The Indo-European root fri, from which terms such as ‘free’, ‘peace’ or ‘quietude’ [Friede], and ‘friend’ are derived, means ‘to love’. Thus, ‘free’ originally meant ‘pertaining to friends or loved ones’. One feels free in relationships of love and friendship. It is not the absence of ties, but ties themselves which set us free. Freedom is a word which pertains to relations par excellence. Without hold there is no freedom.
Because of the lack of hold, life today finds it hard to get a grip. Temporal dissipation throws it off balance. It whizzes. There are no stable social rhythms or cycles to unburden the individual’s temporal economy. Not everyone is capable of independently defining their own time. The increasing plurality of temporal sequences irritates the individual human being and asks too much of it. The lack of pre-given temporal structures does not lead to an increase in freedom, but to a lack of orientation.
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Byung-Chul Han
The Indo-European root fri, from which terms such as ‘free’, ‘peace’ or ‘quietude’ [Friede], and ‘friend’ are derived, means ‘to love’. Thus, ‘free’ originally meant ‘pertaining to friends or loved ones’. One feels free in relationships of love and friendship. It is not the absence of ties, but ties themselves which set us free. Freedom is a word which pertains to relations par excellence. Without hold there is no freedom.
Because of the lack of hold, life today finds it hard to get a grip. Temporal dissipation throws it off balance. It whizzes. There are no stable social rhythms or cycles to unburden the individual’s temporal economy. Not everyone is capable of independently defining their own time. The increasing plurality of temporal sequences irritates the individual human being and asks too much of it. The lack of pre-given temporal structures does not lead to an increase in freedom, but to a lack of orientation.
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