Surplus Same cannot be warded off by immune-style defense mechanisms
Evidence
In a system where the Same predominates, one can only speak of immune defense in a figural sense. Immunological defense always takes aim at the Other or the foreign in the strong sense. The Same does not lead to the formation of antibodies. In a system dominated by the Same, it is meaningless to strengthen defense mechanisms. We must distinguish between immunological and nonimmunological rejection. The latter concerns the too-much-of-the-Same, surplus positivity. Here negativity plays no role. Nor does such exclusion presume interior space. In contrast, immunological rejection occurs independent of the quantum, for it reacts to the negativity of the Other. The immunological subject, which possesses interiority, fights off the Other and excludes it, even when it is present in only the tiniest amount. — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 19
Categorization
- DEFINE: Distinguishes immunological (reacts to Other, requires interiority) from nonimmunological rejection (too-much-of-the-Same, no interior space). This interiority claim sets up the achievement-subject analysis to follow.
- XREF: connects to: Capital acceleration requires suppressing immune defences against otherness — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New…, 186