[Bread-Baking Typewriter] Hope is Born Amid Extreme Despair

It is truly an era of anxiety. Not only Korea but all countries around the world are expressing concerns about the future. The most prominent issue is the climate crisis. Due to sudden climate changes, islands are disappearing, and vulnerable groups are struggling with heatwaves and severe cold. There are already forecasts that we have passed the deadline to solve the climate crisis. Infectious diseases are also one of the factors causing our anxiety. Just four years ago, we experienced the COVID-19 pandemic. Social relationships were even damaged by the fear that seemingly healthy others might be infected with COVID-19. Economic crises, war crises, population crises?anxiety takes on many faces and instills fear in us.

In this context, philosopher Han Byung-chul has released a new book titled Anxiety Society. The author’s famous previous works, such as Fatigue Society and Transparency Society, reflect on how positivity and transparency operate violently in modern society. In the case of Fatigue Society, vague positivity is pointed out to make humans, who have limits, tired and depressed. Transparency Society also views the transparency that society currently worships as something that actually destroys trust and controls one another.

The new book Anxiety Society can be seen as a kind of “anthem of hope.” According to the author, many philosophers have viewed hope negatively. The “Pandora’s box” from Greek and Roman mythology is an example. All the bad things in the world flowed out of Pandora’s box, but hope remained at the end. Albert Camus regarded hope as “extreme avoidance.” However, the author focuses on the fact that hope ultimately remains in Pandora’s box. Hope is not extreme avoidance but a positive affirmation of life. Because there is hope, humans move forward toward the future with passion, the author argues. Hope gives birth to revolution.

Hope is also distinguished from optimism. The author interprets hope as having a negative aspect. When we fall into the abyss below, reaching an extremely negative situation, hope is born. The author calls this situation the “dialectic of hope.” On the other hand, optimism has no negativity. It simply interprets all situations positively, avoiding the negative situations that must be faced and settling for the present reality. Therefore, optimism produces no progress, let alone revolution.

The author claims that as hope disappears, anxiety spreads throughout the world. Unlike hope, how does anxiety affect us? Hope makes us think, but anxiety makes us focus only on survival. Hope helps us find freedom, but anxiety takes freedom away. Hope makes us trust, but anxiety produces only hatred. Anxiety narrows our perspective.

There have been many observations that anxiety dominates the emotional atmosphere in Korean society. Korea has already entered an era with one million depression patients. Amid conflicts and hatred enveloping the entire society?between men and women, generations, and social classes?it is hard to find the value of trust. The chronic problem of low birth rates in Korean society is also largely caused by anxiety. In this situation, the political sphere is solving problems in ways farthest from democracy, such as using military force and violence. Many people may be wondering how we should solve the current anxiety. If you want to ask yourself questions and find the spark of hope, this book is recommended.

Anxiety Society | Written by Han Byung-chul | Dasan Chodang | 172 pages | 16,800 KRW