Byung-Chul Han on Violence

“Violence does not stem from the negativity of clash or conflict alone; it also derives from the positivity of consensus. Now, the totality of capital, which seems to be absorbing everything, represents consensual violence.” Byung-Chul Han. The Burnout Society, trans Erik Butler, Stanford UP, 2015, p. 46.

.. “Psychic maladies such as burnout and depression, the exemplary maladies of the twenty-first century, all display auto-aggressive traits. Exogenous violence is replaced by self-generated violence, which is more fatal than its counterpart inasmuch as the victim of such violence considers itself free.” (ibid. 49)