The Philosopher Byung-Chul Han And “The Hell Of The Same

Byung-Chul Han is a South Korean-born philosopher and writer who has achieved great notoriety in the contemporary world. His reflections have been oriented to various topics, but very particularly to technology and the culture that is a product of it. He has also dedicated many of his lines to the way people work and produce today.

To date, Byung-Chul Han has already published 16 books. In them he has particularly developed two concepts. One is that of the “society of fatigue” and the other that of the “society of transparency.” In his work, he raises very critical approaches to today’s world. He points out that nowadays people are self-exploiting and that they are terrified of what is different . Hence he speaks of “the hell of the same. “

Many say that Byung-Chul Han’s work is indispensable reading to understand today’s world. His approach is original and deep, but above all very current. He is one of the few thinkers who has theorized in great depth about phenomena such as social networks, privacy and the society of mental dysfunction.

During a visit he made to Spain, he gave several interviews that generated great impact. In them he presented, in a synthetic way, some of the concepts that give foundation to his work. These are, broadly speaking, the reflections that he shared.

Byung-Chul Han’s Illusion of Freedom in Thought

For Byung-Chul Han we are in an era in which freedom is just a great illusion. According to this philosopher, what prevails today is a consensual slavery. For example, the apparent freedom of expression that exists in social networks has become a practice that allows us to exercise surveillance.

Byung-Chul Han points out that people have an almost pornographic urge  to show off their intimacy. He exposes his thoughts, his private moments, his feelings and everything that he is, or pretends to be, through social media. Everyone does it “voluntarily.” Power no longer needs to intrude or infiltrate anyone’s secrets because they are spontaneously offered to them.

In the same way, people have “voluntarily” enrolled in a way of producing where self-realization is the center of everything. Byung-Chul Han indicates that such self-realization is rather self-exploitation. The product of this is the burned-out, highly fatigued, or diseased worker in body and mind.

The hell of the same and the intolerance of the different

Some reflections of Byung-Chul Han revolve around the same and the different. It points out that people live individuality as one more fiction. Everyone wants to be different, precisely because everyone is the same. That desire is precisely evidence of how homogeneous people’s thinking is.

The result of this is radical conformity. People meekly accept “living as everyone lives. ” That is, producing outrageously, showing off uselessly, revolving all the time around the ideals of success that have been imposed. On the obverse of that reality, there are the different forms of depression, of anxiety. The human being ill, mysteriously for causes that he cannot elucidate. For Byung-Chul Han this system is very stable and basically unbreakable. He calls it “neoliberalism.”

For this South Korean philosopher, based in Germany, a revolution in the use of time is required. Without any hypocrisy, he points out that: ” time worked is time wasted, it is not time for us. ” What we would need would be free time, in which we would stop producing and that would have the character of a holiday. It is not about a pause or a rest to continue producing later. What he talks about is a personal time, which vindicates the desire not to do anything considered “productive” for neoliberalism.

The approaches of this philosopher are fresh and provocative. His criticism is acid and direct, but above all, very well spun and sustained. Several of his books have already been translated into Spanish and some of them are even available online for free. Highly recommended reading for those who are not comfortable with the current state of things.