Eva Vazquez
First reason.
Kafka writes in one of his aphorisms: "The animal snatches the whip from the master and whips itself to become master."
The animal figures that since it is he who flagellates himself, then he is free.
We voluntarily and passionately exploit ourselves, imagining that we are fulfilling ourselves.
The one who exerts the destructive pressure here is not the other, but myself.
That pressure comes from inside me.
It is not the master who exploits me, but I exploit myself.
I am both master and slave.
In this society of flagellants revolution is not possible.
Second reason.
Neoliberalism is a capitalism of “likes”.
It is radically different from 19th century capitalism, which worked with coercion and disciplinary prohibitions.
The power of the neoliberal regime has an air of finesse.
Refined power, instead of submitting us based on coercion and prohibitions, adapts to us and tries to extract a “like” from us.
It does not force us to shut up.
On the contrary, he constantly encourages us to tell about our lives, to express our opinions, our needs, our desires and our preferences.
The total protocolization of life is reflected in an absolute control over our behavior.
In the neoliberal regime, domination is not exercised through oppression, but through communication.
The intoxication of communication stuns us.
The eve of the revolution
on the contrary, silence reigns.
The revolution interrupts communication.
Third reason.
Today we engage in digital lynching and hateful comments at each other, but at the same time we forget what anger is.
Anger is a feeling capable of ending one situation and starting another.
Today it has been superseded by indignation or discontent, which are feelings incapable of causing drastic changes.
That's why it happens that we also get angry about what has no remedy.
Indignation is to anger what fear is to anguish.
While the fear is raised before a certain object, the anguish is before the being as such.
Anxiety afflicts and moves the entire existence.
Nor is anger directed against a specific circumstance.
Deny the whole.
Inherent in every revolution is an anger that resolutely says "no" to what exists falsely,
Fourth reason.
Every domination generates its own objects of devotion, which are used to subdue.
These objects make society habituate to them and thus give it stability.
"Devoted" means submissive.
The
smartphone
is an object of digital devotion, moreover, it is the object of devotion to digital.
"Subject" originally means to have been thrown under, and therefore to be subdued.
The
smartphone
operates as an instrument of subjectivation.
the
like
is the digital amen.
When we give the like we are accepting the submission to a domination.
The smartphone is not only an effective surveillance tool, but also a mobile confessional.
Confession was a highly effective domination technique.
We continue to confess, only now we do it voluntarily.
We undress because we want to.
But we do not do it to apologize, but to demand attention.
The smartphone suffocates all revolution.
Fifth reason.
In
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
, Shoshana Zuboff calls for common resistance by evoking the fall of the Berlin Wall: “The Berlin Wall fell for many reasons, but mostly because the people of East Berlin said to each other: ' Enough already!'
(…) Enough already!
Let that be our statement.”
The communist system, which represses freedom, is radically different from neoliberal surveillance capitalism, which exploits freedom.
We are too stunned by the digital drug, too intoxicated with communication, to launch a “Enough already!”
and raise the voice of resistance.
In full drunkenness of communication no revolution takes place.
With his truism “
Protect me from what I want
”, “protect me from what I want”, conceptual artist Jenny Holzer explains why no revolution is possible today.
Sixth reason.
The neoliberal regime is a regime of anguish.
It isolates people by making each one their own entrepreneur.
Total competition and the absolutization of performance erode the community.
The growing individualization, the loss of solidarity and the narcissism of people deepen the anguish.
Today our behavior is also increasingly marked by our fears: fear of failing, fear of not living up to our own expectations, fear of not being able to keep up, fear of falling behind or fear of making the wrong decision.
The neoliberal regime puts fear in order to increase productivity.
The society of fear suffocates every germ of revolution.
Today we live in a society of survival.
We hang on from one crisis to the next, from one apocalypse to the next, from one problem to the next.
Thus life atrophies and is reduced to solving problems.
In the face of apocalyptic events such as the pandemic, war and climatic catastrophes, we look fearfully towards a gloomy future.
We have given up hope.
Life comes down to solving problems, even surviving.
Life is sacrificed on the altar of anguish.
We have resigned ourselves to survive.
The panting society of survival resembles a sick person who harbors only the feeble wish that the pain will soon cease.
Hope is the only thing that would allow us to recover that life that is more than a miserable survival.
The fact that right-wing populist forces have emerged in Europe has to do precisely with the increase in fear.
The opposing force, the antidote to anguish, is hope.
Hope unites us, creates community and generates solidarity.
It is the seed of the revolution.
It is a verve, a jump.
Bloch even says that hope is "a militant sentiment."
She “raises the banner”.
She opens our eyes for a different and better life.
Anxiety feeds on the past and resentment.
Hope opens the future.
The only thing that can save us is the spirit of hope.
Only she unfolds the horizon of meaning, which revives and stimulates life, and even inspires it.
Translation by Alberto Ciria.
Byung-Chul Han
(Seoul, 1959) is a philosopher, essayist and teaches at the Berlin University of the Arts.
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