Affected with Joy

Maria Hynes & Scott Sharpe

Abstract

With almost a decade having passed since the spectacular protests of Seattle, it seems timely to evaluate the meaning and significance of the mass actions that have come to be associated with the ‘anti-globalisation movement.’ According to some critics, the movement must urgently re-evaluate its aims, its past successes and chances of making a difference to the future. But judgments of the movement have predictably operated at the level of ideals and ideology, according to the moral determination whereby bodies are at the behest of consciousness. The paper offers a less moralistic reading of the mass actions, arguing that they can be more fruitfully evaluated with an eye to the openness of bodily encounters. In doing so, we revisit Spinoza’s ethical determination of the relationship between bodies and ideas, which goes beyond the illusions of consciousness in order to open up new powers for the body and thought. An ethical evaluation of the mass actions explores their potential to express joy, but also cautions against the forms of sadness to which our habits of thinking may lead.

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© borderlands ejournal 2009