#psychopolitics

[funeral]

Freedom will prove to have been merely an interlude. Freedom is felt when passing from one way of living to another—until this too turns out to be a form of coercion. Then, liberation gives way to renewed subjugation. Such is the destiny of the subject; literally, the 'one who has been cast down'. Today, we do not deem ourselves subjugated subjects, but rather projects: always refashioning and reinventing ourselves. A sense of freedom attends passing from the state of subject to that of project. All the same, this projection amounts to a form of compulsion and constraint—indeed, to a more efficient kind of subjectivation and subjugation. As a project deeming itself free of external and alien limitations, the I is now subjugating itself to internal limitations and self-constraints, which are taking the form of compulsive achievement and optimization.

Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power

[queercodedangel]

"People who fail in the neoliberal achievement-society see themselves as responsible for their lot and feel shame instead of questioning society or the system. Herein lies the particular intelligence defining the neoliberal regime: no resistance to the system can emerge in the first place. In contrast, when allo-exploitation prevails, the exploited are still able to show solidarity and unite against those who exploit them. Such is the logic on which Marx’s idea of a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ is based. However, this vision presupposes that relations of repression and domination hold. Now, under the neoliberal regime of auto-exploitation, people are turning their aggression against themselves. This auto-aggressivity means that the exploited are not inclined to revolution so much as depression."

- Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power

[thirdity]

As consumers, today’s voters have no real interest in politics – in actively shaping the community. They possess neither the will nor the ability to participate in communal, political action. They react only passively to politics: grumbling and complaining, as consumers do about a commodity or service they do not like.

Byung-chul Han, Psychopolitics

[probablyasocialecologist]

Power is not limited to breaking down resistance and forcing obedience. It need not take the form of coercion. Power that relies on violence does not represent power of the highest order. The mere fact that another will manages to form and turn against the power-holder attests to the latter's weakness. Wherever power does not come into view at all, it exists without question. The greater power is, the more quietly it works. It just happens: it has no need to draw attention to itself.

Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power

[avoidantrecovery]

it's a long video essay, but really good 🥲

[to-search-again]

Why is the image of the Asylum, with its multi-windowed blocks and the tall chimney of its furnace, so compelling? Not, as Goffman would have it, because it bespeaks an immutable social imperative, but because it symbolises an ancient, indefinitely renewed tradition of neglect whose liquidation, in the face of so many entrenched moral and material interests, will require a large and dedicated effort.

Peter Sedgewick, The Case of Erving Goffman, PsychoPolitics, p.55

[fandom-oracle]

do you ever reach a paragraph of a book that was insofar quite insightful but then you just have to stop. close your eyes for a minute, rub your temples and audibly go “what the FUCK where you thinking man”.

[ellisdee161]

Entfremdung אימערטים

(Alienation Everywhere)