The achievement-subject’s freedom is itself the engine of its own subjugation.

Evidence

Agamben contends that we are all homines sacri virtually and potentially; this is because we all stand under a sovereign injunction and are exposed to absolute expendability. However, this diagnosis contradicts all the features that define contemporary society, which is no longer a society of sovereignty. The injunction that makes us all homines sacri is not a sovereign injunction, but the injunction to achieve [Bann der Leistung]. The achievement-subject that considers itself free and fashions itself as homo liber—its own sovereign and self-made [Unternehmer seiner selbst]—stands under the injunction to achieve; thereby, it makes itself into homo sacer. The sovereign of achievement society, then, is the homo sacer of his own self. — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 132

Categorization

• XREF: Directly answers the core reading purpose: the mechanism by which the achievement-subject becomes both exploiter and exploited, self-sovereign and homo sacer in one body.
• DEFINE: Defines the inversion: freedom under achievement is the Bann der Leistung that subjugates.

Related

• Exploitation now occurs without domination, making freedom and compulsion coincide. (similarity 0.83)
• The superego’s prohibitions give way to the seductive ego ideal. (similarity 0.78)
• Subjects now exploit themselves voluntarily, leaving no exploiter to blame for exhaustion. (similarity 0.78)