In The Burnout Society Byung Chul Han offers a powerful critique of the shift in modern life. The book examines our shift from a disciplinary society to achievement society. Disciplinary society is governed by no. "You may not do this". That is not the way society works today. Instead of disciplinary society we have achievement society. We are all pressured to be entrepreneurs of ourselves and have an unlimited can. Instead of "you may not" in disciplinary society there is a "you can do this". In contemporary society there is an excess of positivity from within and collapse of negativity. Disciplinary society is still governed by no. Its negativity produces madmen and criminals. In contrast, achievement society creates depressives and losers. The subject is no longer an obedient individual being told what to do. Instead, the subject is now an entrepreneur of the self, constantly working on self-improvement, willingly pushing themselves to produce, achieve, and perform. This is the core of the achievement society. The imperative is no longer "you should" but "you can." This shift from “should” to “can” appears liberating on the surface — who wouldn’t want to believe they can do anything or be anyone? But Han reveals the dark undercurrent of this positive trend.
The positivity of ‘can’ turns out to be more efficient than the negativity of ‘should.’ It motivates individuals to willingly push themselves, to work longer, harder all in the name of growth and self-improvement. We are told to maximize ourselves even when we’ve already reached our limit. In this structure, we become both master and slave, driven by an internalized pressure to achieve. As Han puts it, in achievement-society, we are the entrepreneurs of ourselves, and exploit ourselves in the name of productivity and achievement.
We believe we’re “free” in a society without external restrictions. But in reality, we are enslaved by the pressure to be active every moment. Silence, boredom, and rest are now seen as failures or laziness, rather than sources of depth.
Han says this endless pressure to succeed and stay productive causes problems like burnout, anxiety, and depression. Instead of producing criminals like the old society, this new one produces tired, unhappy, and depressed people. When we can’t keep up, we feel like we’re failing not because someone else told us so, but because we’ve been told that we can always do more.
After reading this essay, I realized that sometimes, we need to slow down, accept our limits, and stop treating ourselves like machines that always need to do more.
·
53 Gösterim
Yorumlar
Lütfen giriş yapınız.