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Critical theory is the theory of today. People write bestselling books about it and politicians fight over it. The question is: what lies beyond? For some folks, this is it. Critical theory is the culmination of a long line of thought focusing on how various groups in society - Whites, men, the bourgeoise - create self-serving institutions and exclude the rest of us. Reform isn’t enough because social institutions, such as states or schools, are so reliant on inequality, so intertwined with repression, that they need to be rebuilt from the ground up. Once you articulated this point of view, there really isn’t much else to say, except “keep fighting.”
The critics lie in two camps. I call one camp the denialists. These critics basically reject almost everything critical theorists assert. For example, you might argue that race or gender-based discrimination is relatively modest in modern society and that many of our institutions are meritocratic. Or, you might argue that the ideas behind critical theory are just false. In any case, denialists have a simple answer to “what lies beyond?” Nothing, it was bunk to start with.
Another approach admits that critical theory writers are responding to very important things but draw the wrong conclusions. For example, it’s absolutely true that European powers did conquer the world and they installed race-based hierarchies but it’s also true that many ideas and institutions from Europe are not irredeemably tainted by racism. This is my camp, and you can see my take on critical race theory at the UnPopulist.
If you are in this later camp, then “what lies beyond?” has a more interesting answer. The key insight is that societies will still have inequalities in it but that societies also have tools for dealing with them. Within politics, for example, there is a Madisonian response, which says “where tribes fight, split power.” There is an activist response: raise your voice, push, disrupt. Markets allow have answers - let firms serve different consumers, competition punishes discriminators. The way to deal with group repression is to invest people with the rights that allow them to have voice, to have wealth, and to have choice.
One of my deepest disagreements with various critical theories is that they seem to underplay the actual progress made these liberal political and social institutions. They too easily slide from “inequality still exists” to “liberalism is a sham and a failure.” Imperfect progress can still be good progress. Thus, “what lies beyond critical theory” is this: cultivate open institutions to counter humanity’s tendency toward inequality. It’s messy but it works.
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My books: Grad Skool Rulz - cheap advice manual for grad students / The history of Black Studies / Obama and the antiwar movement / A Social Theory book you will enjoy reading / Intro Sociology for $1 per chapter
"One of my deepest disagreements with various critical theories is that they seem to underplay the actual progress made these liberal political and social institutions."
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"One of my deepest disagreements with various critical theories is that they seem to underplay the actual progress made by these liberal political and social institutions. "