The old saying, “Don’t just talk, do something!” is one of the most stupid things one can say, even measured by the low standards of common sense. Perhaps, rather, the problem lately has been that we have been doing too much, such as intervening in nature, destroying the environment, and so forth. . . Perhaps it is time to step back, think and say the right thing.

—Slavoj Žižek, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce (London: Verso, 2009), 11.