Neoliberalism and the Illusion of Freedom

Neoliberalism, as a comprehensive social order that directly affects many disciplines such as sociology, psychology, economics, and politics today, continues to fundamentally transform human life and subjective experiences. This study aims to problematize the impact of neoliberal policies on the individual's perception of freedom, the concept of privacy, and consumption habits, and to theoretically examine how the system transforms the subject into a consumer object. Methodologically, the research employs conceptual analysis and literature review techniques from qualitative research. Focusing on Byung-Chul Han's fundamental texts, the research reinterprets the concepts of neoliberalism, freedom, and domination from an interdisciplinary perspective encompassing sociology, psychology, and philosophy. In this study, the roles of digital networks and voluntary exhibition practices in shaping social relations are discussed through Han's fundamental theoretical approaches, including performance society, psychopolitics, and transparency society. Han argues that freedom is destroyed in the neoliberal system and that the individual is pushed into a paradoxical process of voluntary self-exploitation through the rhetoric of "you can do it." While in previous periods the relationship between power and the individual was openly displayed by those in power, in the new era, power conceals itself, making itself invisible by shifting the blame for the system's failures onto the individual. Therefore, this study demonstrates that the external, restrictive tools of oppression in classical disciplinary societies have been replaced by an internal control mechanism in which individuals code their failures entirely as their own inadequacy. Ultimately, this study systematically reveals that in the neoliberal order, freedom has transformed from an opportunity for individual self-realization into an advanced power technique and illusion that secures the profitability and sustainability of the system

Blame · Discipline · Oppression · Politics · Social control · Subjectivity · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Digital Media and Philosophy · Foucault, Power, and Ethics

• Parazit Toplum

  Open Access•Mehmet Ali Aydemir, Ramazan Ünsal•Journal of Humanity and Society…•2014

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