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The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present
Untrammelled neoliberalism and the inexorable force of production have produced a 21st century crisis of community: a narcissistic cult of authenticity and mass turning-inward are among the pathologies engendered by it. We are individuals afloat in an atomised society, where the loss of the symbolic structures inherent in ritual behaviour has led to overdependence on the contingent to steer identity.
Avoiding saccharine nostalgia for the rituals of the past, Han provides a genealogy of their disappearance as a means of diagnosing the pathologies of the present. He juxtaposes a community without communication — where the intensity of togetherness in silent recognition provides structure and meaning — to today's communication without community, which does away with collective feelings and leaves individuals exposed to exploitation and manipulation by neoliberal psycho-politics. The community that is invoked everywhere today is an atrophied and commoditized community that lacks the symbolic power to bind people together. For Han, it is only the mutual praxis of recognition borne by the ritualistic sharing of the symbolic between members of a community which creates the footholds of objectivity allowing us to make sense of time.
This new book by one of the most creative cultural theorists writing today will be of interest to a wide readership.
Avoiding saccharine nostalgia for the rituals of the past, Han provides a genealogy of their disappearance as a means of diagnosing the pathologies of the present. He juxtaposes a community without communication — where the intensity of togetherness in silent recognition provides structure and meaning — to today's communication without community, which does away with collective feelings and leaves individuals exposed to exploitation and manipulation by neoliberal psycho-politics. The community that is invoked everywhere today is an atrophied and commoditized community that lacks the symbolic power to bind people together. For Han, it is only the mutual praxis of recognition borne by the ritualistic sharing of the symbolic between members of a community which creates the footholds of objectivity allowing us to make sense of time.
This new book by one of the most creative cultural theorists writing today will be of interest to a wide readership.
186 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2019
643 people are currently reading
9014 people want to read
About the author
Byung-Chul Han
57 books4,825 followersByung-Chul Han, also spelled Pyŏng-ch'ŏl Han (born 1959 in Seoul), is a German author, cultural theorist, and Professor at the Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK) in Berlin, Germany.
Byung-Chul Han studied metallurgy in Korea before he moved to Germany in the 1980s to study Philosophy, German Literature and Catholic theology in Freiburg im Breisgau and Munich. He received his doctoral degree at Freiburg with a dissertation on Martin Heidegger in 1994.
In 2000, he joined the Department of Philosophy at the University of Basel, where he completed his Habilitation. In 2010 he became a faculty member at the HfG Karlsruhe, where his areas of interest were philosophy of the 18th, 19th and 20th century, ethics, social philosophy, phenomenology, cultural theory, aesthetics, religion, media theory, and intercultural philosophy. Since 2012 he teaches philosophy and cultural studies at the Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK), where he directs the newly established Studium Generale general-studies program.
Han is the author of sixteen books, of which the most recent are treatises on what he terms a "society of tiredness" (Müdigkeitsgesellschaft), a "society of transparency" (Transparenzgesellschaft), and on his neologist concept of shanzai, which seeks to identify modes of deconstruction in contemporary practices of Chinese capitalism.
Han's current work focuses on transparency as a cultural norm created by neoliberal market forces, which he understands as the insatiable drive toward voluntary disclosure bordering on the pornographic. According to Han, the dictates of transparency enforce a totalitarian system of openness at the expense of other social values such as shame, secrecy, and trust.
Until recently, he refused to give radio and television interviews and rarely divulges any biographical or personal details, including his date of birth, in public.
Han has written on topics such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, borderline, burnout, depression, exhaustion, internet, love, pop culture, power, rationality, religion, social media, subjectivity, tiredness, transparency and violence.
Byung-Chul Han studied metallurgy in Korea before he moved to Germany in the 1980s to study Philosophy, German Literature and Catholic theology in Freiburg im Breisgau and Munich. He received his doctoral degree at Freiburg with a dissertation on Martin Heidegger in 1994.
In 2000, he joined the Department of Philosophy at the University of Basel, where he completed his Habilitation. In 2010 he became a faculty member at the HfG Karlsruhe, where his areas of interest were philosophy of the 18th, 19th and 20th century, ethics, social philosophy, phenomenology, cultural theory, aesthetics, religion, media theory, and intercultural philosophy. Since 2012 he teaches philosophy and cultural studies at the Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK), where he directs the newly established Studium Generale general-studies program.
Han is the author of sixteen books, of which the most recent are treatises on what he terms a "society of tiredness" (Müdigkeitsgesellschaft), a "society of transparency" (Transparenzgesellschaft), and on his neologist concept of shanzai, which seeks to identify modes of deconstruction in contemporary practices of Chinese capitalism.
Han's current work focuses on transparency as a cultural norm created by neoliberal market forces, which he understands as the insatiable drive toward voluntary disclosure bordering on the pornographic. According to Han, the dictates of transparency enforce a totalitarian system of openness at the expense of other social values such as shame, secrecy, and trust.
Until recently, he refused to give radio and television interviews and rarely divulges any biographical or personal details, including his date of birth, in public.
Han has written on topics such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, borderline, burnout, depression, exhaustion, internet, love, pop culture, power, rationality, religion, social media, subjectivity, tiredness, transparency and violence.
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June 22, 2025
Warning: I feel an unstoppable urge to rant, because it's been a long time since I saw so much nonsense so concentrated together! This was the first time I read the German-Korean philosopher and cultural scientist Byung-Chul Han (°1959). It is a collection of essays, in which Han reveals himself as a mercilessly sharp critic of our society. Nothing against that, on the contrary. But Han's clearly went on deaf ears with me.
It starts with the pushy tone of his argument: Han launches proposition after proposition, without nuance, declaiming to the point of being pushy, and almost without exception in very negative terms. So much assertive negativity always arouses my suspicion, and almost automatically provokes resistance in me. In one of the chapters, Han laments the disappearance of the playful and the festive; well: his bone-dry text lacks any form of humor and playfulness. And the mantra that always returns: it is capitalism in its neoliberal phase that is to blame for everything that is going wrong in our society today. On almost every page, neoliberalism figures as a demon that has ruined our idyllic life of the past. Such simplistic thinking makes me angry. Be careful, I agree that the concept of neoliberalism is a useful instrument to explain certain (ideological) aspects of our political-economic system, but it is no more than an instrument, a tool, not an acting being in itself, as Han seems to suggest.
And while we are at it: what Han lists as the ills of the time is of course recognizable (production- and authenticity compulsion, hyper-individualism, disenchantment of the world, etc.), but it is a particularly one-sided, exclusively negative reading of the time. There's a lot of cherry picking going on in this book.
My biggest frustration when reading this book was its a-historical nature. Han is clearly irritated by the disenchantment of the world, and acts as if this phenomenon only became active with globalization and neoliberalism, which, obviously, is not the case. Many of his examples seem to be recent phenomena (attributed to neoliberal capitalism), while most of them are the result of centuries of evolution (see Charles Taylor). And then there is his ambiguous reference to the good things of the past: the Japanese tea ritual, life in a Hungarian rural village, fashion in the 19th century (wasn't that the era of industrial modernity par excellence?). And what do you think of this statement: “In a society determined by rituals, depression does not occur. There, the soul is completely absorbed, indeed emptied, by ritual forms.” Apparently, the author has an idealistic view of rituals (and I agree, they can be valuable); according to him they are (/should be) ‘empty’, mere form, no meaning. And that is strange, because in my opinion rituals can certainly also have a dominant and even a dehumanizing effect.
No, Han seems to me – based on this booklet – to be yet another representative of a romantic cultural pessimist, who is only able to mourn the decline of what once was, and is unable to sketch a sound alternative. Such analyses are usually so one-sided that the ultimate consequence of their thinking can only be a return to reactionary times. What a waste. I've warned you, clearly I'm angry.
It starts with the pushy tone of his argument: Han launches proposition after proposition, without nuance, declaiming to the point of being pushy, and almost without exception in very negative terms. So much assertive negativity always arouses my suspicion, and almost automatically provokes resistance in me. In one of the chapters, Han laments the disappearance of the playful and the festive; well: his bone-dry text lacks any form of humor and playfulness. And the mantra that always returns: it is capitalism in its neoliberal phase that is to blame for everything that is going wrong in our society today. On almost every page, neoliberalism figures as a demon that has ruined our idyllic life of the past. Such simplistic thinking makes me angry. Be careful, I agree that the concept of neoliberalism is a useful instrument to explain certain (ideological) aspects of our political-economic system, but it is no more than an instrument, a tool, not an acting being in itself, as Han seems to suggest.
And while we are at it: what Han lists as the ills of the time is of course recognizable (production- and authenticity compulsion, hyper-individualism, disenchantment of the world, etc.), but it is a particularly one-sided, exclusively negative reading of the time. There's a lot of cherry picking going on in this book.
My biggest frustration when reading this book was its a-historical nature. Han is clearly irritated by the disenchantment of the world, and acts as if this phenomenon only became active with globalization and neoliberalism, which, obviously, is not the case. Many of his examples seem to be recent phenomena (attributed to neoliberal capitalism), while most of them are the result of centuries of evolution (see Charles Taylor). And then there is his ambiguous reference to the good things of the past: the Japanese tea ritual, life in a Hungarian rural village, fashion in the 19th century (wasn't that the era of industrial modernity par excellence?). And what do you think of this statement: “In a society determined by rituals, depression does not occur. There, the soul is completely absorbed, indeed emptied, by ritual forms.” Apparently, the author has an idealistic view of rituals (and I agree, they can be valuable); according to him they are (/should be) ‘empty’, mere form, no meaning. And that is strange, because in my opinion rituals can certainly also have a dominant and even a dehumanizing effect.
No, Han seems to me – based on this booklet – to be yet another representative of a romantic cultural pessimist, who is only able to mourn the decline of what once was, and is unable to sketch a sound alternative. Such analyses are usually so one-sided that the ultimate consequence of their thinking can only be a return to reactionary times. What a waste. I've warned you, clearly I'm angry.
March 19, 2024
Some haunting passages in this book. While overstated, I think Han is onto something when he discusses the “ritual of war” and the “rules” around it being eroded down to the level of drone strikes and “dataism”. His description of the culture tending toward pornography in all of its aspects is also mostly irrefutable.
Here are a few quotes from the book that I enjoyed and that made me think:
- “Rituals stabilize life. To paraphrase Antoine Saint-Exupéry, we may say: rituals are in life what things are in space. For Hannah Arendt it is the durability of things that gives them their ‘relative independence from men’. They ‘have the function of stabilizing human life’. Their ‘objectivity lies in the fact that . . . men, their ever-changing nature notwithstanding, can retrieve their sameness, that is, their identity, by being related to the same chair and the same table’. In life, things serve as stabilizing resting points. Rituals serve the same purpose. Through their self-sameness, their repetitiveness, they stabilize life. They make life last [haltbar]. The contemporary compulsion to produce robs things of their endurance [Haltbarkeit]: it intentionally erodes duration in order to increase production, to force more consumption.”
- “Today, we consume not only things themselves but also the emotions that are bound up with things. You cannot consume things endlessly, but emotions you can. Thus, emotions open up a new field of infinite consumption. The emotionalization of commodities and the associated aestheticization of commodities are subject to the compulsion of production. Their function is to increase consumption and production. As a consequence, the aesthetic is colonized by the economic.
Emotions are more fleeting than things; they therefore do not stabilize life. In consuming emotions we do not relate to things but to ourselves. What we seek is emotional authenticity. Thus, the consumption of emotions strengthens the narcissistic relationship to ourselves. The relationship to the world that we have by way of the mediation of things is thereby increasingly lost.”
- “Values today also serve as things for individual consumption. They become commodities. Values such as justice, humanity or sustainability are exploited for profit. One fair-trade enterprise has the slogan: ‘Change the world while drinking tea.’ Changing the world through consumption – that would be the end of the revolution. Nowadays one can purchase vegan shoes or clothes; soon there will probably be vegan smartphones too. Neoliberalism often makes use of morality for its own ends. Moral values are consumed as marks of distinction. They are credited to the ego-account, appreciating the value of self. They increase our narcissistic self-respect. Through values we relate not to community but to our own egos.”
- “Ritual acts also include feelings, but the bearer of these feelings is not the isolated individual. In a ritual of mourning, for instance, the mourning is an objective feeling, a collective feeling. It is impersonal. Collective feelings have nothing to do with individual psychology. In a ritual of mourning, the community is the actual subject that mourns. Faced with the experience of loss, the community imposes the mourning upon itself. Such collective feelings consolidate a community. The increasing atomization of society also takes hold of its emotional world. The formation of collective feelings becomes less frequent. Instead, fleeting affects and emotions, the states of isolated individuals, predominate. Unlike emotions and affects, feelings can be collective. Digital communication, however, is predominantly affect based: it tends towards the immediate outpouring of affect. Twitter is an affective medium, and the politics based on it is an affective politics. Politics is reason and mediation; reason, which is time-intensive, is currently being replaced by immediate affect.”
- “The culture of authenticity goes hand in hand with the distrust of ritualized forms of interaction. Only spontaneous emotion, that is, a subjective state, is authentic. Behaviour that has been formed in some way is denigrated as inauthentic or superficial. In the society of authenticity, actions are guided internally, motivated psychologically, whereas in ritual societies actions are determined by externalized forms of interaction. Rituals make the world objective; they mediate our relation to the world. The compulsion of authenticity, by contrast, makes everything subjective, thereby intensifying narcissistic tendencies.”
- “Porn is a phenomenon of transparency. The age of pornography is the age of unambiguousness. Today, we no longer have a sense for phenomena such as secrets or riddles. Ambiguities or ambivalences cause us discomfort. Because of their ambiguity, jokes are also frowned upon. Seduction requires the negativity of the secret. The positivity of the unambiguous only allows for sequential processes. Even reading is acquiring a pornographic form. The pleasure of reading a text resembles that of watching a striptease. It derives from a progressive unveiling of truth as though it were a sexual organ [der Wahrheit als Geschlecht]. We rarely read poems any more. Unlike popular crime novels, they do not contain a final truth. Poems play with fuzzy edges. They do not admit of pornographic reading; they do not possess pornographic sharpness. They resist the production of meaning.”
Here are a few quotes from the book that I enjoyed and that made me think:
- “Rituals stabilize life. To paraphrase Antoine Saint-Exupéry, we may say: rituals are in life what things are in space. For Hannah Arendt it is the durability of things that gives them their ‘relative independence from men’. They ‘have the function of stabilizing human life’. Their ‘objectivity lies in the fact that . . . men, their ever-changing nature notwithstanding, can retrieve their sameness, that is, their identity, by being related to the same chair and the same table’. In life, things serve as stabilizing resting points. Rituals serve the same purpose. Through their self-sameness, their repetitiveness, they stabilize life. They make life last [haltbar]. The contemporary compulsion to produce robs things of their endurance [Haltbarkeit]: it intentionally erodes duration in order to increase production, to force more consumption.”
- “Today, we consume not only things themselves but also the emotions that are bound up with things. You cannot consume things endlessly, but emotions you can. Thus, emotions open up a new field of infinite consumption. The emotionalization of commodities and the associated aestheticization of commodities are subject to the compulsion of production. Their function is to increase consumption and production. As a consequence, the aesthetic is colonized by the economic.
Emotions are more fleeting than things; they therefore do not stabilize life. In consuming emotions we do not relate to things but to ourselves. What we seek is emotional authenticity. Thus, the consumption of emotions strengthens the narcissistic relationship to ourselves. The relationship to the world that we have by way of the mediation of things is thereby increasingly lost.”
- “Values today also serve as things for individual consumption. They become commodities. Values such as justice, humanity or sustainability are exploited for profit. One fair-trade enterprise has the slogan: ‘Change the world while drinking tea.’ Changing the world through consumption – that would be the end of the revolution. Nowadays one can purchase vegan shoes or clothes; soon there will probably be vegan smartphones too. Neoliberalism often makes use of morality for its own ends. Moral values are consumed as marks of distinction. They are credited to the ego-account, appreciating the value of self. They increase our narcissistic self-respect. Through values we relate not to community but to our own egos.”
- “Ritual acts also include feelings, but the bearer of these feelings is not the isolated individual. In a ritual of mourning, for instance, the mourning is an objective feeling, a collective feeling. It is impersonal. Collective feelings have nothing to do with individual psychology. In a ritual of mourning, the community is the actual subject that mourns. Faced with the experience of loss, the community imposes the mourning upon itself. Such collective feelings consolidate a community. The increasing atomization of society also takes hold of its emotional world. The formation of collective feelings becomes less frequent. Instead, fleeting affects and emotions, the states of isolated individuals, predominate. Unlike emotions and affects, feelings can be collective. Digital communication, however, is predominantly affect based: it tends towards the immediate outpouring of affect. Twitter is an affective medium, and the politics based on it is an affective politics. Politics is reason and mediation; reason, which is time-intensive, is currently being replaced by immediate affect.”
- “The culture of authenticity goes hand in hand with the distrust of ritualized forms of interaction. Only spontaneous emotion, that is, a subjective state, is authentic. Behaviour that has been formed in some way is denigrated as inauthentic or superficial. In the society of authenticity, actions are guided internally, motivated psychologically, whereas in ritual societies actions are determined by externalized forms of interaction. Rituals make the world objective; they mediate our relation to the world. The compulsion of authenticity, by contrast, makes everything subjective, thereby intensifying narcissistic tendencies.”
- “Porn is a phenomenon of transparency. The age of pornography is the age of unambiguousness. Today, we no longer have a sense for phenomena such as secrets or riddles. Ambiguities or ambivalences cause us discomfort. Because of their ambiguity, jokes are also frowned upon. Seduction requires the negativity of the secret. The positivity of the unambiguous only allows for sequential processes. Even reading is acquiring a pornographic form. The pleasure of reading a text resembles that of watching a striptease. It derives from a progressive unveiling of truth as though it were a sexual organ [der Wahrheit als Geschlecht]. We rarely read poems any more. Unlike popular crime novels, they do not contain a final truth. Poems play with fuzzy edges. They do not admit of pornographic reading; they do not possess pornographic sharpness. They resist the production of meaning.”
December 21, 2020
In his most recent book, published in 2020, Byung-Chul Han focus his attention in the role social rituals play in integrating and creating cohesion in our societies. Its absence is at the same time cause and consequence of today’s narcissism and individualism, which is making us to feel disorientated and lost in society, as well as causing the rise of xenophobic nationalism again.
The Korean-German philosopher has become in the last years one the most relevant voices in understanding the complexities of contemporary society. First a student of metallurgy student, Byung Chul-Han moved to Germany at 26 years old to study philosophy, without knowing any German and almost no philosophy. But through a specialization in cultural studies, and the publication of more than 15 books, he has become one of the most important philosophers of our time. By scrutinizing the sociological consequences of today’s capitalism, his acute vision explores its relation with the atomization of a society –which is creating narcissistic individuals–, the self-exploitation of workers, or the alarming increase of mental health problems in our societies.
In order to do this, the author does not rely on quantified data, but rather almost always on the hermeneutical and argumentative analysis used in his field. The way he does this is by recurrently using short phrases with abundant and powerful meaning, almost using them as aphorisms. His style is direct and resounding, and the structure of the book is circular, in the sense that it has a general, main idea in the book, which is the disappearance of rituals and the atomization of society, which flows through the book in connection with other subtopics, which conform the small chapters of the book, ten in total.
Although his claims are strong and robust, the author often supports his statements with quotes or thoughts of the work of other philosophers. Particularly, in The Disappearance of Rituals we find references to the works of Hannah Arendt, Immanuel Kant, Foucault or Zygmunt Bauman, whose concept of “liquid society” shares similarities with the ideas of the Korean philosopher.
He first starts the book with one of the key claims, which is that “rituals generate a community without communication, but now we have communication without community” (Han, 2020, pag. 11). Why do rituals generate community? Because of its capacity to transmit and represent the values of the community. In that sense, rituals are “symbolic techniques of home installation” (Han, 2020, pag. 23) because they are able to give a sense of durability, of recognition, stability and belonging to a place. As an example of these rituals he gives funerals. In them, collective emotions are represented, and the protagonist is the community, not the individuals. These collective feelings consolidate the community even without communication, because of the importance of the ritual itself. Other examples could be annual rituals such as Christmas or New Years Eve, but the author focuses more in the role played by religion and its temples. The word Synagogue, per example, comes from the Greek word synagein, which means “to bring together”. However, outside of religious rituals, Byung-Chul Han does not give more examples besides from the Japanese ritual of having tea. Hence, it remains unclear what is his exact definition of rituals, and how were they present in everyday life before.
Why are rituals in disappearance and what are the main consequences of it? The author often writes about the “neoliberal regime” as the main actor responsible for today’s situation. However, the term remains vague and unclear. Although its understandable that the main focus is not put on the regime itself, but rather on the consequences of it, it still feels necessary to specify it more. It is not clear if we are all part of the neoliberal regime, or if it is something imposed on us that has changed society. The changes the author talks about is the passage from a united community to an atomised society in which rituals, symbols and formalisms are seen as a something conservative and negative, that does not allow the flourishing of the individual, which is the centre of today’s world. Individualism, fundamental in modernity, has transformed in narcissism, creating divisions between individuals and thus not allowing communities to be formed. Per example, tattoos in the XIX were used as a part of community rituals, often being shared by multiple individuals. On the contrary, now are only used as a form of authenticity, converting ourselves into individual capitalist products. The same could be said about our social media, in which everything is about the individual profiles and to be perceived as authentic in them.
However, without those rituals, pictures and metaphors creators of sense of belonging, emotions become individual and isolated. And this can derive in the sensation of emptiness and depression. After all, replacing real communitarian bonds for superficial, social media ones, is not the same at all. As a consequence, the feeling of being lost in our society is increasing, also because of globalization is too similar everywhere. Cities become standardised, and cultures become a local product that is sold to tourists, but not really felt by its society. Also, as explained by Zygmunt Bauman in his book Liquid modernity (Bauman, 1999), everything in our societies changes very rapidly, making us to loose the feeling of belonging to places and cultures.
Following this path of thinking, Byung-Chul Han correlates these changes with the increase of nationalism in the last decade. Although the rise of nationalism cannot be explained only by one factor, his arguments are able to successfully connect the two phenomena. Globalization, he argues, is creating an excess in the openness of our societies to foreign cultures, which is dissolving communities. Human beings are local, and in order to create a “we”, it also needs to create a “them”. If this is not possible, and cultures are not relevant anymore, our human nature will tend to close itself in smaller communities, even if this means creating a xenophobic nationalism.
This critic of globalization is often not understood by the left, because it sees the protection of local communities as something conservative that needs to be changed. However, it is totally normal if an elderly person feels lost because of not recognizing his own neighbourhood anymore, due to demographic and cultural changes in them. And if the left does not understand that feeling, but it rather rejects it by considering it something xenophobic or racist, then the cultural battle is going to be won by the nationalist far-right. Instead of judging people who is feeling lost in our societies because of globalization, we should give them alternative discourses that are able to unite local communities, rituals and cultures, with the ideas of mutual recognition, respect, and cultural enrichment. A different globalization its possible, in which cultures are strengthened rather than weakened. The message of Byung-Chul Han should not be overlooked.
The Korean-German philosopher has become in the last years one the most relevant voices in understanding the complexities of contemporary society. First a student of metallurgy student, Byung Chul-Han moved to Germany at 26 years old to study philosophy, without knowing any German and almost no philosophy. But through a specialization in cultural studies, and the publication of more than 15 books, he has become one of the most important philosophers of our time. By scrutinizing the sociological consequences of today’s capitalism, his acute vision explores its relation with the atomization of a society –which is creating narcissistic individuals–, the self-exploitation of workers, or the alarming increase of mental health problems in our societies.
In order to do this, the author does not rely on quantified data, but rather almost always on the hermeneutical and argumentative analysis used in his field. The way he does this is by recurrently using short phrases with abundant and powerful meaning, almost using them as aphorisms. His style is direct and resounding, and the structure of the book is circular, in the sense that it has a general, main idea in the book, which is the disappearance of rituals and the atomization of society, which flows through the book in connection with other subtopics, which conform the small chapters of the book, ten in total.
Although his claims are strong and robust, the author often supports his statements with quotes or thoughts of the work of other philosophers. Particularly, in The Disappearance of Rituals we find references to the works of Hannah Arendt, Immanuel Kant, Foucault or Zygmunt Bauman, whose concept of “liquid society” shares similarities with the ideas of the Korean philosopher.
He first starts the book with one of the key claims, which is that “rituals generate a community without communication, but now we have communication without community” (Han, 2020, pag. 11). Why do rituals generate community? Because of its capacity to transmit and represent the values of the community. In that sense, rituals are “symbolic techniques of home installation” (Han, 2020, pag. 23) because they are able to give a sense of durability, of recognition, stability and belonging to a place. As an example of these rituals he gives funerals. In them, collective emotions are represented, and the protagonist is the community, not the individuals. These collective feelings consolidate the community even without communication, because of the importance of the ritual itself. Other examples could be annual rituals such as Christmas or New Years Eve, but the author focuses more in the role played by religion and its temples. The word Synagogue, per example, comes from the Greek word synagein, which means “to bring together”. However, outside of religious rituals, Byung-Chul Han does not give more examples besides from the Japanese ritual of having tea. Hence, it remains unclear what is his exact definition of rituals, and how were they present in everyday life before.
Why are rituals in disappearance and what are the main consequences of it? The author often writes about the “neoliberal regime” as the main actor responsible for today’s situation. However, the term remains vague and unclear. Although its understandable that the main focus is not put on the regime itself, but rather on the consequences of it, it still feels necessary to specify it more. It is not clear if we are all part of the neoliberal regime, or if it is something imposed on us that has changed society. The changes the author talks about is the passage from a united community to an atomised society in which rituals, symbols and formalisms are seen as a something conservative and negative, that does not allow the flourishing of the individual, which is the centre of today’s world. Individualism, fundamental in modernity, has transformed in narcissism, creating divisions between individuals and thus not allowing communities to be formed. Per example, tattoos in the XIX were used as a part of community rituals, often being shared by multiple individuals. On the contrary, now are only used as a form of authenticity, converting ourselves into individual capitalist products. The same could be said about our social media, in which everything is about the individual profiles and to be perceived as authentic in them.
However, without those rituals, pictures and metaphors creators of sense of belonging, emotions become individual and isolated. And this can derive in the sensation of emptiness and depression. After all, replacing real communitarian bonds for superficial, social media ones, is not the same at all. As a consequence, the feeling of being lost in our society is increasing, also because of globalization is too similar everywhere. Cities become standardised, and cultures become a local product that is sold to tourists, but not really felt by its society. Also, as explained by Zygmunt Bauman in his book Liquid modernity (Bauman, 1999), everything in our societies changes very rapidly, making us to loose the feeling of belonging to places and cultures.
Following this path of thinking, Byung-Chul Han correlates these changes with the increase of nationalism in the last decade. Although the rise of nationalism cannot be explained only by one factor, his arguments are able to successfully connect the two phenomena. Globalization, he argues, is creating an excess in the openness of our societies to foreign cultures, which is dissolving communities. Human beings are local, and in order to create a “we”, it also needs to create a “them”. If this is not possible, and cultures are not relevant anymore, our human nature will tend to close itself in smaller communities, even if this means creating a xenophobic nationalism.
This critic of globalization is often not understood by the left, because it sees the protection of local communities as something conservative that needs to be changed. However, it is totally normal if an elderly person feels lost because of not recognizing his own neighbourhood anymore, due to demographic and cultural changes in them. And if the left does not understand that feeling, but it rather rejects it by considering it something xenophobic or racist, then the cultural battle is going to be won by the nationalist far-right. Instead of judging people who is feeling lost in our societies because of globalization, we should give them alternative discourses that are able to unite local communities, rituals and cultures, with the ideas of mutual recognition, respect, and cultural enrichment. A different globalization its possible, in which cultures are strengthened rather than weakened. The message of Byung-Chul Han should not be overlooked.
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December 9, 2020Me parece un problema grave la ausencia de rituales en la vida moderna. Los echo de menos, especialmente en momentos liminares como el duelo por la muerte o la celebración por nacimiento y emparejamiento. Y no, no sirve inventarse rituales nuevos e individuales: eso es un oxímoron. Sin símbolos compartidos, un ritual no significa nada.
Una buena amiga, sabedora de esta preocupación mía, me regaló este libro.
Me ha gustado ver que no estoy sola en esto, que la desaparición de los rituales tiene consecuencias sociales e individuales negativas. Me ha gustado el análisis antropológico-histórico, que tenía un poco olvidado. Me ha gustado el estilo, con frases directas y sencillas, sin subordinaciones; lenguaje y ejemplos cercanos.
No me ha guastado que la respuesta que, implícitamente, parece dar Han es que volvamos atrás. Que dejemos de usar internet y volvamos a practicar duelos rituales y carnavales medievales. Tampoco me ha gustado el tono general machirulo, que ensalza la comunidad con una individualidad épica latente.
Una buena amiga, sabedora de esta preocupación mía, me regaló este libro.
Me ha gustado ver que no estoy sola en esto, que la desaparición de los rituales tiene consecuencias sociales e individuales negativas. Me ha gustado el análisis antropológico-histórico, que tenía un poco olvidado. Me ha gustado el estilo, con frases directas y sencillas, sin subordinaciones; lenguaje y ejemplos cercanos.
No me ha guastado que la respuesta que, implícitamente, parece dar Han es que volvamos atrás. Que dejemos de usar internet y volvamos a practicar duelos rituales y carnavales medievales. Tampoco me ha gustado el tono general machirulo, que ensalza la comunidad con una individualidad épica latente.
December 30, 2021
As usual, Byung-Chul Han is all over the place, the block-quotes are often off-topic, everything is "neoliberal," plus lots of overly confident epigrams: "Capitalism lacks narrativity," "Poems are magic ceremonies of language." I can't stomach this type of thinking and am beginning to think his book on psychopolitics was a chance success.
June 27, 2021
Look, I couldn’t agree more with the idea that modernity is forcing us into a never ending production that progressively subtracts meaning to our lives. The reflection about the importance of rituals to bring together a community is suggestive, too. But the following argumentation of these assumptions is a cherry-picking based (when the author touches a subject I know his ignorance is fully manifested, such like in the “dataism” chapter) decontextualized, specious and intellectually dishonest j’accuse to a non specified idea of “neoliberalism”, like if it was a recent external deus ex-machina ruining the world and not just a further evolution of the historically persistent human greed, that existed even when rituals ruled our life.
March 24, 2021
It is my first experience with the writing of Han, and I find his writing to be beautifully clear. I really liked his writing style. Concise sentences that build on each other to make a point. But, I couldn't agree with most of what he seems to support. I felt that he might have been detached from such "ritualistic" cultures that he yearns for them. As a person living in a country with all forms of rituals, I am in the position of being able to compare between cultures in which the external guides the internal as opposed to ones in which the internal is the main driver. By that, I see how the culture that Han longs for is hypocritical and suffocating as well. Your personal rights are being narrowed in such cultures. Your choices are being dictated by the big hand at the background. People do smile and laugh at the face of others but they would confide to their peers of how they hate what they are doing and how suffocated they feel. I would not disagree that in such cultures depression is lesser compared to the cultures living under "neoliberal regimes" but everything in life could be weighed by some form of cost and benefit (I know this line would prove his point further on how the "new life" has been commodified) but I have seen many who prefer some degree of existential angst but not to live in a suffocating and controlling culture that stands on external rituals with "seemingly" bound communities. The third chapter, The Rituals of Closure, is what I liked most, and I am sure that the writer or his proponents would say that the rituals of closure have been denigrated result as a side effect of the overall change in life but I would beg to disagree as there are many who do engage in these acts without subscribing to the other rituals.
Even modern psychological research promotes that these instances of pondering deeply on matters and allowing for completion to take place matters.
When I reached the chapter "From Duelling to Drone Wars", I felt that he is very nostalgic to some primitive form of life and he intelligently decorates that kind of life. When I was reading his words on that chapter, it felt like a spokesperson of a militia group in one of the Arab countries in our times. The intensity of death. Honor. Also this militia group would call countries that use modern technological weapons as cowards and that if they engage in a primitive battle, the balance shall change.
His take on knowledge was the same.
So, the other chapter I would partially agree with him is "From Seduction to Porn".
I hope that his proponents would not agree with all his positions. We enjoy the "autonomy" of agreeing and disagreeing. At times I felt that even some nostalgic, dogmatic, religious charlatans are less enthusiastic about the past than Han. I think that he is speaking from a position of stability and security, and looking back at a beautified past that is reformed in some fantastic form in his mind.
Even modern psychological research promotes that these instances of pondering deeply on matters and allowing for completion to take place matters.
When I reached the chapter "From Duelling to Drone Wars", I felt that he is very nostalgic to some primitive form of life and he intelligently decorates that kind of life. When I was reading his words on that chapter, it felt like a spokesperson of a militia group in one of the Arab countries in our times. The intensity of death. Honor. Also this militia group would call countries that use modern technological weapons as cowards and that if they engage in a primitive battle, the balance shall change.
His take on knowledge was the same.
So, the other chapter I would partially agree with him is "From Seduction to Porn".
I hope that his proponents would not agree with all his positions. We enjoy the "autonomy" of agreeing and disagreeing. At times I felt that even some nostalgic, dogmatic, religious charlatans are less enthusiastic about the past than Han. I think that he is speaking from a position of stability and security, and looking back at a beautified past that is reformed in some fantastic form in his mind.
November 18, 2025
Talvez por já ter lido outros livros do autor onde ele abordou este tema, achei que este livro não acrescentou muito àquilo que eu já sabia. Nomeadamente, que os rituais são uma espécie de objectos temporais que balizam e dão estrutura ao viver do humano. Uma espécie de marcos que ajudam na criação de uma narrativa coerente. E que a sua erosão no fundo remove significado da comunidade.
November 30, 2021
Oggi al tempo manca una struttura stabile.
Il presente episodico, la realtà atomizzata,fatto di dati e informazioni privi di forza simbolica, non sono in grado di dare equilibrio e fondamento e ci si esprime ritrovandosi a girare a vuoto attorno a sé stessi, tra produttività desiderio e competizione
Per interrompere questo cortocircuito, Byung-Chul Han fa una genealogia della globalizzazione contemporanea e, con l'acutezza a cui ci ha abituati, delinea "le patologie del presente" legate alla perdita di un elemento chiave della nostra cultura: i rituali, proponendo un recupero del loro simbolismo come pratica potenzialmente in grado di liberare la società dal suo narcisismo collettivo, riaprendola al senso di una vera connessione con l'Altro, al senso della comunità
Ciò che è scomparso, per Han, non è tanto il rito in sé, ma il suo valore sociale e simbolico, la sua efficacia.
Erroneamente, secondo il filosofo, si considera ciò che è rituale come obsoleto e conformista e così la risposta la affida alle parole di Kierkegaard, secondo cui “La ripetizione è un vestito indistruttibile che calza giusto e dolcemente, senza stringere né ballare addosso"
E questo rende felici, perché il senso della vita è ripetibile, dà stabilità al contrario di chi invece si aspetta sempre la novità,( “La coazione a dover respingere tutto ciò che è routine produce altra routine.”), perdendo di vista ciò che è già lì
Qui è forte la critica, al “vivere intenso “ di stampo neoliberista, già apparsa in altri libri di Han, ma la novità di quest’ultimo saggio è il riferimento alla svolta "dataista"della società, quel sapere prodotto dai Big Data dove contano gli algoritmi, che calcolano tutto senza saper narrare, uniformando e appiattendo
Lasciando il pensiero privo della sua pare più interessante, quella ludica.
Il presente episodico, la realtà atomizzata,fatto di dati e informazioni privi di forza simbolica, non sono in grado di dare equilibrio e fondamento e ci si esprime ritrovandosi a girare a vuoto attorno a sé stessi, tra produttività desiderio e competizione
Per interrompere questo cortocircuito, Byung-Chul Han fa una genealogia della globalizzazione contemporanea e, con l'acutezza a cui ci ha abituati, delinea "le patologie del presente" legate alla perdita di un elemento chiave della nostra cultura: i rituali, proponendo un recupero del loro simbolismo come pratica potenzialmente in grado di liberare la società dal suo narcisismo collettivo, riaprendola al senso di una vera connessione con l'Altro, al senso della comunità
Ciò che è scomparso, per Han, non è tanto il rito in sé, ma il suo valore sociale e simbolico, la sua efficacia.
Erroneamente, secondo il filosofo, si considera ciò che è rituale come obsoleto e conformista e così la risposta la affida alle parole di Kierkegaard, secondo cui “La ripetizione è un vestito indistruttibile che calza giusto e dolcemente, senza stringere né ballare addosso"
E questo rende felici, perché il senso della vita è ripetibile, dà stabilità al contrario di chi invece si aspetta sempre la novità,( “La coazione a dover respingere tutto ciò che è routine produce altra routine.”), perdendo di vista ciò che è già lì
Qui è forte la critica, al “vivere intenso “ di stampo neoliberista, già apparsa in altri libri di Han, ma la novità di quest’ultimo saggio è il riferimento alla svolta "dataista"della società, quel sapere prodotto dai Big Data dove contano gli algoritmi, che calcolano tutto senza saper narrare, uniformando e appiattendo
Lasciando il pensiero privo della sua pare più interessante, quella ludica.
May 26, 2020
Entre comunicación sin comunidad y narcisismo colectivo
Byung-Chul Han extrapola la tesis de una sociedad desprovista de ritos hacia varias dimensiones, psicológica, política, militar, gnoseológica y sexual. Así expone, que hoy las emociones son efímeras e inestables, hechas para el consumo, así como se consumen los cuerpos en la transparencia de la pornografía. Incluso el activismo tiene una dimensión de consumo: consumir productos veganos para cambiar el mundo. La guerra similarmente, antes un rito agónico que suponía una disputa simétrica y por honor, se ha convertido en pura matanza en la que la asimetría militar deviene en una asimetría absoluta, donde el rival apenas es un criminal. La superioridad militar como superioridad moral. Un giro principalmente provocado desde la incursión de los drones, en la que no hay ni siquiera un cara a cara entre rivales. Todo esto dentro del marco del rendimiento obsesivo capitalista y neoliberal. La big data es otro ejemplo que eleva el autor, para remarcar una transición de un giro copernicano a un giro dataísta en la producción del conocimiento. Libro interesante que abre varias ventanas de reflexión sobre la sociedad actual.
Byung-Chul Han extrapola la tesis de una sociedad desprovista de ritos hacia varias dimensiones, psicológica, política, militar, gnoseológica y sexual. Así expone, que hoy las emociones son efímeras e inestables, hechas para el consumo, así como se consumen los cuerpos en la transparencia de la pornografía. Incluso el activismo tiene una dimensión de consumo: consumir productos veganos para cambiar el mundo. La guerra similarmente, antes un rito agónico que suponía una disputa simétrica y por honor, se ha convertido en pura matanza en la que la asimetría militar deviene en una asimetría absoluta, donde el rival apenas es un criminal. La superioridad militar como superioridad moral. Un giro principalmente provocado desde la incursión de los drones, en la que no hay ni siquiera un cara a cara entre rivales. Todo esto dentro del marco del rendimiento obsesivo capitalista y neoliberal. La big data es otro ejemplo que eleva el autor, para remarcar una transición de un giro copernicano a un giro dataísta en la producción del conocimiento. Libro interesante que abre varias ventanas de reflexión sobre la sociedad actual.
September 7, 2023
Siamo così impegnati a fare ciò che ci sembra di dover fare, impegnati in questa eccessiva produzione da non accorgerci che questa azione collettiva non crea comunità. Ogni libro è un’epifania.
July 1, 2025
‘Het neoliberale regime forceert de seriële waarneming, versterkt de seriële habitus. Het schaft de duurzaamheid welbewust af, om meer consumptie af te dwingen. De constante updates, die inmiddels alle levenssferen bestrijken, laten geen duurzaamheid, geen afsluiting toe. De permanente productiedwang leidt tot een 𝘌𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘨, een 'onthuizing', het tegendeel van 'thuisraken'. Het leven wordt daardoor contingenter, vergankelijker en onbestendiger. 𝘞𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘯 daarentegen vergt duurzaamheid.’
De stijl van Byung-Chul Han is vrij filosofisch en niet altijd even toegankelijk, en ik weet daarom ook niet of ik alles precies heb begrepen. Maar veel passages verwoorden wel heel goed het onbehagen dat ik zelf vaak ook voel bij de moderne wereld. Han beschrijft hoe we ontheemd zijn geraakt in een wereld die zo gericht is op productie- en prestatiedwang, narcistisch is en vol ‘additieve’ communicatie, en geen duurzaamheid of rituelen kent. Hij herhaalt veel van zijn gedachten, maar neemt ook veel interessante zijpaadjes om onze postkapitalistische samenleving te karakteriseren. Zijn ideeën geven me veel inzichten en bieden een inspirerende kijk op een andere mogelijke wereld.
De stijl van Byung-Chul Han is vrij filosofisch en niet altijd even toegankelijk, en ik weet daarom ook niet of ik alles precies heb begrepen. Maar veel passages verwoorden wel heel goed het onbehagen dat ik zelf vaak ook voel bij de moderne wereld. Han beschrijft hoe we ontheemd zijn geraakt in een wereld die zo gericht is op productie- en prestatiedwang, narcistisch is en vol ‘additieve’ communicatie, en geen duurzaamheid of rituelen kent. Hij herhaalt veel van zijn gedachten, maar neemt ook veel interessante zijpaadjes om onze postkapitalistische samenleving te karakteriseren. Zijn ideeën geven me veel inzichten en bieden een inspirerende kijk op een andere mogelijke wereld.
January 19, 2025
Creo que, dentro de todo lo que apunta Han en este libro (que puede resumirse en cómo el capitalismo a ultranza ha sacrificado los rituales en aras de la producción) lo más chocante es cuando apunta a las universidades y a la filosofía: Sr. Byung-Chul Han, ¿ignora usted cómo se distribuyen sus libros por el mundo y lo inaccesible que resultan para muchos? ¿Sabe que la “hipercultura” que tanto denuncia en este libro lo beneficia en términos económicos? Esto sin menoscabo de que una apología, velada o no, de la guerra como un “ritual” sea condenable desde cualquier punto de vista y no está lejos de quienes celebran la tauromaquia por cuanto tiene de “rito���.
Me cuesta trabajo tomar con seriedad a un filósofo —eso sí, nadie duda de sus credenciales— obstinado en dosificar sus píldoras de sapiencia haciéndole el juego a las editoriales del mundo. Es un libro interesante, provocador; pero en el fondo un tanto repetitivo y potencialmente incongruente (sí, sé que la incongruencia puede deberse a los distribuidores y editoriales). Un símbolo más de un rescate posmoderno de las partes más suavecitas del marxismo comercial.
Me cuesta trabajo tomar con seriedad a un filósofo —eso sí, nadie duda de sus credenciales— obstinado en dosificar sus píldoras de sapiencia haciéndole el juego a las editoriales del mundo. Es un libro interesante, provocador; pero en el fondo un tanto repetitivo y potencialmente incongruente (sí, sé que la incongruencia puede deberse a los distribuidores y editoriales). Un símbolo más de un rescate posmoderno de las partes más suavecitas del marxismo comercial.
November 27, 2024
Για άλλη μια φορά ο Χαν μας προσκαλεί σε ένα δημιουργικό διάλογο. Αν και όπως το συνηθίζει δεν καταφέρνει να αρθεί πάνω από μια περίτεχνη δυστοπική μεταφορά της πραγματικότητας, εντούτοις αυτές οι περίτεχνες "ονοματοδοσίες" των κοινωνικών φαινομένω�� μπορεί να αποτελέσουν αφορμή για διαφορετικού τύπου επικοινωνία εντός του σχετίζεσθαι, καθώς και μια πρόκληση αναθεώρησης διάφορων κοσμοθεωρήσεων που έχουν ιζηματοποιηθεί. Με αφορμή την εξαφάνιση των τελετουργιών από τις σύγχρονες κοινωνίες ασχολείται με επιμέρους ζητήματα που τα εγκολπώνει εντός μιας θεωρίας του πραγματικού που ίσως τον κάνει να ξεχνά ότι αυτή η θεωρία είναι μία από τις πολλές ερμηνείες που θα μπορούσαν να αποδοθούν σε αυτό το πραγματικό. Ευτυχία, ελλειματική προσοχή, αισθητική, επανάληψη, πλήξη, συλλογικά συναισθήματα, κατάθλιψη, ενσυναίσθηση, αυθεντικότητα, τατουάζ, τέχνη, βία, ξενότητα, σιωπή, γιορτές και πανηγύρια, πανεπιστήμια, εκκλησία, παιχνίδι, ιερό, αυτοκτονία, γλώσσα, ποίηση, ευφυολόγημα, ευγένεια , μύθος, αποπλάνηση είναι μερικές από τις θεματικές που καταπιάνεται. Σίγουρα απολαυστικός.
October 3, 2024
3,5/ 5
June 30, 2025
3,75 ⭐
December 9, 2024
La desaparición de los rituales (2019) es una obra de Byung-Chul Han que explora las transformaciones de la sociedad contemporánea en el marco de la globalización, la digitalización y la individualización extrema. Han, filósofo surcoreano radicado en Alemania, se ha destacado por sus análisis de la sociedad moderna, particularmente sus estudios sobre la tecnología, la subjetividad y las estructuras de poder. En este libro, Han aborda un fenómeno central de nuestra época: la desaparición de los rituales y la consiguiente disolución de ciertos elementos fundamentales de la vida social, como la comunidad, el sentido de pertenencia y la estructura del tiempo.
La obra se inserta en el contexto de la postmodernidad, donde el individuo es cada vez más autónomo pero también más aislado. Han diagnostica que las sociedades contemporáneas han sustituido los rituales, que históricamente habrían proporcionado cohesión social, por una vida más individualista y orientada hacia el rendimiento. Este cambio ha ocurrido en paralelo con el avance de la digitalización, las redes sociales y una cultura del "aquí y ahora" que elimina las tradiciones y las ceremonias que organizaban la vida cotidiana y la comunidad.
El libro se basa en una crítica profunda de la aceleración y el constante flujo de información, en un contexto de globalización que ha propiciado una homogeneización de las culturas y la pérdida de los ritmos tradicionales de la vida. Han identifica cómo el crecimiento de la productividad y el rendimiento ha despojado a la sociedad de momentos de pausa, de contemplación y de significados colectivos, tan necesarios para dar sentido a la vida y a las relaciones sociales.
El concepto de rituales y su desaparición
En el corazón de La desaparición de los rituales está el análisis de lo que representa un "ritual". Han define los rituales como prácticas repetitivas que se inscriben en un tiempo y un espacio específicos, impregnadas de un significado colectivo. Los rituales no solo eran importantes para la organización social, sino que también tenían un efecto regulador sobre las emociones y las tensiones sociales. Mediante rituales, las comunidades lograban integrar lo desconocido y lo imprevisible, generando un sentido de seguridad y pertenencia.
Sin embargo, Han sostiene que en las sociedades contemporáneas, estos rituales se han disuelto, reemplazados por un modelo de vida impulsado por la eficiencia, la productividad y el individualismo. En lugar de las experiencias ritualizadas de comunidad, los individuos ahora buscan la autooptimización y la maximización del rendimiento, lo cual genera una desconexión de las tradiciones colectivas y, en muchos casos, un vacío existencial. Esta desaparición de los rituales también implica una pérdida de las formas de resistencia a la homogeneización y a la presión constante por alcanzar metas personales.
Individualización, productividad y el vacío existencial
Uno de los metatemas principales que atraviesa la obra es la crítica a la sociedad del rendimiento. Según Han, las sociedades neoliberales actuales promueven una estructura en la que el individuo es responsable de su propio éxito y felicidad, lo que genera una constante presión para optimizar cada aspecto de su vida. A diferencia de las sociedades tradicionales, donde el individuo era parte de una comunidad organizada por rituales compartidos (religiosos, festivos, funerarios, etc.), hoy la vida está orientada a la autoexplotación, donde los individuos se ven obligados a transformar su propio cuerpo, su mente y su tiempo en mercancías.
La desaparición de los rituales está directamente vinculada con esta nueva forma de vivir, caracterizada por la autoexplotación, una idea que Han desarrolla en sus libros anteriores. En lugar de externalizar las exigencias, como ocurría en la época de la disciplina (de la que también habla Han en La sociedad de la transparencia), hoy el individuo es su propio explotador. Esta autoexplotación produce un agotamiento y una sensación de vacío existencial, ya que los rituales, que dotaban de significado las etapas de la vida, han sido reemplazados por la constante demanda de ser productivo, visible y exitoso.
Por otro lado, otro metatema central del libro es la ruptura del tiempo que esta desaparición de los rituales provoca. Los rituales estructuran el tiempo de manera cíclica, creando un sentido de continuidad y comunidad, mientras que en la sociedad moderna, el tiempo se ha fragmentado. El tiempo ya no se organiza en torno a ciclos de vida y muerte, ni en torno a celebraciones colectivas que generen un sentido de pertenencia. En su lugar, el tiempo se fragmenta en pequeñas unidades que los individuos intentan llenar con actividades que no necesariamente proporcionan satisfacción o sentido. Esta es una de las grandes paradojas de la modernidad, donde, a pesar de estar conectados constantemente a través de la tecnología, los individuos experimentan una creciente sensación de soledad.
*¨
La obra de Han se ha convertido en un referente para los pensadores que critican la lógica del capitalismo contemporáneo, especialmente en lo que respecta a la alienación social y el vacío existencial generado por la sobrecarga de información y la presión por ser "productivo". Su reflexión sobre la desaparición de los rituales invita a la sociedad a reconsiderar lo que hemos perdido al abandonar las prácticas colectivas y a pensar en nuevas formas de construcción comunitaria que puedan restaurar el sentido en nuestras vidas.
El estilo de Byung-Chul Han en La desaparición de los rituales es claro, preciso y directo. Su prosa es filosófica y académica, pero también accesible en su crítica a la sociedad moderna. Han emplea un lenguaje reflexivo y en ocasiones poético, lo que le permite abordar cuestiones complejas sin perder claridad. Su estilo no es el de un filósofo que se pierde en abstracciones, sino uno que busca transmitir ideas de manera que resuenen en la experiencia cotidiana de los lectores. La estructura del libro también es relativamente breve y fragmentada, lo que permite una lectura ágil.
Es una obra desafiante y pertinente para aquellos interesados en entender los dilemas de la vida contemporánea y la necesidad de redescubrir los rituales y prácticas colectivas que dan forma y significado a nuestra existencia.
La obra se inserta en el contexto de la postmodernidad, donde el individuo es cada vez más autónomo pero también más aislado. Han diagnostica que las sociedades contemporáneas han sustituido los rituales, que históricamente habrían proporcionado cohesión social, por una vida más individualista y orientada hacia el rendimiento. Este cambio ha ocurrido en paralelo con el avance de la digitalización, las redes sociales y una cultura del "aquí y ahora" que elimina las tradiciones y las ceremonias que organizaban la vida cotidiana y la comunidad.
El libro se basa en una crítica profunda de la aceleración y el constante flujo de información, en un contexto de globalización que ha propiciado una homogeneización de las culturas y la pérdida de los ritmos tradicionales de la vida. Han identifica cómo el crecimiento de la productividad y el rendimiento ha despojado a la sociedad de momentos de pausa, de contemplación y de significados colectivos, tan necesarios para dar sentido a la vida y a las relaciones sociales.
El concepto de rituales y su desaparición
En el corazón de La desaparición de los rituales está el análisis de lo que representa un "ritual". Han define los rituales como prácticas repetitivas que se inscriben en un tiempo y un espacio específicos, impregnadas de un significado colectivo. Los rituales no solo eran importantes para la organización social, sino que también tenían un efecto regulador sobre las emociones y las tensiones sociales. Mediante rituales, las comunidades lograban integrar lo desconocido y lo imprevisible, generando un sentido de seguridad y pertenencia.
Sin embargo, Han sostiene que en las sociedades contemporáneas, estos rituales se han disuelto, reemplazados por un modelo de vida impulsado por la eficiencia, la productividad y el individualismo. En lugar de las experiencias ritualizadas de comunidad, los individuos ahora buscan la autooptimización y la maximización del rendimiento, lo cual genera una desconexión de las tradiciones colectivas y, en muchos casos, un vacío existencial. Esta desaparición de los rituales también implica una pérdida de las formas de resistencia a la homogeneización y a la presión constante por alcanzar metas personales.
Individualización, productividad y el vacío existencial
Uno de los metatemas principales que atraviesa la obra es la crítica a la sociedad del rendimiento. Según Han, las sociedades neoliberales actuales promueven una estructura en la que el individuo es responsable de su propio éxito y felicidad, lo que genera una constante presión para optimizar cada aspecto de su vida. A diferencia de las sociedades tradicionales, donde el individuo era parte de una comunidad organizada por rituales compartidos (religiosos, festivos, funerarios, etc.), hoy la vida está orientada a la autoexplotación, donde los individuos se ven obligados a transformar su propio cuerpo, su mente y su tiempo en mercancías.
La desaparición de los rituales está directamente vinculada con esta nueva forma de vivir, caracterizada por la autoexplotación, una idea que Han desarrolla en sus libros anteriores. En lugar de externalizar las exigencias, como ocurría en la época de la disciplina (de la que también habla Han en La sociedad de la transparencia), hoy el individuo es su propio explotador. Esta autoexplotación produce un agotamiento y una sensación de vacío existencial, ya que los rituales, que dotaban de significado las etapas de la vida, han sido reemplazados por la constante demanda de ser productivo, visible y exitoso.
Por otro lado, otro metatema central del libro es la ruptura del tiempo que esta desaparición de los rituales provoca. Los rituales estructuran el tiempo de manera cíclica, creando un sentido de continuidad y comunidad, mientras que en la sociedad moderna, el tiempo se ha fragmentado. El tiempo ya no se organiza en torno a ciclos de vida y muerte, ni en torno a celebraciones colectivas que generen un sentido de pertenencia. En su lugar, el tiempo se fragmenta en pequeñas unidades que los individuos intentan llenar con actividades que no necesariamente proporcionan satisfacción o sentido. Esta es una de las grandes paradojas de la modernidad, donde, a pesar de estar conectados constantemente a través de la tecnología, los individuos experimentan una creciente sensación de soledad.
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La obra de Han se ha convertido en un referente para los pensadores que critican la lógica del capitalismo contemporáneo, especialmente en lo que respecta a la alienación social y el vacío existencial generado por la sobrecarga de información y la presión por ser "productivo". Su reflexión sobre la desaparición de los rituales invita a la sociedad a reconsiderar lo que hemos perdido al abandonar las prácticas colectivas y a pensar en nuevas formas de construcción comunitaria que puedan restaurar el sentido en nuestras vidas.
El estilo de Byung-Chul Han en La desaparición de los rituales es claro, preciso y directo. Su prosa es filosófica y académica, pero también accesible en su crítica a la sociedad moderna. Han emplea un lenguaje reflexivo y en ocasiones poético, lo que le permite abordar cuestiones complejas sin perder claridad. Su estilo no es el de un filósofo que se pierde en abstracciones, sino uno que busca transmitir ideas de manera que resuenen en la experiencia cotidiana de los lectores. La estructura del libro también es relativamente breve y fragmentada, lo que permite una lectura ágil.
Es una obra desafiante y pertinente para aquellos interesados en entender los dilemas de la vida contemporánea y la necesidad de redescubrir los rituales y prácticas colectivas que dan forma y significado a nuestra existencia.
June 9, 2021
El problema de este libro es que aborda una temática de caracter antropológico, como es el supuesto final de los rituales, des de una prespectiva puramente filosófica, es decir, sin trabajo de campo alguno ni la menor observación de caracter empírico.
¿Realmente están despareciendo los rituales o se lo está imaginando él? A mi me da la sensación que simplemente el autor hecha de menos el antiguo régimen y un mundo articulado entorno a la religión y el tradicionalismo más arcaico y que es incapaz de ver como los rituales se han ido adaptando a un mundo laico. Pero claro, para ver eso debería pisar la calle y hacer trabajo de campo.
¿Realmente están despareciendo los rituales o se lo está imaginando él? A mi me da la sensación que simplemente el autor hecha de menos el antiguo régimen y un mundo articulado entorno a la religión y el tradicionalismo más arcaico y que es incapaz de ver como los rituales se han ido adaptando a un mundo laico. Pero claro, para ver eso debería pisar la calle y hacer trabajo de campo.
August 11, 2020
Análisis riguroso de la gran patología de las sociedades actuales: un exceso pornográfico de positividad que no permite lo negativo: juego, misterio, ritual.
Han escribe nuevamente sobre lo que somos, sobre aquello en lo que nos hemos convertido. La desaparición de los rituales suma nuevas percepciones a lo que ya venía construyendo en otros trabajos y completa un diagnóstico minucioso y certero.
Nunca me deja de sorprender la agudeza con la que Han percibe la humanidad que le rodea.
Lástima que no nos prescriba un tratamiento.
Han escribe nuevamente sobre lo que somos, sobre aquello en lo que nos hemos convertido. La desaparición de los rituales suma nuevas percepciones a lo que ya venía construyendo en otros trabajos y completa un diagnóstico minucioso y certero.
Nunca me deja de sorprender la agudeza con la que Han percibe la humanidad que le rodea.
Lástima que no nos prescriba un tratamiento.
May 3, 2024
Γράφει ο Χαν συνέχεια περίπου το ίδιο βιβλίο; Ναι.
Με νοιάζει αυτό; Καθόλου.
Με νοιάζει αυτό; Καθόλου.
January 10, 2025
hay varias partes interesantes (y otras no tanto), pero la vdd no es tan relevante y lo olvidaré muy pronto.
Es justamente la sensación de vacío lo que impulsa la comunicación y el consumo. La «vida intensa» como lema publicitario del régimen neoliberal no es otra cosa que consumo intenso.
May 21, 2025
Ive been saying this!
September 24, 2021
Em Sociedade do cansaço, Han faz uma bela análise da relação do neoliberalismo com os modos de vida atuais, com ênfase para a passagem da sociedade de controle para a sociedade do desempenho (onde este passa a ser autogerido).
No entanto, em Do desaparecimento dos rituais, se tem a expectativa de uma leitura pós-estruturalista, onde houvesse uma abordagem do tema de modo a perpassar pela história, sem atribuição de valor a tais períodos. Embora Han comece o livro dizendo estar despido de uma reflexão nostálgica, são evidentes os apontamentos para um certo tempo que se foi, onde o autor olha para o contemporâneo como época “vulgar”, “profana”, etc, demarcando a era atual como um tempo “pior” em relação ao passado.
Me deparei com uma série de equívocos e afirmações superficiais de processos complexos, como em uma parte em que Han se refere ao narcisismo, indicando que tal transtorno estaria hoje em alta devida à falta de interação com o sagrado, com o cultural (em referência aos rituais). Ele destaca, ainda, que é em função disso que o narcísico “cai em depressão”.
O uso de termos como “vulgar” e “profano” ao longo da narrativa também marcam o contraste de uma visão conservadora que se pretende progressista, traço que se torna ainda mais expressivo ao longo do livro.
Adiante, em relação à Guerra dos drones, Han faz referência a Carl Schmitt, teórico nazista, e se dirige às guerras modernas como “desprovidas de caráter lúdico”.
São esses e diversos outros pontos que me causaram completo estranhamento, tornando difícil conceber que se tratava de Byung-Chul Han, filósofo por quem tinha tanto apreço.
No entanto, em Do desaparecimento dos rituais, se tem a expectativa de uma leitura pós-estruturalista, onde houvesse uma abordagem do tema de modo a perpassar pela história, sem atribuição de valor a tais períodos. Embora Han comece o livro dizendo estar despido de uma reflexão nostálgica, são evidentes os apontamentos para um certo tempo que se foi, onde o autor olha para o contemporâneo como época “vulgar”, “profana”, etc, demarcando a era atual como um tempo “pior” em relação ao passado.
Me deparei com uma série de equívocos e afirmações superficiais de processos complexos, como em uma parte em que Han se refere ao narcisismo, indicando que tal transtorno estaria hoje em alta devida à falta de interação com o sagrado, com o cultural (em referência aos rituais). Ele destaca, ainda, que é em função disso que o narcísico “cai em depressão”.
O uso de termos como “vulgar” e “profano” ao longo da narrativa também marcam o contraste de uma visão conservadora que se pretende progressista, traço que se torna ainda mais expressivo ao longo do livro.
Adiante, em relação à Guerra dos drones, Han faz referência a Carl Schmitt, teórico nazista, e se dirige às guerras modernas como “desprovidas de caráter lúdico”.
São esses e diversos outros pontos que me causaram completo estranhamento, tornando difícil conceber que se tratava de Byung-Chul Han, filósofo por quem tinha tanto apreço.
March 21, 2023
Rituals are the architecture of time, the means by which we structure and navigate time; rituals quiet the ego, and therefore locate truth within the form of the ritual rather than the so-called authenticity of the individual. Both of these insights are incredibly startling and I would have probably outright rejected them a couple of years ago... it's interesting to feel myself turning towards them now as meaningful, soul-nourishing. The latter half of the essay gets into death and playfulness and some intense assertions about suicide (something like a true suicide is deeply imbued with a sense of being alive??) and how wars were better when they had rules and you stabbed someone in the guts instead of ordering drone strikes... I don't know, I evidently fell off the wagon at the end, lol. Like I think it made /sense/ but for me the most powerful sections were the earlier ones about form, emptiness, and structure.
March 21, 2023
Byung Chul Han doesn't really give any examples of rituals beyond the orientalist worship of Japan and their ceremonies. Feels like he could have explored the different forms of ritual, from sacrifice to prayer to much more. Draws upon some interesting ideas but ultimately feels ungrounded and idealised. Deviates from the topic at times into vaguely related concepts.
October 9, 2025
De lo mejor que he leído sobre el tema. Potente y agresivo en su discurso, el cual hace pensar qué tanto estamos perdiendo por dejar a un lado los rituales por la inminencia de lo inmediato. Solo le faltó concluir, creo yo. El libro acaba con un capítulo, mas no una recapitulación o una suma de lo que se habló en todo el libro, y eso me dejó con un vacío.
April 11, 2021
Me gustó mucho pero no puedo ignorar que habla en un masculino pretendidamente universal, por lo que habla de rituales masculinos exclusivamente jeje.
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July 31, 2025— “In his conversation with Schroeter, Foucault even ascribes to suicide the status of an act of cultural resistance: ‘I am a partisan of true cultural combat for reinstructing people that there is no conduct more beautiful, that merits more reflection with as much attention, than suicide. One should work on one’s suicide all one’s life.’ Foucault takes suicide to be an act of freedom. It is a sign of sovereignty to risk one’s life, that is, to turn life into a game.”
January 1, 2024
Un libro para cuestionarnos, nos lleva por los diferentes contornos de la humanidad de una manera brillante.
Nos entrega claridad sobre temas que nos deberían ocupar en la conversación, la guerra, el juego, la sexualidad.
Una invitación a volver a los rituales pero sobre todo una invitación a desmontarnos de varias cositas del concepto neoliberal.
Nos entrega claridad sobre temas que nos deberían ocupar en la conversación, la guerra, el juego, la sexualidad.
Una invitación a volver a los rituales pero sobre todo una invitación a desmontarnos de varias cositas del concepto neoliberal.
November 15, 2025
Tuhle knížku jsem četla v rámci online bookclubu mého oblíbeného youtubera CJ the X. Pamatuju si, že mi přišly některé prezentované ideje a příklady zajímavé, ale nedokázala bych vypíchnout nějakou konkrétní myšlenku, která se mnou zůstala. Teď zpětně si ale vlastně uvědomuju, že i když se o Byung-Chul Hanovi mluví jako o filosofovi a já v době čtení nad knihou uvažovala jako nad filozofickou, rituál je téma, kterým se ve velké míře zabývá religionistika. Možná by proto stálo za to knížku vzít do ruky ještě jednou a podívat se na ni více religionisticky informovanýma očima.
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