Philosopher Byung-Chul Han And “hell Where Everything Is The Same “
Byung-Chul Han is a philosopher and author born in South Korea. Byung-Chul has become extremely influential in today’s world. Byung reflects on many different topics, but focuses a lot on technology and the culture that is created because of it. He has also dedicated a good part of his written work to work and creation.
At present, Byung-Chul Han has published 16 books. In those books he has focused on 2 different topics. One of them is the concept of a “burnt out society” and the other concept is “the transparent society”. He has a very critical perspective on today’s society. According to him , people exploit themselves and are terrified of everything that is different. That’s why he also talks about “hell where everything is the same”.
Many people will say that you should definitely read Byung-Chul His books if you want to understand today’s world. He has an original, deep and not least extremely preliminary perspective. Byung is one of the few thinkers who has gone into things like social media, privacy and a society of mental dysfunction.
He was involved in some interviews that got a lot of attention during a visit to Spain. In those interviews, he summarized some of his basic concepts. We will try to give you a general idea of what he was talking about.
The illusion of freedom according to Byung-Chul Han
According to Him, freedom is nothing but an illusion in today’s world. What we mainly have now is voluntary slavery. For example: you have a given freedom of speech on social media. The truth is that it is “big brother” who uses social media to follow people.
Byung-Chul He says that people almost have a pornographic need to show off their privacy. We show our thoughts, private moments, emotions, and everything we are or want to be through social media. And we do it “voluntarily”. Big brother does not have to dig or spy on anyone’s secrets, because we only give them spontaneously from us now.
Along those lines, people have “voluntarily” joined activities to produce things where self-satisfaction is the absolute center. Byung-Chul He says that self-satisfaction is more like self-exploitation. The end product we get from this is an emotionally and physically burnt out, tired worker.
Hell where everything is the same and there is no tolerance for what is different
Some of his reflections are on things that are similar and different. He says that people who feel like a unique individual are under a different illusion. Everyone wants to be different because everything is the same. This proves how identical the thinking of different people is.
What comes out of it is radical conformity. People accept the idea of ”living just like everyone else”. They produce things endlessly and show themselves to reach the idea of success that is pushed on them. You will find depression and anxiety on the other side of that coin. We get sick for unknown reasons. Byung-Chul He believes that this system is solid and almost impossible to break. He calls it “neoliberalism.”
According to him, we need a revolution that will change how we spend our time. There is no hypocritical undertone in his statement: “… time you spend working is time you waste, not time for yourself.” This means that we need time for ourselves. Time that feels like a vacation, a vacation where you stop everything. It’s not a break where you have to go back to make up for lost time. He talks about personal time that should not be seen as doing something “productive” for neoliberalism.
This philosopher’s ideas are fresh and thought – provoking. His criticism is sharp and direct. They are also well thought out and argued. Many of his books have been translated into English, and you can find them for free on the internet. We would highly recommend them for people who are not happy with how things are now.
