The Burnout Society

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Depression is also a symptom of the burnout society. The achievement subject suffers burnout at the moment it is no longer able “to be able.” It fails to meet its self-imposed demand to achieve. No longer being able “to be able” leads to destructive self-recrimination and auto-aggression. The achievement subject wages a war against itself and perishes in it. Victory in this war against oneself is called burnout. We are constantly comparing ourselves with others. It is precisely this comparison that makes us all the same A. We need information to be silenced. Otherwise, our brains will explode. Today we perceive the world through information. That’s how we lose the experience of being present. We are increasingly disconnected from the world. We are losing the world. The world is more than information, and the screen is a poor representation of the world. We revolve in a circle around ourselves. The smartphone contributes decisively to this poor perception of the world. A fundamental symptom of depression is the absence of the world. Han points out that “The society of the 21st century is no longer disciplinary, but a society of the performance. Nor are its inhabitants called ‘subjects of obedience’, but ‘subjects of performance’. These subjects are entrepreneurs of themselves.” Slow down and learn to live in the present. Calmly enjoy each and every activity and every moment with the people around you. Practice mindfulness as a lifestyle.

Q. In this world you describe, one of hyper-consumption where relationships are lost, why is it important to have objects that we love, and to establish rituals? Spanish edition: Ausencia. Acerca de la cultura y la filosofía del Lejano Oriente. Caja Negra Editora, 2019, ISBN 9789871622726. The Protestant ethic, Weber argues, derives from the theology of John Calvin, the sixteenth century Christian reformer noted for his doctrine of predestination, which means God chooses, or “elects”, some people for salvation, with the rest destined for eternal death. Only God knows who has been chosen and who hasn’t, but humans understandably want to find out. Han brings Foucault’s concept of “society of disciplinarity” to compare with the actual society. The thought is that the 21st century has become a “ performance society.” Individuals no longer submit themselves to disciplinary institutions and appear as entrepreneurs of their own or “performance subjects” and production. The underlying question is therefore one of telos, of ultimate aim. What is the purpose of all this effort? Why maximise achievement to this end? Why pursue function without disturbance, to what end?Q. Why, despite growing precarity and inequality, does the everyday world in Western countries seem so beautiful, hyper-designed and optimistic? Why doesn’t it seem like a dystopian or cyberpunk movie? Vom Verschwinden der Rituale: Eine Topologie der Gegenwart. Ullstein, Berlin 2019. ISBN 978-3550050718. From a malaise of boredom – driven to distraction by hyperattention – brews a society of tiredness; exhausted and apa Han Byung-Chul (born 1959) is a South Korean-born philosopher and cultural theorist living in Germany. [1] He was a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts and still occasionally gives courses there. Allow yourself to feel the whole wide range of human emotions. Don’t reject or deny those that make you feel uncomfortable. Stop ‘doing to avoid feeling’.

Spanish edition: La salvación de lo bello. Barcelona, Herder Editorial, 2015, ISBN 978-84-254-3758-8. To show how we are building this society of tiredness, Han launches his argument from the basis of our achievement society.

Notes

Infocracy: Digitization and the Crisis of Democracy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2022) ISBN 9781509552986 Han is the author of more than twenty books, the most well known are treatises on what he terms a "society of tiredness" ( Müdigkeitsgesellschaft), a "society of transparency" ( Transparenzgesellschaft), and the concept of shanzhai (山寨), a style of imitative variation, whose roots are, he argues, intrinsic to Chinese culture, undermine the distinction often drawn between original and fake, and pre-exist practices which in Western philosophy are called deconstructive. Byung-chul Han is a Korean writer and philosopher who has spent most of his career in Germany and Switzerland, producing a number of works that have met with success outside academia. This is probably because of his clarity of style and the popularity of his subject matter: he casts a critical eye over modern society and explains why, with the human race as developed as it’s ever been, so many people aren’t really that happy with their lot. The violence [ Gewalt] of positivity that derives from overproduction, overachievement, and overcommunication is no longer “viral.” Immunology offers no way of approaching the phenomenon. Rejection occurring in response to excess positivity does not amount to immunological defense, but to digestive-neuronal abreaction and refusal. Likewise, exhaustion, fatigue, and suffocation—when too much exists—do not constitute immunological reactions. These phenomena concern neuronal power, which is not viral because it does not derive from immunological negativity. Baudrillard’s theory of power [ Gewalt] is riddled with leaps of argument and vague definitions because it attempts to describe the violence of positivity—or, in other words, the violence of the Same when no Otherness is involved—in immunological terms. Thus he writes:

The Burnout Society is a fascinating little book, short and well-structured, with its seven brief sections skilfully linked, drawing the reader carefully through the writer’s argument. In a blunt manner (typical of both Germans and Koreans), he reveals the true nature of modern life, using an interesting expression to label us: Romanian edition: Agonia erosului, Humanitas, ISBN 978-973-50-4326-1, EPUB/PDF ISBN 978-973-50-4466-4.A. Only a repressive regime provokes resistance. On the contrary, the neoliberal regime, which does not oppress freedom, but exploits it, does not face any resistance. It is not repressive, but seductive. Domination becomes complete the moment it presents itself as freedom. Q. You suggest that artificial intelligence or big data are not the incredible forms of knowledge they are promoted to be, but rather “rudimentary.” Why is that?