The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 218
The school of thought known as Critical Theory was born, as we understand it today, in an essay written in 1937 by Max Horkheimer, who was director of the infamous Frankfurt School. This definitive essay of Western Marxism makes it clear that what we think of as “theory” is only one side of the story, and it’s the side that keeps reproducing our present society. Horkheimer calls this “traditional theory,” and we call it “knowing what you’re talking about and applying it to make the world a better place.” He contrasts it against his own approach to Western Marxist thinking, which he calls “critical theory,” which questions the very foundations of the society we inhabit in favor of an alternative we can’t even articulate. In this important episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay brings you through some of the text of the first half of this historical essay so you can understand the Critical Theory from its birth, in the words of its own founder. Join him to hear the truth: Critical Theory has always been like this, from the very beginning.
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1 comment
This video is not marked as a “Bullets” episode.
I believe that the big problem on Earth is covered by Hubbard’s work on Suppressive Persons (commonly known as psychopaths) and Łobaczewski’s work on ponerology, which also covers the effects caused by psychopaths, on politicians and bureaucrats in particular.
Our other problem is our ignorance of our spiritual nature and our true origins. This information opens up whole new possibilities in the fields of the Social Sciences, and mental health (“therapy”) in particular. This ignorance is enforced by the psychopaths who hold sway here on Earth. It can be overcome.
I don’t particularly care about Horkheimer and all the other propagandists, or exactly what they said or wrote. If they haven’t grasped the above basics, what good are they? Their ideas can only result in more strife on Earth, regardless of how “smart” or absurd they are.