The Paradox of Freedom in Modern Society

In todays world, we are more free than humans have ever been throughout history. We can instantly order whatever food we like, travel anywhere, and pursue any career that our heart desires. Yet, depression and burnout are on their peak levels. Why is this?

The after effects of hustle culture led us to a society where we are always striving to do more and be more, to constantly improve ourselves. This emphasis on self-improvement, leaves us at a very weird stage, where we are constantly burntout by trying our hardest to improve but the reality of not seeing things improve at the rate we expect them to makes us feel depressed. We embrace hyperactivity, finding ourselves in a state of compulsive striving. We have little time to connect with both ourselves and the ones close to us. We are all sucked into the myth that we are mere individuals striving to attain purely personal goals. Whereas in reality, there are so many people around us that care about us and have similar goals, not conflicting, similar. The more we continue to define ourselves this way, the more estranged we become from vital aspects of who we are and what we need to be healthy.

Researchers like Tim Kasser have found that the principles of corporate capitalism—self-interest, a desire for financial success, consumerism, and competition—consistently lead to poor mental health outcomes.

Why then do we continue to endorse and embrace such a culture?

Michel Foucault wrote extensively on the disciplinary society, a form of social organization that tells people what they should do through surveillance and monitoring. In his later years, Foucault wrote about a more specific form of discipline he called the “technologies of the self.” This concept involves the voluntary actions by which individuals set themselves rules of conduct and seek to transform themselves, making their lives into works of art that meet certain aesthetic criteria. These individuals might follow strict morning routines, for example, practice cold showers, or subscribe to self-improvement podcasts, all to feel a sense of freedom.

However, as Byung-Chul Han argues, a society that normalizes this productisation of the self is more effective in extracting resources from its members than the surveillance methods of disciplinary societies. Instead of a society that tells people what they should do, this new form of control tells people what they can do. This is “smart power,” which compels people to subject themselves to power relations voluntarily. Rather than inhibiting or repressing, smart power motivates us to self-optimize. We now live in an “achievement society” where we use apps, ranking systems, and health data to determine if we are optimizing ourselves enough.

The auto-exploiting subject carries around its own labor camp, self-illuminating and self-surveilling.

This works in a far more efficient way than in a society where the populace is held down by political force or societal rules, this is internal, the ones in power don’t have to move a muscle for change to occur.

As entrepreneurs, we engage in auto-exploitation willingly and even passionately. The self as a work of art becomes a beautiful but deceptive illusion that the regime maintains to use as a consumer of its resources.

This drive to improve ourselves can take over our entire lives. The pressure to achieve, to be more and do more, leads to narcissism. As Steven Ryner writes, “Narcissism and sociopathy describe corporate America.” In today’s society, narcissism and sociopathy are not illnesses but successful strategies. It is effective to be constantly focused on ourselves, monitoring our performance and self-image, never letting our guard down. This constant self-reference develops into a rat race within oneself, eventually leading to burnout or what Han describes as “I-tiredness.” The ego grows exhausted of itself and eventually wears down. Burnout is treated as an annoyance or a failure to master oneself, seen as a weakness to be immediately addressed. However, burnout and depression are symptoms of this compulsion for achievement and self-exploitation.

According to Aron Berg depression began its ascent when the disciplinary model for behavior broke, and norms invited us to undertake personal initiative by enjoining us to be ourselves. The depressed individual is unable to measure up, tired of having to become himself. This voluntary self-exploitation gives rise to a fractured soul, leading to severe dislocation and a loss of connection within ourselves let alone others.

This is not to suggest that self-improvement or striving to be a better person is inherently a bad thing. Such a journey is healthy and often beneficial. However, we should pay close attention to when this process collapses into a hellish cycle of excessive self-reference and exhaustion. For example: caring about your skin and health is good but you have to take a step back and reflect on things if your day involves you applying 20 layers of different manufactured chemicals onto yourself just to look better than someone who probably does not even know you. Such an outcome is likely the result of self-exploitation rather than self-improvement. Alienation is inevitable when our inner sense of value is status-driven.

Erich Fromm’s cure to this as he writes in his book “Escape from Freedom” is simple: spontaneity, seen in both artists and children. Spontaneous activity does not abide by rigid self-optimization and improvement. Instead, it embraces activity for its own sake—art, play, time with friends, and a gradual slowing down.

Spontaneous activity is the one way in which a person can overcome the terror of aloneness without sacrificing the integrity of themselves. This relies on truly giving attention to the moment through active listening and observing.

The gift of listening is inaccessible to the hyperactive ego, which must constantly measure and optimize itself. To listen is to open oneself up to the world.

Our world has made us increasingly focused on ourselves as a project, making us rigid and incapable of spontaneity. It is only in moments of extreme focus, where we are doing things for their own sake, that we can escape the burnout society. Call it a flow state, spontaneity, or resonance—we find ourselves alive only when we risk destabilizing our journey towards self-perfection.

Bertrand Russell gives us the most succinct path forward in combating self-absorption: “The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be friendly rather than hostile.”