What's The Point?

Philosopher Byung-Chul Han analyzes the societal structure of our time, through the lens of capitalism. He identifies aspects of digital technology as the primary enabler of this structure. Through this analysis, he points out what could be the causes to many important challenges of the current generation - such as burnout, emotional wellness, privacy, bias, and the politics of digital technology. Chapter 9 on emotions and feeling especially offers insight that could be useful to consider in the context of Plot Twisters. Many of the ideas also presented in the book may challenge Plot Twisters to re-examine and solidify its intentions.

Bullet Summary

• Chapter 1 calls out a "crisis of freedom," caused by a form of capitalism, neoliberalism. Han defines neoliberalism by exploring its characteristics. Some of these characteristics are the growth of an instant-gratification consumer mindset, the consistent need to work for the market rather than do what is best for the individual, surveillance and exploitation by capital goods (eg. think Facebook ads) at a psychological level, and a qualified (offers many choices within the system but not the freedom to choose something outside the system) conformity due to this surveillance and availability and exploitation of digital information.
• Chapter 2 discusses how neoliberalism gives people the illusion of freedom, while exploiting their psyche through data and its productization.
• Chapters 3 and 4 contrast the last generation's form of capitalism and the current form of capitalism. The last generation's capitalism was industrial; the abstraction of blue-collar labor into numbers was the force behind capitalism. In contrast, the current force of capitalism is based on the exploitation of a detailed view of the psyche of each person.
• Chapter 5 challenges the counterargument that neoliberalism promotes freedom that previous generations did not have. Han claims freedom is used towards self-exploitation, as it leads to success on the market.
• Chapter 6 continues Chapter 5's thread making an argument that quantified-self and self-optimization techniques are designed for doing well on the market.
• Extending on ideas from Chapter 3 and 4, Chapter 7 and 8 draw contrast to power's nature in industrial capitalism with its neoliberal form. Han characterizes neoliberal institutions as a "friendly big brother," that insidiously encourage expression in order to manipulate, whereas in generations before power was felt through the threat of force.
• Chapter 9 explores how emotions and feelings play a role in neoliberalism. It contrasts emotions and feelings, defining emotions as "performative" reactions, and feelings as narratives. Han claims technology and applications of big data are designed to encourage and take advantage of emotions rather than help people understand feelings or narratives. Additionally, Han draws parallels between rationality and feeling (defined as narratives or personal stories); he postulates that theory is a form of narration.
• Chapter 10 Han makes the case that gamification is mostly used towards market ends rather than personal freedom. True play, which Han describes to be the embodiment of freedom, has been replaced by the illusion of it.
• Chapter 11 Han examines the sweeping role big data has in the neoliberal regime. In this Chapter, he reiterates many of the points he has made in previous ones, while looking at big data's role in them. He points out that data is seen as objective truth, which amounts to tyranny and an excuse for ignorance. Data should not be trusted without context or narrative (think algorithm bias, eg. with facial recognition or AI for insurance, banking purposes), and Han claims we are all too often blinded by our belief in data, rejecting values as a result. Han expands on Chapter 6 and Chapter 9, to reiterate that data by itself is not designed for personal benefit, and that storytelling is a solution to self-discovery. He then explains that narratives change over time, that stories reorganize themselves in a person's memory with new context. He asserts this dynamic is not possible to capture through just data. Ideas from Chapter 1, 2, 7, and 8 are also repeated.
• Chapter 12 and 13 Han proposes a solution to neoliberalism he calls "idiotism." "Idiotism" is the philosophy of doing things that don't make sense in the context of society for the sake of exercising freedom. For example, or tearing up dollar bills or minimizing communication and networking.

Notable Quotes

Capital exploits individual freedom in order to breed. [But] it is not individuals who are set free...it is rather, capital which is set free...Capital generates needs of its own; mistakenly, we perceive these needs as if they belong to us

A vast sense of guilt that is unable to find relief seizes on the cult [of neoliberalism], not to atone for this guilt but to make it universal.

Neoliberalism makes citizens into consumers...They react only passively to politics. Politicians and parties follow the same logic...too...their task to satisfy voters who are...customers.

The capitalism of Like should come with a warning label: Protect me from what I want

Demography [of the previous industrial form of capitalism] is not the same as psychography...Big Data provides the means for establishing not just an individual but a collective psychogram...it may...exploit the unconscious entirely.

It is not concern for the good life that drives self-optimization. Rather, self-optimization follows from systemic constraints — from the logic of quantifying success on the market.