see but the ofice he holds. We recognize the doctor is m.ore than the woman before us. She is also the trained, experienced expert on whom we depend. In the m.ediated networks of communicative capitalism, though, we don't believe their words. ·we believe our eyes. Present subjects accept very little on face value. We don't believe what we hear. If a doctor gives us bad news, we get a second or third opinion and then reject Western medicine in favor of more authentic folk remedies. If the judge makes a ruling we reject, we suspect he was paid of, corrupt, or invested in an opposing ideology. And even when we concede that another is likely using her best judgment in as fair a way as possible, we find ourselves emphasizing the plurality of possible views: everyone has her own opinion. Experts disagree.
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