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19 L. & Critique 1 (2008)

handle is hein.journals/lwcrtq19 and id is 1 raw text is: Law Critique (2008) 19:1-18 © Springer 2008 DOI 10.1007/s10978-007-9023-5 SLAVOJ ZIZEK THE SECRET CLAUSES OF THE LIBERAL UTOPIA* The Western liberal media had their laugh when, in August 2007, the Chinese State Administration of Religious Affairs passed 'Order Number Five', a law due to come into effect on 1 September, which covers 'the management measures for the reincarnation of living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism'. This 'important move to institu- tionalize management of reincarnation' stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate - to cut it short, it basically prohibits Buddhist monks from reincarnating without government permission: no-one outside China can influence the reincarnation process, only monasteries in China can apply for permission. Before we explode in rage at the Chinese Communist totalitarian intent to control the lives of its subjects even after their death, we should remember that this measure is not foreign to European early modern history. The Peace of Augsburg in 1555, the first attempt to come to terms with the division between Catholics and Protestants, declared the Prince's religion to be the official religion of a region or country (cuius regio, eius religio), legalizing the toleration of Lutheranism in Germany by Catholics. However, its implication was that, when a new ruler of a different religion took power, large groups had to convert. The first institutional move towards religious toler- ance in modern Europe thus involved the same paradox as the Chi- nese Order Number Five: the regulation of your religious belief, a matter of your innermost spiritual experience, by the whims of your secular prince. Furthermore, the Chinese government regulated something it not only tolerates, but even supports as a tool of social 'harmony'. In order to curb the excess of social disintegration caused by the capi- talist explosion, Chinese officials now celebrate religions and tradi- tional ideologies which sustain social stability, from Buddhism to Confucianism - the very ideologies that were the target of the Cul- tural Revolution. In April 2006, Ye Xiaowen, China's top religious * This is the text of Slavoj Zizek's Law and Critique Keynote Lecture given at the 2007 Critical Legal Conference at Birkbeck, University of London on 13 September 2007.

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