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I highly recommend Byung-Chul Han's "The Burnout Society", which is mentioned in this article. It provides a very lucid explanation of modern western society's
by qlm 4y ago
I highly recommend Byung-Chul Han's "The Burnout Society", which is mentioned in this article.
It provides a very lucid explanation of modern western society's obsession with achievement and self-improvement, and the harm that this can cause.
It can be a little dense if you (like me) aren't used to reading philosophy, but it's not too bad.
- giantg2 4y agoIt seems there's a lot of pressure to succeed in many Eastern societies as well. Does the book cover the differences?
- esjeon 4y agoAFAICT, the book is not really Eastern-specific. The author is a philosophy professor in Germany, and has authored philosophy books in German. He has his fair share of understanding in the western culture and society. Also, this book is from 2010, which predates a lot of issues we see today.
- annyeonghada 4y ago>western society Ah, yes, because Eastern countries like South Korea or Japan are not obsessed with achievement and tainted by heavy doses of burnout.
- teloli 4y ago"Western" was probably used with its economic meaning in mind, as a synonym for "Developed".
- carapace 4y agoWhat were Korea and Nippon like before encountering Western cultures?
- esjeon 4y agoCJK had abused people far before the west started abusing their own people with achievements. Karoshi first became an issue in 1980s. People overworked because they were expected to do so under the name of discipline and dedication. We all saw this being repeated in Alibaba, an IT company! Still, this is a story of the past, and these days they're all suffering this "achievement society" issue.
- qlm 4y agoCertainly, and the book doesn't claim otherwise. There are differences in the origins of the drive to succeed, however, and these are still worth examining. In modern Western society, the pressure to succeed is largely internalised. People are encouraged to be their "best selves", to strive for endless self-improvement. This pressure doesn't come from familial or societal obligations, but an obligation to oneself. I'll just quote the book: "The achievement-subject stands free from external instances of domination forcing it to work and exploiting it. It is subject to no one if not to itself. However, the absence of external domination does not abolish the structure of compulsion. It makes freedom and compulsion coincide. The achievement-subject gives itself over to freestanding compulsion in order to maximize performance. In this way, it exploits itself. Auto-exploitation is more efficient than allo-exploitation because a deceptive feeling of freedom accompanies it. The exploiter is simultaneously the exploited. Exploitation now occurs without domination. That is what makes self-exploitation so efficient."