Bringing critical theory back in at a time of misery: Three beginnings without conclusion

Abstract

For critical theory, the critique of capitalist society is subversive in character. It dissolves the dogmatic appearance of society as a manifestation of economic nature and rejects traditional anti-capitalist ideas about socialism as a planned labour economy. Traditional theory does not think against the grain of society. Rather, it thinks with the flow of society and in doing so, it disarms itself by looking on the bright site of a hellish world. In contrast, at its best critical theory looks into the eye of the storm to recognise the conditions of misery and to prevent the critique of capitalist conditions from becoming yet another means of capitalist reproduction.