This post was originally published on Kronika: Filozofski magazin and has been republished with the permission of Kronika and the author. A specter is haunting Europe—the specter of “ordinariness.” All the powers of the new Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter: Brussels bureaucrats and Davos visionaries, national presidents and ministers, corporate managers and university rectors, innovation gurus and startup evangelists, research councils, leadership coaches, and lifestyle magazines. “Excellence” is no longer an ideal or an inspiration, but instead an imperative, a universal norm: we must all be excellent! This cult (almost a terror) of “excellence” has seeped into every pore of our lives and work. Children must achieve “excellent results” already in elementary school. Moreover, competition is encouraged already: in preschool in what ought to be their free and creative play, in sports where there is no recreation anymore, etc. Everyone must train like “top athletes,” artists must “make an impact” and be “recognizable on the art market,” scientists must constantly “produce excellence” just to survive, and even in modern spirituality—which is increasingly …