In his 1937 manifesto Traditional and Critical Theory, Horkheimer develops this distinction: while traditional theory dutifully smooths out the problems which inevitably arise in maintaining an ‘inhuman society’, critical theory strives to short circuit the reproduction of this social order (TCT, 218). Which is to say, critical theory has exactly zero interest in ensuring the ruling order’s ‘better functioning’, or nailing a human face upon it — the fundamental point of critical theory’s unification of the intellect and the political is an entirely new social structure, an end to the systematic, mechanical amputation of humanity from the world (TCT, 217).
Horkheimer himself was driven from his native Germany by the rise of National-Socialism, which filled the void left by a crushed revolution. And, as you know, the planet was plunged into most cataclysmic war it has ever seen only two years after Traditional and Critical Theory was written. This Substack, Critical Rory Theory, fully identifies with the program established by Horkheimer — but from the historical coordinates of the early twenty-first century (or, more specifically, twenty-first century Australia). Of course, elements of what the critical theorists of Horkheimer’s generation desperately addressed themselves to have survived through to the 2020’s, though in modified forms. But, today, there is ecological collapse — melting ice, boiling seas, creeping deserts, burning forests, dying reefs. Moreover, as bloody imperialist wars wage on, with the news of endless offensives and counter-offensives fading into the background, the threat of a total nuclear holocaust looms over us all. The unavoidable fact is that we stand on the precipice of catastrophes even greater than those of the Second World War — of apocalypse.
Critical Rory Theory is a tiny effort to interrupt, with experimental, provocative and (hopefully even) heretical essays, the reproduction of the social order that is dooming us to this annihilation. It is, in the end, my faint scream of protest. Please have a browse of my published materials and do subscribe if you see any worth in this Substack. You can also email me at rorycriticaltheory@gmail.com.
