Ode to Joy,' Followed by Chaos and Despair
By SLAVOJ ZIZEK
Published: December 24, 2007
London
LAST week, European Union leaders put an end to a decade of diplomatic wrangling and signed the Treaty of Lisbon, which outlined a complete overhaul of the organization, including the creation of a permanent post of European Union president to represent Europe on the world stage . During the ceremony at Lisbon's grandiose Jerónimos Monastery, a choir performed Beethoven's ﾂ"Ode to Joyﾂ" in the background. While the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, first performed in 1824, may seem an innocuous choice for the official anthem of the European Union (it was declared such in 1972), it actually tells much more than one would expect about Europe's predicament today.
The ﾂ"Ode to Joyﾂ" is more than just a universally popular piece of classical music that has become something of a cliché during the holiday season (especially, oddly, in Japan, where it has achieved cult status). It has also been, for more than a century, what literary theorists call an ﾂ"empty signifierﾂ" — a symbol that can stand for anything.
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