How Did Capitalism Turn Drinking Alcohol into a Requirement for Belonging? | Byung-Chul Han

‪@philosopher-y2z‬
What if you don’t drink… is something wrong with you?

We live in a society that obsessively talks about freedom, authenticity, and personal choice, yet reacts with discomfort when someone decides not to drink. Showing up sober to a social gathering is no longer neutral: it’s an anomaly. Since when does lucidity require an explanation?

This analysis reveals how capitalism turned alcohol into an invisible requirement for belonging—into a social password that unlocks conversations, relationships, and validation. This is not about morality or self-control; it’s about cultural architecture: a system that drains human energy during the week and then sells, in bottled form, the illusion of vitality, disinhibition, and connection.

Through the thought of Byung-Chul Han, this video dismantles the idea that drinking is a free choice and shows how sobriety was transformed into a silent threat. Why does not drinking make people uncomfortable? Why does a sober personality seem insufficient? Who decided that, to be socially functional, one must alter oneself?

This is not a critique of alcohol as a substance, but of the mechanism that made it obligatory—the logic that replaced human connection with a product, and the way culture trained millions to distrust their natural version.

If you’ve ever felt that without a glass in your hand something was “missing,” this video won’t tell you what to do.
It will show you why you felt that way.

👉 If this content put words to a discomfort that was always there, leave a comment saying: “I always felt it” and share the video. Every conversation that opens is another crack in a structure that needs silence to keep functioning.

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