The Disappearance of Rituals

 The philosopher Byung-Chun Han provides a telling narrative about rituals in his book The Disappearance of Rituals.

It is a well written and short account to help us understand when and how rituals have been present in our society.  Han argues that they are disappearing, as we have all been swamped by neo-liberalism and its relentless drive for individuality.  

Rituals are needed, according to Han, to maintain the cohesiveness of our communities, and protect us from our excessive attempts of 'being'.  Information and communication technologies (ICTs) contribute to this excess.  Their 'transparency' and the continuous having to show oneself as news (or as data as Han will argue later in the book) contribute to fragment communities, and also to the fragmentation of our senses of self.  

Rituals can provide us with a sense of permanence, place and wonder among other things.  We can lose ourselves in rituals, submit our inner wills, abide by the forms and signs that rituals bring.  The festival, the village, the silence, the duel, the tea ceremony, the kimono, politeness, these are examples that Han uses to show how we need them as a way to cope with the chaos and fragmentation of our societies.  

Rituals, processes of symbolic embodiment, could help us recreate key features of our social life.  What matters is not our individuality but that which we submit too: a narrative, a form,  a way of relating to each other which is different from what we are now used to: transactions, short and intentional exchanges where we compete for our own image.  

With his historical analysis of rituals, Han (2020) is inviting us to rediscover them, to re-enchant our world with rituals, to spend time just observing in silence, or finding ways to elevate ourselves to the sacred, that which is timeless and which does not require us to continuously play to the gallery.  How we are to do that requires imagination and caution.  Imagination because we are to revive things we used to do, or do them in new ways, for example through the internet.  And caution because we are to avoid simply creating rituals as events that can be recorded and disseminated.  The excessive presence or absence of ritual, according to Han, can lead us to violence.  

I found the book very engaging.  I spent more time than initially planned, as Han writes short but very powerful sentences that required me to stop and digest what I was reading.  I also found that he provides good examples of rituals.  The narrative was clear, only that there was a big influence of Han's critique on modern society throughout the whole book.  

As an engineer or problem solver, I wish Han could have been a bit more specific on how we can make ritual coexist with practices of self.   Perhaps this is my own task now.  

Reference:

Han, B.C (2020). The Disappearance of Rituals.  Cambridge (Mass): Polity Press.