Acceleration erodes rage into mere annoyance, so decisive change becomes impossible.
Evidence
Rage is the capacity to interrupt a given state and make a new state begin. Today it is yielding more and more to offense or annoyance [Ärgernis], “having a beef,” which proves incapable of effecting decisive change. In consequence, one is annoyed even by the inevitable. Annoyance relates to rage as fear relates to dread [Angst]. In contrast to fear, which concerns a determinate object, dread applies to Being-as-such. It grips and shakes the whole of existence. Nor does rage concern a discrete state of affairs. It negates the whole. Therein lies its negative energy. It represents a state of exception. Increasing positivization makes the world poor in states of exception. Agamben overlooks this growing positivity. Counter to his diagnosis—that the state of exception is undergoing expansion and turning into the state of normality—general social positivization now is absorbing every state of exception. — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 57
Categorization
- XREF: Directly contests Agamben’s state-of-exception thesis — a useful philosophical counterpoint. Also parallels the reader’s prior note that attention paid to a concept shows it is vanishing.