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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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La sociedad ha avanzado para evitar el sufrimiento, el dolor, aumentar la felicidad. Pero esto nos ha llevado a un estado de anestesia permanente. La sociedad paliativa de Byung-Chul Han. Bienvenidos a este episodio de Bibliotequeando. Les habla su anfitrión, Ricardo Dugo. Como siempre, arroba Bibliotequeando en las redes. Pueden seguir apoyando el podcast a través de las distintas plataformas.
Compartirlo con sus amigos, 5 estrellas, el canal de YouTube y por supuesto el club de Patreon, donde hay Not only the reading club, but exclusive content, exclusive episodes. Now I'm giving a little more of a window to what I do behind the scenes, behind the scenes of the podcast, to be able to have a much better, more beautiful connection with you. So today I bring you this book that I loved.
I've already read several books by Byung-Chun Han. It's a very provocative essay by a contemporary philosopher, something I like. of modern philosophy is that it attacks the themes that, well, you and I live. It is interesting to hear the arguments of Marco Aurelio, so to speak, the stoic philosophy, but he did not live the world that you and I live.
It does not mean that what he says has no value, but there is a value too. in understanding the perception about modernity, technology, our own relationship, in this case, with pain and suffering, of someone who is living it, of someone from the mind, one of the great minds of modern philosophy.
I have two philosophers that I read and listen to a lot, because they seem to me, as I said earlier, heterodox in thought, they seem to me A little disconnected from the Matrix, so to speak, which are Bill Chung-Han and Slavoj Zizek.
I don't agree with everything they both say, because I don't agree with everything anyone says, but I understand, I see a lot of value in the arguments they bring, because they come to me from a place... difficult to categorize. They have a very unique voice, both. And I think this, for me, is one of the best books by Byung-Chun Han, and that's why I bring them to you.
A little context on who the author is. He is a philosopher from South Korea. He moved to Germany in the 80s, was born in 1959, and studies metaphysics, studies German literature, studies theology in Germany, and later on he begins to dedicate himself to philosophy.
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Chapter 2: What does Byung-Chul Han mean by a 'palliative society'?
And that's where he starts teaching as a philosopher and little by little he releases these books and little by little he becomes one of the great thinkers of the 21st century. And how does he get this book? Because he begins to realize that society is managing against pain, against suffering.
If you have heard of palliative medicine, palliative medicine is the care with a medical attention focus intended to optimize the quality of life. Palliative medicine does not seek to cure the patient because it can no longer do so.
Chapter 3: How has society's pursuit of happiness led to emotional numbness?
Los pacientes de un doctor paliativo son personas con enfermedades bastante graves, complejas, a menudo ya terminales. Entonces la medicina paliativa se encarga de darte calidad de vida por la mayor cantidad de tiempo posible. Y eso es lo que ha sucedido en la sociedad, argumenta el autor.
El alivio del dolor se ha convertido en un imperativo cultural, un imperativo económico, en lo que él considera el capitalismo neoliberal del occidente, que nos ha llevado a una vida mucho más superficial y mucho menos auténtica. Esta obsesión de eliminar cualquier forma de incomodidad nos impide enfrentar las verdaderas causas de nuestro malestar.
Y lo que es más importante, nos aleja de esta vida plena y significativa, que es el verdadero punto para mí de grandes filósofos. Conseguir el propósito de la vida, conseguir la felicidad. He dicho esto anteriormente en el podcast que...
The modern books, which sell a lot, but the modern books of self-improvement, emotional psychology, it's not that they don't have value, but they have kidnapped the question of happiness, the question of what makes a life better, to philosophy, which was the former owner of this question. Que empieza con la algofobia, que es el miedo al dolor, la fobia al dolor, un miedo generalizado a sufrir.
Que esto trae por supuesto una tolerancia muy baja al dolor, ¿no? Si tú le tienes miedo o fobia, mejor dicho, a algo, por supuesto tu tolerancia a ese algo es extremadamente baja. Y eso crea una anestesia permanente, porque se trata de evitar todo tipo de estado doloroso. Less and less margins are left for conflicts, for controversies. We are afraid of commitments.
He thinks that one of the reasons why love today is in crisis, the love, let's say, from the point of view of a couple who decides to dedicate their life or dedicate that relationship for the rest of their lives, En parte está en crisis porque estamos en una sociedad paliativa, porque nos da miedo sufrir un abandono, sufrir una traición.
Cualquier elemento que podría provocar dolorosa confrontación, eso es mejor evitarlo. Simplemente es mejor tener ya sea una relación abierta, que no tiene nada de malo, o ya sea tener una relación... diferente, que minimice el dolor.
El concepto de las relaciones modernas, no todas, pero las relaciones modernas, argumenta el autor, han sido definidas acorde a evitar el dolor, no necesariamente a enfrentarlo. Y esa algofobia ha llegado a la política. Y cuando la política se acomoda en una zona paliativa, pierde toda la vitalidad. Se crea un centro.
En lugar de discutir y luchar por alcanzar argumentos mejores, uno cede a la presión del sistema. Uno cede a simplemente, bueno, qué es lo más fácil, qué es lo más corto. Vamos a simplemente evitar el dolor. El ejemplo que yo les he dado anteriormente en este podcast es sobre mi propia, como yo me considero por lo menos políticamente posicionado, que es el centro.
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Chapter 4: What role does pain play in the human experience according to Han?
And where does this digital culture come from? The author says, well, in different places. First, the commercialization and commercialization of culture. Culture has become a product, it is a service. What are the values of this product? What are the values of this brand? What are the values of this service?
That has created a way of turning culture into something consumable, which is an insult to life in that respect. In that conversion of taking culture into the economy, it came accompanied by a conversion of the economy into culture. With that, the separation was completely erased between culture and trade, between art and consumption, between art and propaganda.
Even artists, people, are individually forced to register as a brand. Literally, you are a brand. Legally. Here is Taylor Swift LLC, so to speak. You have to adjust to the market. And you have to be complacent to be pleasant to the market. I have had that experience personally. I sometimes try to understand... Well, who is talking? Bibliotequeando or Ricardo?
I try to give you the author, that part is bibliotequeando. The essence of the book. I'm not going to hide what the author said. I don't agree. And then I also want to give a little of my touch, because I have to show you who I am. But then that turns Ricardo into a brand and not a library. What happens with that?
I've had that problem, that discussion, conversation with sponsors, potential sponsors. That, well, Ricardo, yes, I love the podcast and everything else, but if you talk about this, this political issue, no, my brand is with this, you have to adjust to that brand, it turns you into a brand, right?
So, in those moments, in those aspects, art becomes, or better said, exists within the sphere of consumption. When in the past, in the sphere of art, the pleasure was never expected. Art always turned out to be shocking, annoying, disturbing, even hurtful. Art is in a different place, and pain is the gap through which the totally different place enters.
Complacency, on the other hand, does nothing but continue with the same, and that cannot be art. With that, we come to a part of the book that talks about the obligation to be happy. This phrase is very strong. The author says, The imperative of being happy generates a pressure that is more devastating than the imperative of being obedient.
Basically, the author argues, similar to Huxley in A Happy World, that we are in a world... Secuestrados, oprimidos por la felicidad. Y se nos olvida que cuanta mayor cantidad de risa sea capaz de descubrir en el dolor, es más profundo tu existencia. La persona se convierte más profunda. Entre más te puedas reír, puedes existir en el dolor.
Y entre más lo evites, menos profundo, menos sabio eres. Y se crea esta cultura de la automotivación, auto-optimización. That make the device, the machinery, the neoliberal system of happiness very effective. Because the power arranges them so that without the need to do too much, they can keep you subdued. And the subdued is not even aware of his submission.
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Chapter 5: How does algophobia affect our relationships and commitments?
Este libro es del 2022. Ya ustedes recuerdan esa etapa, no se lo voy a recordar, lo que fue el COVID, lo que fue la pandemia. Este capítulo para mí es muy interesante, me arrepiento de no haberlo leído durante la pandemia. Es polémico, así que voy a hablar primero de lo que él dice para que entiendan el mensaje y después podemos opinar un poco más. Pero el autor argumenta
That in this palliative society, the goal when COVID arrived was survival, but it was an absolute goal, almost as if we were at war. A palliative quarantine was created. Algophobia becomes a kind of thanatophobia, which is anxiety about death. Porque antes del COVID ya estaba la sociedad paliativa. Ya vivíamos con miedo al dolor. No era constante, no era visible la muerte.
Habíamos reprimido totalmente la muerte de nuestro sistema, de nuestro diario. Y de repente los medios de comunicación están hablando de X cantidad de muertos, como si estuviéramos en guerra. No éramos una sociedad que estaba preparada emocionalmente para lidiar con eso. Había una histeria por sobrevivir.
La prolongación de la vida a cualquier precio se acabó convirtiendo a nivel global en el valor supremo, que relegó a todos los demás valores. Se prohibieron las misas, por ejemplo, en Pascua. Sacerdotes guardando distancia social, mascarillas, protectoras. Se sacrificó hasta la fe por la supervivencia. Nos confinamos voluntariamente nosotros en nuestras propias casas,
como en un campo de internamiento, en la que la impera era la pura supervivencia. Lo único que separaba eso de un régimen distópico era la ideología de la salud y la paradójica libertad de la autoexplotación. Y en este individualismo de la sociedad neoliberal capitalista, hasta la caridad, hasta la calidad humana, hasta la conexión humana, se expresaba como algo de dolor.
Se volteó a la arepa, como se dice en Venezuela. Se expresaba el cariño con distancia. Cuida a los demás, siendo más individual aún. Evítale el dolor a ellos. El prójimo se convirtió en un potencial portador del virus. Evita el virus, evita al prójimo.
Entonces, como pueden ver, Byung-Chun Han no estuvo contento, supongo, cómo se manejó el COVID, desde el punto de vista psicológico, o desde el punto de vista social, filosófico. Habrá sus argumentos médicos, etc., pero él no está tocando los argumentos médicos ni nada, sino que está mostrando que esa reacción...
de crear la cuarentena global es parte simplemente de una consecuencia de vivir una sociedad paliativa con el miedo total y absoluto al dolor. Y bueno, mi gente, con esto llegamos a la previa de este episodio, el final de la primera parte de este episodio. El resto del episodio estará en Patreon, contenido exclusivo de este mes.
Los que no son miembros pueden conseguir el link en la descripción del podcast, en la descripción de este episodio. El que se haga miembro me ayuda a mí, por supuesto, a continuar viva esta idea de Bibliotequeando y seguir trayéndoles mucho más contenido de libros tan interesantes como este. Muchas gracias por escuchar, muchas gracias por apoyar.
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