THE TERROR OF ‘POSITIVITY SOCIETY’ AND THE ‘ETHICS OF HAPPINESS’

Lecture by Marko Stamenkovic, PhD (Serbia)
and public discussion with the artist of Initiative Kooperacija (Macedonia) 

Date: 25. 02. 2015 (Wednesday), 8pm - 9.30pm
Location: Faculty of Philosophy / Philology (@A3)

 

There are various studies and surveys tending to quantify happiness by defining specific indicators and measurement values ​​for social development and well-being of different countries, based on various parameters including the standard of citizens, economic growth and social cohesion, the level of tolerance and political culture, media freedom and development of interactive cultural models. 

One of the goals is to reassess the current tendencies for imperative imposing of happiness that are transforming the world in a field governed by “terror of positivity”, particularly by isolating individuals and groups who stubbornly resist the prescribed rationality of “positivity” and “happiness “.

It seems even more absurd if it is done through non-critical application of utilitarian models for quantifying happiness, especially in countries that are committed to (at least in theory) and dream of reaching the western values ​​and economic standards, but actually remain stuck and show serious signs of dysfunction, societies in which we can repeatedly witness deferral in confronting with reality.

Marko Stamenkovic’s lecture and the discussion with the artists of Initiative Kooperacija are focused on presenting and developing the possible theoretical frameworks related to the post-socialist context in Southeastern Europe, considering the different micro-political forms of revolt and resistance defined as forms of “counter-terror of negativity in terms of necropictorial regime of power”, especially within the neoliberal ‘ethics of happiness’ and its ‘terror of positivity’.

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Marko Stamenkovic (1977, Vranje) is a curator born and raised in the south of Serbia. He graduated in Art History from the University of Belgrade (2003) and received his M.A. degree in Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies from the University of Arts in Belgrade (2005). In 2014 he earned his doctoral degree in Philosophy from the University of Ghent (Belgium) with the thesis “Suicide Cultures. Theories and Practices of Radical Withdrawal”. His PhD research was realized at the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences under Prof. Dr. Tom Claes (CEVI-Center for Ethics and Value Inquiry).