Many times we have the feeling (and in my opinion, we are not mistaken) that the world changes too quickly, to the point that we fail to reflect on the impacts our behaviors have on ourselves and society. That is why we need more philosophers like Byung-Chul Han, who explores contemporary society and new technologies.
Han was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1959. He studied metallurgy in his native country, although this would not be his definitive profession. In the 80's he moved to Germany, where he studied philosophy, German literature and Christian theology. He currently teaches at the Arts University of Berlin and has 16 (yes, 16) books of his own.
We self-exploit
But let us go to his work. Han believes that we live in what he describes as the society of self-exploitation. That is, we overcome the stage raised by Marxist theory, according to which there was an exploiter subject and another exploited. Now the issue is even more complex: people have become exploitative of themselves.
This is because we live in the age of productivity. Every time we want to be more productive, so we become our own bosses. And this does not just come down to work. We want to have successful careers, yes, but we also want to be healthy, have a lean body, study, learn an instrument and get together with our friends (and obviously we aim to achieve everything at the same time).
All the above aspects (which, in theory, are very healthy) are overshadowed by excessive self-demand. We want to meet all these requirements at the same time, because we need them to be happy.
We do not know what we want
But why do we work so hard? Things. We want things, because these will give us the much desired happiness, or not? Well, I'm sorry to tell you (although you may have guessed it already) that Han thinks otherwise.
Our difficulty in being happy today is, according to Han, in the fact that we are not able to see what our needs are. We think we need new clothes, but we do not really need it, we need to consume.
Consumption does not make us free, but quite the contrary
We believe that by consuming we are making use of our freedom. I work to earn my money and, therefore, I can do what I want with him, right? However, for Han we do not consume because we are free, but quite the opposite: it is consumption that enslaves us. We work harder and harder to meet needs that are not real. This philosopher interprets consumption as a compulsion and states: "Freedom is the opposite of compulsion."
However, and as the popular saying goes, scabies with gusto do not itch. And therein lies the problem. We do not perceive that we are slaves of the system and, therefore, we do not rebel against him. Not in vain did Han put the famous phrase of the artist Jenny Holzer at the beginning of one of his books "Protect me from what I want". It is something like what Aldous Huxley posed in his novel A Happy World: it is what we like, not fear, which will end up alienating us.
But what can we do?
Is not there a way out? Yes, of course there is. It implies, first, that we begin to realize that we are self-exploiting. We live in a high-performance society, and we are certainly all seeing the consequences that, for example, stress has on our health.
And, secondly, in order to be finally free, we first need to recognize and admit that we are not free in this consumer society. I do not buy because I want, I do not buy because I need it or it makes me happy, I buy because I was made to believe that I need something. Only in this way can we finally be free from consumerism and from ourselves.
Thanks for sharing... Love it.
Congratulations @gmduffs! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPGreat to see a post on Byung-Chul Han on Steem .. I think you're the only one so far. I recently downloaded his Burnt Out Society .. I guess joining Steem is the ultimate neoliberal move, I'm totally selling out .. oh well I'll try not to sell my soul to the devil ...