From Civic Reason to Digital Rage : - A Conceptual Study of Hybrid Barbarism in the Algorithmic Age

This paper introduces and theorizes the concept of “Hybrid Barbarism” to explain the erosion of civic rationality in contemporary digital societies. While digital technologies have transformed global communication and political expression, they have simultaneously accelerated the spread of affective discourse, hastened emotional contagion, and contributed to the structural dissolution of public reason. Drawing on the theoretical foundations of Norbert Elias, Hannah Arendt, and Slavoj Žižek, this study analyzes how the fusion of technology, emotion, and libidinal politics fosters a post-rational and increasingly undemocratic social order. It specifically examines how social platforms, influencers, and AI-driven recommendation systems amplify personalized emotional experiences while weakening deliberative public discourse. With indirect reference to cases in South Korea and India, the paper argues that “civilization” and “barbarism” no longer function as a binary. Instead, a complex societal form has emerged where emotional, tribal, and authoritarian impulses coexist within a modern infrastructure of knowledge and control. Although this inquiry is grounded in social theory, the author is a scholar specializing in architectural design and Architectural IT. The theoretical concepts developed here are intended to inform future interdisciplinary exploration at the intersection of emotional environments and structural space.