The Burnout Society Flashcards
Foucalt analysis on power and knowledge relationship:
Power used to control knowledge; power isn’t repressive, but a productive one shaping indibiduals and societies.
Basis of Byung-Chul argument:
Disciplinary society replaced by industrial complexes - achievement societiy.
What is the current positive modal?
Unlimited Can - increasing deregulation abolishing negativity.
What does achievement society create?
Depressives and losers, disciplinary creates madment and criminals
The social limits of productivity
Productivity inhabits social unconiousness, but negative scheme of prohibition hits limit, heightened by achievement prospects
Outcome of negativity of prohibition
Impede further productivity, positivty of ‘can’ more efficient than ‘should’, where depression begins.
Where does depression begin for Byung-Chul?
We cannot measure up to ourselves, high achievements.
How does Byung-Chul define depression?
Expression of human beings failure to become themselves, as well as an attachment impoverishment.
How achievement society creates edpression?
Excess positivity without defence, erupting when we’re ‘no longer able to be able’.
Positivity and depression:
Depression is the sickness of a society that suffers from excessive positivity.
Achievement and freedom:
Freedom and constraint coincide - autoexploit with excess work and performance: we are both exploiter and exploited.
Outcome of excess positivity:
Excess sitmuli/information/impulse - scattering and fragmenting attention and perception structure.
What impedes our immersion?
Multi-tasking - cultural achievements of humanity from deep, contemplative attention.
Awareness to bordom
Scattered mode of awareness has low tolerance to boredom, not lending itself to the deep immersion/idleness required for creativity.
What does achievement/active society generate?
Tiredness and exhaustion, dominated by excess positivity and deficient in negativity
