About a week after hearing a guy on a podcast talk about Byung Chul Han and his ideas, I still think about, or at least try to think about, these ideas. To me this is significant because I find it harder and harder to actually dwell on things for a while these days, which is actually exactly what Byung Chul Han talks about.
One of the main ideas is the inherent narcissism that the current state of the world breeds in us. At all times, there is this invisible pressure to “work on” ourselves, meaning to level up our skills, optimize our bodies, and grind (!!!). What does this do to us? Not only does it make us largely apathetic, it isolates and restricts us from the basic human connection we need as humans. He equates the modern human to both the prisoner and the prison guard. There is a beauty to be had in being bored, or “doing nothing”, rather than constantly stimulating ourselves. And when that stimulation is mostly content with zero value to us, its hard to argue that there are any benefits at all besides temporary numbness.
I just really connected to this idea and want to keep it in mind. I’m trying not subscribe to it fully and attempt to live by it because I’m also terrified of commiting to ideas. But attempting to reopen those avenues of connection can’t be a bad thing at all.
– June 23, 2024