The Yoke of Happiness

The yoke of happiness. The "yoke" is a piece of wood used to hitch pack animals to their carts. I begin by making this provocation about the imposition of discourses of order that tie the subjects of the 21st century to the need to be happy at any cost. Supported by some ideas from Foucault, Freud and Nietzsche, among others, we articulate points and counterpoints of happiness. Let this plot be less an exposition of a particular critique and more an attempt to question what is set about happiness; to distinguish the events that promote it; to present the networks of knowledge that propagate it and to find possible ways to escape the yoke that the discourse of happiness burdens us with. We endeavour to present Happiness in its supposed relationship of completeness and its counterpoints in three areas of human existence: Consumption, Body and Religion. It is not an article against happiness or negativity of its achievement, however, we start from the hypothesis that the imposing way in which Happiness is being presented by the current culture, has more possibility of promoting helplessness than creative fulfilment of the subject.