Critical theory from the margins : horizons of possibility in the age of extremism

Putting at work a negative pedagogy centered around learning from unlearning, problematizes and boldly challenges today's culturalist discourses, camouflaged racisms, and masked fascisms. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 Captives of a Totalitarian Space The Totalitarian End Point of Capitalism or Neoliberal Totalitarianism The Death of the Last European and the Philosopher of Aura Spatiality and Conceptualizing Aura Totalitarian Space: The Capitalist Graveyard of Aura Light as a Trap: Death by Exhibition Chapter 2 Toward a Critical Theory of Fascism: Fascism as an Ideology Form Fascism as a Concept Stations in Fascism Studies Fascism as Ideology Form Diagnosing Fascism Fascism Signifies a Class of Ideologies The Fascist Double Bifurcation The Great Little Leader The Fascist Power Complex Fascism and Anti-Proletarian Propaganda Fascism is Counter-Revolutionary Fascism without Normal Symptoms The Sociopsychology of Fascism Conclusion Chapter 3 Mobomass Mentality, Culture Industry, Fascism Class versus “the Mass” A New Concept: Mobomass Marx’s Democratic Stance with the Masses Culture Industry and Fascism Mobomassification and Fascism The Capitalist Destruction of Aura and Fascism Totalitarianism, the Market, and Fascism Chapter 4 It Is Political, not Cultural Culturalism and the Rise of the Far Right Culturalism as New Racism Culturalization and Politics Culturalism and the Denial of Personhood Multiculturalism is New Racism Undoing Culturalism Appendix: The Case of the Indigenous Pueblo of Hueyapan Chapter 5 A Critique of Positivism Critical Theory’s Fidelity to Materialism The Problem with Positivism Spatial Utopia versus Historical Utopia Two Opposing Senses of Idealism: Culturalism as Bad Idealism Revolutionary Negativity Going Beyond the False Dichotomy of Positivism and Superstition Chapter 6 Critical Theory and the Margins The Anti-Enlightenment Nature of Eurocentrism Critical Theory and Emancipation The Oppressive Nature of Instrumental Rationality Controlled Environment or Environments of Control Epilogue Fascism with a Thousand Faces Universal Discrimination and the Democratic Camouflaging of Culturalism “Islamo-Leftism”: Another Oxymoron Invented by the Right Notes References Index Great critical theorists from Marx and Engels to Adorno and Horkheimer not only came from the margins but also stayed faithful to the plight of the marginalized. They refused to compromise about the struggle for equality and tried to universalize its emancipatory essence. From Marx to Benjamin, critical philosophers who showed fidelity to the cause were denied a career in European universities and made impoverished, stateless, and homeless. Marginalization and critical theory are inseparable; yet, today, Marxism is institutionalized, and the Frankfurt School's Critical Theory is gentrified. Critical Theory from the Margins , however, revives the Critical Theory that endorses criticism, aiming to negate dominant regimes of truth. It is unapologetic in its fidelity to the universalist struggles of the minoritized. In that spirit, Saladdin Ahmed shows that capitalism imposes a totalitarian social mode of existence and neoliberalism perpetuates fascism as a class of ideology across nationalist and religious movements. This book, then, is both a theorization and an argument in favor of the application of the episteme of the silenced as the essence of the critical education necessary for achieving universal emancipation. "Putting at work a negative pedagogy centered around learning from unlearning, problematizes and boldly challenges today's culturalist discourses, camoflaged racisms, and masked fascisms"-- Provided by publisher