Han: Psychpolitics Ch. 1 Discussion

Spouse: I’m so tired I can barely move.

Me: So do something that doesn’t require any movement.

Spouse: All l can do is lie on my bed and do nothing.

Me: According to Byung Chul Han, you’re not doing ‘nothing’; you’re resisting neoliberal capitalism.

As a practicing and engaged Buddhist, there’s a lot that resonates with me from Byung Chul Han’s Psychopolitics. Ch. 1 places the neoliberal “self” within the context of neoliberal capitalism. Basically, what Han is critiquing in all of his essays is narcissism. Although Han correctly diagnoses the problem, he does not offer specific solutions or alternatives. Han has been quoted as saying he would rather not offer solutions because they often have problems of their own. But I think there are solutions and alternatives, and I find them primarily in contemporary engaged Buddhism. 

One can immediately see that Han critiques the cult of the ‘self’ that is generated under neoliberal capitalism. Han calls it an excessive ‘positivity’, that is, turning one’s inner being (thoughts, feelings, identity) into a digital commodity that can be communicated, measured, and exploited for one’s own career advancement and the growth of neoliberal capitalism. It would be easy to say that Buddhism offers an immediate alternative to that system: in Buddhism, there is no ‘self’. Put another way, Buddhist philosophy and practice (meditation) discourages the elaboration of a supposed ‘self’, and encourages one to practice silence and contemplation. How can this be used to counteract the ‘neoliberal dispositive’? As a beginning, one can simply develop the awareness that the neoliberal system constantly demands our participation in its system of ‘behavioral extraction’. We can remind ourselves, as we sit down to meditate or study the scriptures, that we are not just meditating, we are resisting neoliberal capitalism. 

We can refuse to use the internet excessively, particularly social media, and find other ways to communicate that are less likely to be converted into a digital product. As a caveat, that is almost impossible because nearly every means of communication now goes through the internet and is subject to some kind of surveillance, even old technology like the landline telephone. I’ve made the argument that most of the surveillance we are subjected to is not voluntary. We are constantly tracked via our phones, email, debit cards, and security cameras. But we can choose not to intentionally participate in social media, or minimally participate in online profile creation and communication. The point is not to avoid technology per se, but to refuse to elaborate a ‘self’ as a commodity.

We can simply turn to the practice of Buddhism as a form of resistance to neoliberal capitalism, but we have to be careful not to fall into the other trap: neoliberal Buddhism. Neoliberal Buddhism makes a “project” of the self, through the practice, so that one is constantly monitoring, analyzing, and talking about one’s inner subjective experience, to oneself or to others. The quest of enlightenment then becomes a gigantic project of making oneself into a ‘perfectly enlightened being’, a perfect model of a practicing Buddhist. Such practice generates a kind of perverse Buddhist narcissism. Is the point of our practice to achieve some kind of social status as a practitioner? or is it to gradually reduce the need for constant self-monitoring and palliative treatment? 

It might be very beneficial to go through a traditional Buddhist deconstruction of the ‘self’ (is there a self? if so, where is it? what does it consist of? etc.), but add to it: how is the ‘self’ constructed by society? Following Han’s analysis, how is the ‘self’ constructed and exploited by neoliberal capitalism? That could be vey effective at subverting neoliberal Buddhism, as well as neoliberal capitalism.

We must also realize our need for each other, and that others need us. They need our love and support, as we need theirs. We need mutual companionship for enjoying life beyond bare survival. As Han says, a life of narcissistic isolation that excludes the ‘other’ is another pillar of neoliberalism. We need to make time and effort for meaningful relationships with people that matter to us.

We can look at the ways that we engage with communities to build the the political capacity to deal with issues that affect everyone, not just ‘me’. To engage in active political organizing is a movement against the isolated narcissism of neoliberalism. Active engagement in social and political movements can decenter the self and refocus our attention and energies on the needs of the collective. Here again, we have to be careful not to fall into the trap of ‘neoliberal activism’: performative activism whose main outcome is not addressing a collective issue, but signifying to others (on social media) that “I am right, I am on the side of truth and justice.” Neoliberal activism makes a working career out of activism which leads to burnout, i.e. the ‘burnout society’, Han’s other great bane of neoliberalism. The alternative to burnout is play, creativity, rest, contemplation and meditation. (Byung Chul Han presents this as an alternative to neoliberalism in his latest book, Vita Contemplativa: In Praise of Inactivity, 2024).

As a form of political activism, I prefer to work with groups and movements that are not identity-based, not people who look and think ‘like me’, whether that’s an ethnic, gender or religious identity. Rather, I prefer to work with groups that are pluralistic, because they bring together people with a variety of beliefs, social backgrounds, identities and issues. In Han’s words, they bring ‘the unknown of the other’ that challenges us to go beyond the narcissistic ‘self’. Usually, I organize with people at the local level, in my geographic location, because I can engage with a plurality of people on a face-to-face level, as well as through digital communication.

Regarding ‘the Crisis of Freedom’, I am not free to do anything I want, as the neoliberal imperative dictates. There are limits to what I can do because everything I do impacts someone else, and the planet ecosystem as a whole, and I have to respect those limits. I have to respect my own limitations in order to avoid burnout and mental illness. Though neoliberal narcissism may seduce me into thinking that I have a “right” to say whatever I please, I have to understand that my communications can potentially harm others, or just add to the human noise pollution in a way that is not necessary or constructive. These are some of the basic Buddhist tenets of interdependence and ‘right speech.’

But the solution is not to ‘do nothing while the world burns’. While these are all good ways that I can resist neoliberalism personally and ‘live in the alternative’, it does not go far enough as a way to undermine the capitalist system as a whole. That is a task that has to be undertaken on a collective level, as broadly as possible. One of the ways I see this happening is in the Climate Justice movement which is engaging people in every form of life and level of governance to stop over-producing (degrowth, sustainability) and over-consuming. We need to be mindful of the way that online communications exponentially increase the world-wide demand for energy, especially in the form of fossil fuels. Elaborating a digital ‘self’ on so many online platforms adds needlessly to the carbon pollution that is destroying our environment.

The value of Buddhist philosophy is that it can be a method of consciousness raising, of seeing through the systems and ideologies that trap us, that constrain us to behave in ways that are harmful to ourselves and others. Using Buddhist ideas of interdependence, insight, and deconstructing ideologies and “views” is a way to liberate people’s minds, singly and collectively. It is a form of ’freedom’ that is not about narcissistic elaboration and consumption, but awakening and liberation from an exploitative system that is constantly trying to turn us into human data mines. Applied in the right way, Buddhist philosophy and contemplation can generate an alternative to neoliberal capitalism, a psychopolitics of mental liberation.