Description: "A sharp critique of our contemporary societies in which pseudo-communication and narcissism have replaced community"--
Review Quotes:
"Byung-Chul Han's new book challenges the reader to go far beyond the worn-out critique of neoliberalism. On the one side, there is the progressive replacement of substance through communication, painted as a road to existential perdition; it contrasts, on the other side, with the utopian view of a return towards the security of rituals in their form and appearance. This reversal of long-established thought is expressed in a compressed and energetic language that reads like a manifesto."
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Stanford University
"The kind of book ... that leads one to rethink our standard narratives of history and to see our society and era in a fresh light."
Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed
"an essential philosopher for anyone wanting to diagnose what plagues the modern person"
The Gospel Coalition
"This book is a powerful reminder of the purpose and potential of ritual actions, and what role the arts can serve in our alienated and desacralized times."
Yuval Sharon, The New Yorker