The Expulsion of the Other

By Byung-Chul Han “The days of the other are over in this age of excessive communication information and consumption. What used to be the other as friend, as Eros, or as hell is now indistinguishable from the self and our narcissistic desire to assimilate everything and everyone until there are no boundaries left. The result is a terror of the same lives in which we no longer pursue knowledge, insight, and experience but are instead reduced to the echo chambers and illusory encounters offered by social media. In extreme cases this feeling of disorientation and senselessness is compensated through self harm or even harming others through acts of terrorism. Byung-Chul Han argues that our times are characterized not by external repression but by an internal depression whereby the destructive pressure comes not from the other but from the self. It is only by returning to society of listeners and lovers by acknowledging and desiring the other that we can seek to overcome the isolation and suffering caused by this crushing process of total assimilation.