Without Respect. A Social Crisis

In his new essay, Byung-Chul Han dissects the dramatic decline of a central social virtue with analytical acuity and poetic depth: respect. What was once the foundation of coexistence is now threatening to disappear in a society characterised by narcissism, competition and digital disinhibition.

Han unfolds a multi-layered diagnosis of our present: the neoliberal meritocracy produces losers who hate themselves and despise others. The struggle for respect becomes a struggle for status – and thus a cause of division, violence and social disintegration. In social media, respect is replaced by attention, politeness by shaming, community by communities that know no solidarity. Han shows how respect, self-esteem and social bonds are interwoven – and how their loss leads to a daily civil war in miniature that eats away at society from within.

But Byung-Chul Han does not stop at criticism. He outlines a vision for a new politics of friendship, for a respect-based coexistence based on distance, attention and mutual recognition. For him, respect is not a luxury, but a prerequisite for democracy, discourse and a successful life.

“Appearances lie outside the realm of good and evil, truth and falsehood. They occupy an aesthetic sphere. Human civilisation owes its existence primarily not to morality, but to appearances. Both tact and politeness are bound to beauty.”