The Marginalized and Critical Theory: Dialectics of Universalism

ABSTRACT When the marginalized dare to speak of a world in which inequality is not the norm, they are accused of utopianism by those who usually do not take issue with faith-based assumptions that contradict even the most elementary of the laws of physics and biology. This irony has been going on unnoticed thanks to the bourgeoisie’s totalitarian domination of the means of knowledge production. Given this hegemony, it is imperative for any genuine form of critical thought to seek a revolutionary mode of perception and theorization to deliberately and insistently negate the actual for the sake of the realizable. This is precisely the forgotten essence of critical theory. From its origins in Marx’s work, critical theory was an anti-philosophy philosophy, a negative theory aimed at negating the capitalist and racist order and problematizing the unspoken rules of domination. These stateless outsiders who refused to compromise in return for personal and financial security left us a school of thought that adamantly defies the prevalent order in favor of universal emancipation. In defense of this stance, and negativity as a philosophy of resistance, this article aims to expand the potential scope of critical theory by enhancing its fidelity to the marginalized.