In this essay, Byun-Chchol Han, drawing on the views of the most prominent thinkers of the 20th century who were interested in the topic of violence, sketches a symptomatic picture of the global capitalist society of the 21st century. Han suggests seeing violence in history as a cascade of continuous transformations. Today, every one of us contains both executioner and victim—and violence itself becomes positive, blending indistinguishably with its opposite—freedom. Can we consider as violence the efficiency and productivity that everyone strives for on the highly competitive labor market? Is luxurious living for a successful person self-violence? What should we do to become healthier and happier? Like any good philosophical book, "The Topology of Violence" offers a wide perspective from which to raise these questions and try to find answers to them.