00:00:00
the Society of transparency is not a
00:00:02
society of trust but a society of
00:00:06
control there are not many things that
00:00:08
pretty much everyone tends to agree on
00:00:11
we live in a world divided over so many
00:00:13
issues and yet there seems to be a
00:00:16
message you will find on almost anyone's
00:00:18
lips from the most Ardent conservative
00:00:20
to the most virulent social reformer
00:00:23
there is something deeply wrong with
00:00:25
social media it has been blamed for the
00:00:28
rise in mental health issues among young
00:00:30
people political polarization and the
00:00:32
loneliness and onwe that seems to stalk
00:00:34
the modern world wherever it turns
00:00:37
despite this we don't often think about
00:00:39
the philosophy behind social media why
00:00:42
at the fundamental level can it be so
00:00:45
harmful how is it that a series of
00:00:47
pictures and words presented by an
00:00:49
algorithm seems able to wreak such
00:00:51
destruction on the human psyche well in
00:00:54
bual Hans the transparency Society he
00:00:57
analyzes social media as just one of
00:01:00
what he calls a culture of transparency
00:01:03
and here we will see what it can teach
00:01:05
us about the problems facing our world
00:01:07
gets ready to learn how we have all
00:01:09
become exhibitionists the effects Modern
00:01:11
Life has had on our ability to connect
00:01:13
with others and how a demand for
00:01:15
transparency can quickly morph into
00:01:19
totalitarianism as always bear in mind
00:01:21
that there is much about Han's work and
00:01:23
philosophy that I cannot go into here
00:01:25
and I fully encourage reading him for
00:01:26
yourself as you'll almost certainly get
00:01:28
a lot from it but let's begin by
00:01:31
examining the value system at the heart
00:01:33
of social media and the terrifying
00:01:36
message it sends to its users one the
00:01:39
Society of exhibition in classic
00:01:42
philosophical analyses of value we tend
00:01:44
to draw a distinction between the
00:01:46
intrinsic and extrinsic value of
00:01:48
something this intuitively reflects
00:01:50
whether something is valuable in and of
00:01:52
itself or whether it requires a relation
00:01:54
to another thing in order to gain its
00:01:56
value for instance human life is often
00:01:58
thought to have intrinsic value even if
00:02:01
all that existed in the universe was one
00:02:04
solitary living person many people would
00:02:06
say their life still has some value
00:02:09
however extrinsic value is the value
00:02:11
imbued to an object by its relation to
00:02:14
other things so monetary value is often
00:02:16
considered extrinsic because it is a
00:02:18
matter of what people are willing to pay
00:02:20
for a given thing when there was a boom
00:02:22
in demand for tulips in 17th century
00:02:25
Holland people were willing to Fork over
00:02:27
inordinate sums of money for the flowers
00:02:29
but nothing about the intrinsic
00:02:31
properties of tulips had changed it went
00:02:33
up in price because people wanted them
00:02:35
much more while the supply of tulips
00:02:37
could not rise to accommodate this
00:02:39
however Han draws a subtly different
00:02:41
distinction in values he contrasts cult
00:02:44
value or private value with exhibition
00:02:47
value the private value of something
00:02:49
simply depends on the thing's existence
00:02:52
so a sacred Relic in the Catholic faith
00:02:54
would have private value because it is
00:02:56
revered or venerated simply in virtue of
00:02:59
its being in indeed many important
00:03:01
relics are only displayed a few times a
00:03:03
year they are often kept hidden and
00:03:05
simply to be in their presence is
00:03:07
considered valuable they are ways of
00:03:08
getting closer to God after all but
00:03:11
exhibition value is different it is a
00:03:13
particular kind of extrinsic value where
00:03:16
something is prized for the attention
00:03:17
that it Garners for example sometimes in
00:03:20
order to help advertise a film a
00:03:22
production company will perform a
00:03:23
publicity stunt they might encourage a
00:03:25
lead actor to do something shocking or
00:03:27
provocative in order to get more press
00:03:29
for their film here the value of what
00:03:31
the actor is doing is not in the
00:03:33
contents of their statements or in the
00:03:35
ACT they are performing but rather
00:03:37
simply the fact that it's getting more
00:03:38
eyeballs on their film or to put it
00:03:41
succinctly exhibition value is the
00:03:43
currency of the attention economy Han
00:03:46
says that we have become increasingly
00:03:48
focused on exhibition value to the
00:03:50
exclusion of other forms of value this
00:03:52
is part of his General observation that
00:03:54
we are becoming more transparent Society
00:03:56
speaking he uses this term in a number
00:03:58
of ways throughout his essay and it
00:04:00
communicates a simultaneous abolition of
00:04:03
privacy and a general flattening of
00:04:05
complexity a society of transparency
00:04:07
demands that everything can and should
00:04:09
be known and observed but as a result it
00:04:12
refuses to look at those things that it
00:04:13
cannot directly observe for instance
00:04:16
they pretend that the deths and
00:04:17
intricacies of human mental States just
00:04:19
do not exist because their qualitative
00:04:21
nature will forever be barred off
00:04:23
however this emphasis on observation and
00:04:26
making everything public goes hand
00:04:28
inhand with the prioritizing ization of
00:04:30
exhibition value of course there might
00:04:32
be times where exhibition value is only
00:04:34
appropriate at a theater show the
00:04:36
director will probably care about the
00:04:38
contents of the show's message but at
00:04:40
the same time they will need to get
00:04:42
people to watch it and thus they'll also
00:04:44
have to care about the exhibition value
00:04:46
of both the show itself and its
00:04:47
advertising however Han is worried about
00:04:50
how we have begun to relate to ourselves
00:04:53
through the medium of exhibition value
00:04:55
and the greatest examples of this are
00:04:57
probably found on social media for
00:04:59
instance I once knew someone who would
00:05:01
take down a post on Instagram if it did
00:05:03
not get a certain number of likes or
00:05:04
views within an hour or so in a small
00:05:07
way this was them acknowledging the
00:05:09
Primacy of the exhibition value of their
00:05:11
post above any other metric it was not
00:05:14
that their main concern was the content
00:05:16
of their text or the photo that they
00:05:17
posted it was rather that the content
00:05:19
was just a means to an end of gaining
00:05:21
attention the exhibition value was the
00:05:23
goal and everything else was
00:05:25
subordinated to this in itself that's
00:05:28
not the end of the world it's just a
00:05:29
post on Instagram but we are
00:05:31
increasingly incentivized to prioritize
00:05:33
exhibition value in an Ever larger
00:05:35
portion of Our Lives most people who are
00:05:38
involved with social media in one way or
00:05:40
another will be familiar with this the
00:05:42
structure of the algorithms are designed
00:05:44
so that you care who has liked your
00:05:46
posts or how much attention your profile
00:05:48
has generally got this has become even
00:05:50
more extreme in recent years with the
00:05:52
idea that someone should craft a
00:05:54
personal brand which they can then show
00:05:56
off to the world and of course since
00:05:58
beautiful things get more attention this
00:06:00
has increased the already crushing
00:06:02
pressure to be physically attractive
00:06:04
we've even got to the point where
00:06:06
exhibition value is inextricably linked
00:06:08
to the structure of the economy where
00:06:10
attention increasingly equals money hell
00:06:13
we are doing this right now as you watch
00:06:15
this video your time is being measured
00:06:17
by YouTube who will then calculate how
00:06:19
much that time was worth to them and
00:06:21
give me a percentage of it but har
00:06:23
points out the more money that can be
00:06:25
made from exhibition value the greater a
00:06:27
role it is likely to take in our culture
00:06:30
but so what is that so bad well some of
00:06:33
the wisest thinkers in history on the
00:06:35
subject of well-being have encouraged us
00:06:37
not to place our measures of personal
00:06:39
value on things we cannot directly
00:06:41
control in stoic philosophy this
00:06:43
manifests in epictetus's division
00:06:45
between the world inside the mind and
00:06:47
outside of it saying we only have
00:06:49
control over what is internal in early
00:06:51
terada Buddhism we are encouraged to
00:06:53
develop large enough internal resources
00:06:55
to absorb the cruelty of the world like
00:06:57
a great sea in boia is the consolation
00:07:00
of philosophy he says that anything can
00:07:02
be taken from us except the functioning
00:07:04
of our mind and our ideas and so we have
00:07:07
excellent reason to place value on that
00:07:09
as our final reserve for happiness but
00:07:12
other people's attention is patently not
00:07:14
in our control if we begin to judge
00:07:17
ourselves by exhibition value then we
00:07:19
are placing our own value in the hands
00:07:21
of other people and moreover not those
00:07:23
nearest and dearest to us the people
00:07:25
whose opinions we already have respect
00:07:27
for but a nebulized abstract form of
00:07:31
attention and this in turn has some
00:07:33
disastrous consequences on our ability
00:07:36
to connect with and relate to others if
00:07:38
you want to help me make more videos
00:07:40
like this then please consider
00:07:41
supporting me on patreon where you can
00:07:43
gain access to exclusive casual videos
00:07:45
the link is in the description two
00:07:48
forced intimacy and no intimacy many
00:07:52
existentialist philosophers over the
00:07:53
course of the 20th century placed a high
00:07:55
premium on the idea of authenticity Jean
00:07:58
Paul satra Simone deovir and Alber kamu
00:08:01
all at various points warn against
00:08:03
becoming an inauthentic version of
00:08:05
ourselves by this they meant someone who
00:08:08
is alienated from their own values
00:08:10
freedom and sense of meaning for example
00:08:12
in many of sra's novels characters are
00:08:15
tortured by the fact that they are in
00:08:17
some sense denying their own freedom and
00:08:19
acting in bad faith as a result or
00:08:22
alternatively that they are not
00:08:23
following the value systems that really
00:08:25
matter to them here authenticity is
00:08:28
often conceived of as a relation we hold
00:08:30
to ourselves we are behaving
00:08:32
authentically when our deeper instincts
00:08:34
our conscious beliefs and our outer
00:08:35
behaviors are in some sense in sync
00:08:39
however in recent years authenticity has
00:08:41
taken on a slightly more sinister
00:08:43
meaning it is increasingly used not to
00:08:45
encourage us to relate to ourselves in a
00:08:47
more fulfilling manner but instead to
00:08:50
Bear more and more of our private
00:08:52
thoughts and private feelings in the
00:08:54
public sphere to give just one example
00:08:56
of this let's look at the Trends on Tik
00:08:59
Tok of of people taking deeply
00:09:00
vulnerable emotional moments either of
00:09:03
themselves alone or with their loved
00:09:04
ones and then immediately sharing them
00:09:06
with the World At Large in itself there
00:09:08
is nothing wrong with this individual
00:09:10
choice but in Han's view it is very
00:09:12
dangerous if it becomes a pattern or
00:09:15
even worse a pressure because for Han
00:09:18
when we bear our entire selves to the
00:09:20
public world we simultaneously develop a
00:09:22
sort of forced intimacy with a whole
00:09:24
range of strangers while at the same
00:09:26
time damaging our ability to connect
00:09:28
with the people closest to us this is a
00:09:31
sort of counterintuitive thought but
00:09:33
stick with me as I do think Han is on to
00:09:35
something here if we expose too much of
00:09:37
ourselves in public then the first thing
00:09:39
that does is entrench the Primacy of
00:09:41
exhibition value we were discussing in
00:09:42
the last section it is taking a
00:09:44
potentially incredibly vulnerable and
00:09:47
fragile part of ourselves and assessing
00:09:49
its value by the attention and scrutiny
00:09:51
of others it is delicate enough having
00:09:53
your appearance judged by groups of
00:09:54
anonymous people you'll never meet let
00:09:56
alone your most intimate emotional
00:09:58
states yet for Han the demand for
00:10:01
transparency entails this sort of forced
00:10:03
authenticity the logic of social media
00:10:06
simultaneously requests that we be
00:10:08
perfect and hide nothing thus we become
00:10:11
full of insincere sincerity inauthentic
00:10:14
authenticity and ironic earnestness we
00:10:16
strip ourselves naked to the public gaze
00:10:19
with the implicit message that there is
00:10:21
nothing more to us than this this is
00:10:24
almost the perfect breeding ground for
00:10:26
creating parasocial the feeling that you
00:10:28
are emotionally close with someone even
00:10:30
if you've never met and are only really
00:10:32
engaging with them as an object on a
00:10:33
screen Han suggests that the incentive
00:10:36
structure of a society of transparency
00:10:38
encourages us to turn ourselves into an
00:10:40
object for the parasocial enjoyment of
00:10:42
others at any time we must give the
00:10:44
appearance of having nothing private or
00:10:46
hidden to us whilst also subjecting
00:10:48
ourselves to the constant Judgment of
00:10:50
other people who can freely decide to
00:10:52
reject us with no consequence if they so
00:10:54
please combined with the idea that we
00:10:56
are judging ourselves based on our
00:10:58
exhibition value and you can see how
00:11:00
this causes so much psychological and
00:11:02
existential distress on the other hand
00:11:04
Han is seriously concerned that all of
00:11:06
this forc intimacy will damage our
00:11:08
ability to form real closeness with
00:11:11
others for him true interpersonal
00:11:13
connection is built from a balance of
00:11:15
hiddenness and openness he is not alone
00:11:18
in this thought it is echoed by authors
00:11:20
like Eric from when he describes the
00:11:22
paradoxical needs to meld with someone
00:11:24
while at the same time somehow
00:11:26
recognizing them as a definite other and
00:11:28
that this is an essential component for
00:11:30
love and intimacy Han talks about this
00:11:33
otherness as well he thinks that by
00:11:35
turning ourselves into exhibition pieces
00:11:37
we run the risk of keeping too little of
00:11:39
ourselves hidden or just for the
00:11:41
privileged access of those we love and
00:11:43
care for at its most extreme he fears
00:11:45
this will turn into a sort of
00:11:47
self-destructive narcissism where
00:11:48
everything we do is not in service to
00:11:50
others or even really to ourselves but
00:11:53
to this strange exhibition of us that we
00:11:55
have created in order to absorb the
00:11:57
attention and agulation of other people
00:11:59
without caring who those other people
00:12:01
are in the slightest but we don't need
00:12:03
to dwell on such extreme examples to see
00:12:06
Han's overall point Aristotle once said
00:12:08
that if someone is a friend to everyone
00:12:10
then they are also a friend to no one
00:12:13
here he recognizes that forging a
00:12:15
genuine intimate connection with another
00:12:16
person involves first realizing that
00:12:18
they are different to you with their own
00:12:20
thoughts feelings and desires and then
00:12:22
taking the extra leap to Value those
00:12:24
thoughts feelings and desires over those
00:12:26
of other people and sometimes even your
00:12:28
own and arguably part of this is
00:12:31
reserving some of our hidden aspects for
00:12:33
only those people who we truly wish to
00:12:35
connect with for Han the more we lay out
00:12:38
on the table for public consumption the
00:12:40
more we turn ourselves into a makeshift
00:12:42
Art Exhibit an object purely for the
00:12:44
enjoyment of others rather than a full
00:12:47
agent who can form genuine bonds with
00:12:49
other full agents out there in the world
00:12:51
Han states that this interplay between
00:12:53
revealing aspects of ourselves to other
00:12:55
people while still hiding other parts
00:12:57
only to possibly be disclosed later is
00:13:00
an important component to what he calls
00:13:02
the eroticism of interpersonal
00:13:04
connections it is what maintains our
00:13:06
agency as we consciously decide who we
00:13:08
are going to open up to to what extent
00:13:10
we will and why we have chosen to do so
00:13:13
the demand for transparency the total
00:13:15
naked display of our whole self to the
00:13:18
whole world robs us of this freedom and
00:13:21
this leaves us both incredibly
00:13:22
vulnerable and made into a sort of
00:13:24
obscene object with no part of us left
00:13:27
unobserved or only observed by by a
00:13:29
Chosen Few ultimately Han worries that
00:13:32
if we continue down this path of forced
00:13:34
public intimacy we are taking some of
00:13:36
our deepest and most fragile parts and
00:13:38
commodifying them so that other people
00:13:40
can dine on the buffet of our
00:13:42
deconstructed Soul all while we become
00:13:45
ever lonier for lack of committed
00:13:47
connection with real other people
00:13:49
whether or not you think things could go
00:13:51
this far Han's General message is
00:13:54
definitely worth listening to especially
00:13:56
as we're incentivized to be more and
00:13:57
more vulnerable in the on online public
00:13:59
sphere what is the cost we pay for all
00:14:03
this exposure and with this level of
00:14:05
transparency comes another Insidious
00:14:08
effect it's something thinkers have been
00:14:10
worried about for centuries but this
00:14:12
time it might just come into fruition
00:14:15
three the uninformative Deluge in Jorge
00:14:19
Le bores the library of Babel we are
00:14:21
presented with a sort of Hell consisting
00:14:24
of an infinite Library containing every
00:14:26
possible combination of letters that
00:14:28
will fit in a 410 page book the problem
00:14:31
of the people living in this hell is not
00:14:33
a lack of raw data they have quantity of
00:14:35
information in droves but any Denison of
00:14:38
this universe lacks any way to make
00:14:40
sense of the information to sort through
00:14:42
it in a way that brings what they are
00:14:44
interested into the surface and leaves
00:14:45
the rest they just have bare
00:14:48
unadulterated volume and it would drive
00:14:50
many of them mad as a result this is a
00:14:52
pretty good articulation of just one of
00:14:55
the ways in which Han thinks a society
00:14:57
of transparency has altered our
00:14:59
relationship with information we now
00:15:01
have so much of it that it's becoming a
00:15:03
problem for much of human history
00:15:06
information was a pretty scarce resource
00:15:08
books were often quite rare and literacy
00:15:10
rates were so low anyway that accessing
00:15:12
the information within the book was its
00:15:14
own challenge but today we often have
00:15:17
the opposite issue we are constantly
00:15:19
bombarded with far more information than
00:15:21
we could ever take in or process and
00:15:23
this is increasingly centralized around
00:15:25
social media platforms with 41% of 18
00:15:28
to2 four-year-olds in the UK describing
00:15:30
social media as their main gateway to
00:15:32
news but Han has a series of concerns
00:15:35
about this situation which he thinks
00:15:37
will undermine our ability to engage
00:15:39
with much of this information in any
00:15:41
meaningful way for a start he observes
00:15:44
that within a culture of transparency
00:15:46
more information is considered better
00:15:48
often without much regard to its quality
00:15:50
or utility this does not necessarily
00:15:52
come from a place of malice but it has
00:15:55
unfortunate consequences later down the
00:15:57
line both at the social and IND idual
00:15:59
level first on a broader scale it
00:16:01
incentivizes mining as much information
00:16:04
as possible about other people this is
00:16:06
most obvious at the corporate level
00:16:08
where customer data is a hot commodity
00:16:10
precisely because if you know more about
00:16:12
someone you can better predict what they
00:16:14
are likely to buy Additionally the
00:16:16
attention economy means it is often
00:16:18
advantageous to Just Produce some
00:16:20
shocking information that will get a lot
00:16:21
of clicks rather than considering the
00:16:23
value of the content of the information
00:16:25
itself Han thinks we are incentivized to
00:16:28
produce and collect insane levels of
00:16:30
information as well as share enormous
00:16:32
amounts of data about ourselves and this
00:16:34
is not necessarily a good thing secondly
00:16:37
the excess of information means that it
00:16:39
is impossible to give each individual
00:16:41
piece its requisite level of care
00:16:43
attention and respect in his other works
00:16:45
Han talks about the value of dwelling on
00:16:48
single ideas for a long time he praises
00:16:50
the sort of gentle exploratory
00:16:53
concentration that emerges when we allow
00:16:55
our mind to slow down and occupy itself
00:16:57
with a single object
00:16:59
however if it is more profitable to have
00:17:01
our attention flitting from one shallow
00:17:03
piece of information to the next then we
00:17:05
are completely robbed of this experience
00:17:08
we only have time to view something make
00:17:10
a snap judgment about it and then move
00:17:12
on the flow of information deprives us
00:17:15
of deeper kinds of engagements with
00:17:17
ideas like Insight or experienc trained
00:17:19
intuition because we're often not given
00:17:22
enough time to reach these levels of
00:17:24
thought Han is not saying that this has
00:17:26
become impossible but rather that social
00:17:28
pressures run in entirely counter to
00:17:29
this and if we're going to recapture
00:17:31
this ability we will need to make a
00:17:33
concerted conscious effort to do so
00:17:35
flying in the face of an established
00:17:36
incentive structure and this is hard it
00:17:40
is similar to an observation made by
00:17:42
Danish philosopher saen kard in his
00:17:44
essay the present age where he predicted
00:17:47
that an excess of information will lead
00:17:49
to just as much confusion over what is
00:17:51
true as a lack of information would as
00:17:53
Han puts it today the growing mass of
00:17:56
information is crippling all higher
00:17:58
judgment
00:17:59
often less knowledge and information
00:18:01
achieve something more by this he
00:18:03
certainly does not mean that having a
00:18:05
pity of information is a good thing it
00:18:07
is rather that too much information with
00:18:10
no sense of what is reliable or
00:18:11
important or valuable means that we will
00:18:13
become overwhelmed rather than informed
00:18:16
kard predicted this would encourage an
00:18:19
attitude where people are very reluctant
00:18:21
to commit to any position he thinks it
00:18:23
will incentivize an aesthetic view on
00:18:25
information where the quantity of
00:18:27
information becomes a good in itself
00:18:29
rather than just one step along a search
00:18:31
for truth deprived of the ability to
00:18:33
establish what is the case we would
00:18:35
Instead try to just have the opinion
00:18:37
that is the cleverest or the most
00:18:39
invogue after all if we can't get a
00:18:41
clear view on how things actually are we
00:18:43
may as well take the most socially
00:18:45
advantageous position additionally Han
00:18:47
is very skeptical of the way algorithms
00:18:50
increasingly guide the information we
00:18:51
have access to suggesting that this is
00:18:53
likely to create increasingly isolated
00:18:55
and divided bubbles of people it is not
00:18:58
just that we are bombarded with
00:18:59
information but specifically information
00:19:01
that we want to see we are kept in
00:19:04
algorithmic cages which reinforce our
00:19:06
own views and only expose us to
00:19:08
opposition we have indicated we desire
00:19:11
this does not necessarily mean we take
00:19:12
pleasure in seeing this opposition but
00:19:14
rather that we react to it in a way that
00:19:16
encourages engagement either becoming
00:19:18
angry or frustrated or ridiculing the
00:19:20
oppositional Viewpoint either way we are
00:19:23
not exposed to other views except when
00:19:25
we have implicitly encouraged it with
00:19:26
our own prior Behavior thus Han thinks
00:19:29
we are encouraged to become a sort of
00:19:32
intellectual narcissists shaping the
00:19:34
world we see around our pre-existing
00:19:36
beliefs rather than the other way around
00:19:38
while we have always had cognitive
00:19:40
biases they are now exploited and played
00:19:42
to on an unprecedented scale and Han
00:19:44
thinks this will have disastrous
00:19:46
consequences as we become insular and
00:19:49
isolated while at the same time
00:19:51
exhausted from the constant stream of
00:19:53
information blasted into our synapses at
00:19:55
every waking moment but his unsettling
00:19:58
Proclamation
00:19:59
do not stop there perhaps Han's most
00:20:01
dire critique of the transparency
00:20:03
Society is not just that it is
00:20:04
unpleasant or ruins our ability to
00:20:06
connect with others or reduces us to
00:20:08
images but that it is fundamentally
00:20:11
totalitarian in nature four transparency
00:20:16
and control if you've got nothing to
00:20:19
hide then you've got nothing to fear
00:20:21
this is the general logic behind an
00:20:23
awful lot of surveillance programs Han
00:20:25
traces the sentiment back to rouso who
00:20:27
suggested that citizens should be
00:20:28
totally open about their activities
00:20:30
because ultimately they should not be
00:20:33
doing anything that would attract social
00:20:35
censure if it were discovered one reason
00:20:37
Plato had the ruling classes of his City
00:20:40
live in one big communal building was so
00:20:42
that they could all keep an eye on one
00:20:43
another a lack of privacy is meant to
00:20:46
guarantee loyalty and good behavior
00:20:49
surely anyone who was a morally
00:20:51
upstanding person would not mind people
00:20:53
knowing everything about them
00:20:55
considering that they would only find
00:20:57
good things fan surveillance used to be
00:21:00
the primary domain of the state and an
00:21:02
expression of asymmetric power think of
00:21:05
Stalin's nkvd or Roose Beer's Committee
00:21:07
for Public Safety these were systems of
00:21:10
surveillance and Punishment which use
00:21:11
the vast resources of the nation to
00:21:13
enforce a certain set of laws principles
00:21:16
and ideas the archetype of this is
00:21:18
Jeremy bentham's panopticon where a
00:21:20
single Central guard can watch any
00:21:22
prisoner at any time so in practice
00:21:25
everyone has to act like they are being
00:21:27
watched at all times Han says this is no
00:21:30
longer a complete description of the way
00:21:32
surveillance works in the modern day for
00:21:34
a start he points out that much of the
00:21:36
data we give on ourselves is handed over
00:21:38
semi voluntarily as the price for using
00:21:41
various online platforms we Fork over
00:21:43
some of our information often including
00:21:45
the contents of our messages and we get
00:21:47
to use Facebook or Instagram or the like
00:21:49
for free there has also been a shift in
00:21:52
the underlying logic behind much of the
00:21:54
monitoring whereas in the past reasons
00:21:56
for surveillance had been to do with
00:21:57
morality or maintaining political order
00:22:00
now Han thinks they are mostly economic
00:22:02
for the most part we are not surveilled
00:22:04
to be thrown in prison but to make a
00:22:06
profit Han is not suggesting that this
00:22:09
is worse just that it's different and
00:22:10
that that difference is worthy of note
00:22:12
obviously having someone sell you
00:22:14
something and being thrown in a goolag
00:22:15
are incomparable in terms of their
00:22:17
emotional consequences next Han points
00:22:20
out we've gone through a real
00:22:22
decentralization of surveillance in the
00:22:24
past it was simply not practical for the
00:22:26
everyday citizen to surveil another
00:22:28
everyday citizen we did not have the
00:22:30
technology the only groups with the
00:22:32
tools necessary to conduct surveillance
00:22:34
campaigns were government intelligence
00:22:36
organizations but it's fair to say this
00:22:38
has changed I am hardly the first to
00:22:41
point out that we now walk around with
00:22:43
the kind of easy access Recording
00:22:44
Technology that would give lenti
00:22:46
barrier's corpse localized riger Morse
00:22:49
but Han goes one step further and points
00:22:51
out how this fundamentally changes the
00:22:54
power Dynamic of surveillance while not
00:22:56
really making anyone happy on a huge
00:22:59
number of occasions in recent years we
00:23:01
have seen people recorded and posted
00:23:03
online without their consent with the
00:23:05
added implication that they are somehow
00:23:07
worthy of scorn or censure from alleged
00:23:09
infidelity to airing family disputes to
00:23:12
accusations of rude conduct we have
00:23:14
become very used to seeing the fruits of
00:23:16
homemade surveillance pinned up on
00:23:18
social media for all to see in effect
00:23:20
Han says we are not just surveilled from
00:23:23
a central position but instead have
00:23:24
become used to surveiling one another
00:23:27
and any objection to this comes up
00:23:28
against the old totalitarian Mantra if
00:23:31
you've got nothing to hide you've got
00:23:32
nothing to fear only now it's not coming
00:23:34
from a secret service agent but a
00:23:36
teenager on Tik Tok we are still denied
00:23:39
privacy on a massive scale but now we
00:23:41
are given the consolation of being one
00:23:43
of the prison guards as well as one of
00:23:45
the prisoners and it is this social
00:23:47
pressure to be open and transparent to
00:23:49
not just be surveilled but consent to
00:23:51
being surveilled that marks out the
00:23:53
situation as different to quote Han
00:23:55
directly the Society of control achieves
00:23:58
affection when subjects bear themselves
00:24:00
not through outer constraint but through
00:24:02
self-generated need the need to put
00:24:05
oneself on display without shame at this
00:24:08
point we could take an orwellian route
00:24:10
and talk about all of the negative
00:24:12
aspects of living as if you're being
00:24:13
constantly watched or invoke Kafka and
00:24:16
satra on the existential fear of being
00:24:18
observed but instead Han takes a unique
00:24:21
angle on things he discusses how extreme
00:24:24
transparency erodes a very precious
00:24:26
resource Trust for Han Mutual trust is
00:24:30
at the heart of the logic by which we
00:24:32
allow others to be free and gain freedom
00:24:34
ourselves someone's motivations desires
00:24:37
and planned actions are hidden from us
00:24:40
and yet we trust that they will not harm
00:24:42
either us or other people this means
00:24:44
that we can allow both privacy and
00:24:46
freedom confident that this will not put
00:24:48
ourselves or our loved ones at risk but
00:24:50
Han argues that a buildup of trust
00:24:53
relies on a certain lack of information
00:24:55
in a culture of surveillance and
00:24:57
transparency we become unable to
00:24:59
establish trust because most people
00:25:01
would behave well if they thought they
00:25:02
were being watched thus Han suggests
00:25:04
that rather than promoting trust
00:25:06
transparency is only necessary when we
00:25:08
feel unable to trust and too much
00:25:11
information will breed suspicion about
00:25:13
what someone would do if they weren't
00:25:14
being observed all the time thus
00:25:16
reinforcing the motivation for
00:25:18
surveillance in the first place
00:25:20
sometimes this is only appropriate we
00:25:22
might not want to trust our governments
00:25:24
to behave without being kept in check by
00:25:26
an informed populace because the stakes
00:25:27
are so so high but there is danger at
00:25:30
the interpersonal level of not only
00:25:32
eliminating trust but also the means to
00:25:35
gain trust Han argues that a culture of
00:25:38
recording one another and sharing it
00:25:40
meaning that every private moment
00:25:42
becomes potentially public is trading in
00:25:44
a very significant freedom for an
00:25:46
incredibly poultry one in the freedom to
00:25:48
live unrecorded and unjudged we gain the
00:25:51
ability to play with ideas craft our
00:25:54
characters reflect think and speak
00:25:56
freely and have a break from the Crush
00:25:58
gaze of the other that can cause us such
00:26:00
stress and in return all we are given is
00:26:03
the ability to take someone else's
00:26:05
Freedom away what is the freedom to
00:26:07
surveil compared with the freedom of not
00:26:10
being surveilled ourselves it's a bit
00:26:12
like being told that you're about to get
00:26:13
beaten up but not to worry in return you
00:26:15
will also get to beat someone else up it
00:26:18
is a recipe for resentment anxiety and
00:26:20
paranoia and the only people who have
00:26:23
anything to gain from it are the
00:26:24
spiteful and those making money of it
00:26:26
Han spends more time cra ing diagnoses
00:26:29
than Solutions but if we were to take
00:26:31
something away from his essays it might
00:26:32
be this the axiomatic Goods of a
00:26:35
transparency society that more
00:26:37
information is always better that
00:26:38
something should be judged by its
00:26:39
ability to retain attention and that
00:26:41
privacy is inherently suspicious these
00:26:43
things should be held up to careful
00:26:45
scrutiny we should be hesitant about
00:26:48
accepting them wholesale and instead
00:26:50
consider them as we would any other
00:26:52
broad sweeping statement about how
00:26:54
Society should function carefully
00:26:56
weighing up the pros and cons before or
00:26:58
giving our Ascent or our dissent to them
00:27:01
because if Han is to be believed we are
00:27:04
playing a dangerous game and the stakes
00:27:07
are as high as the very concept of a
00:27:10
private life but if you want to see how
00:27:13
han turns his philosophy on another
00:27:15
significant aspect of modern life then
00:27:17
check out this video to explore his
00:27:19
analysis of modern work and stick around
00:27:22
for more on thinking to improve your
00:27:24
life
