The pressure "to do something" here is like the superstitious compulsion to make some gesture when we are observing a process over which we have no real influence. Are not our acts often such gestures? 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 think. True we often talk about something, instead of doing it, but sometimes we also do things in order to avoid talking and thinking about them, such as throwing 700 billion at a problem instead of reflecting on how it arose on the first place.
From Zizek, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce (p.11)
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