Imagining the Impossible: Revolutionary Critical Pedagogy Against the 21st Century American Imperium

Abstract

This article examines some of the major Marxist-humanist themes that animate the revolutionary critical pedagogy delineated by Peter McLaren in recent years. Among these themes are radical universalism, an interrogation of the capitalization and commodification of human labor, and the interrelatedness of American imperialism and neoliberal globalized capitalism. It argues that McLaren’s scholarship provides progressive educationalists with an alternative to those “post-alized” and liberal humanist versions of critical pedagogy that have virtually abandoned all forms of class analysis. It contends that revolutionary critical pedagogy offers a much-needed narrative capable of challenging the most recent manifestations of empire, wars of aggression, and exploitative capitalist relations

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82. i] The “old bearded devil” is a phrase which McLaren has often used to refer to Marx.
83. ii] Typical of this posturing is the stance taken by Max Boot, a “scholar” funded by the conservative Olin
84. Foundation who proclaimed that the U.S. government should embrace the practice of imperialism and impose
85. American “values” on various populations “at gunpoint if need be” (Boot, 2003).
86. iii] For a critique of this notion of America’s “good exceptionalism,” see Rieff, 2006. For an example of “liberal”
87. narratives about America’s benevolence, see Beinart, 2006.
88. iv] This according to the State of Food Insecurity in the World 2005.
89. v] I should caution my readers that I do not attempt anything resembling a full-scale treatment of Thompson’s life
90. work. Rather, I draw upon Thompson in relation to a discussion of Marxism and political commitment and more
91. importantly, the spirit which motivated Thompson to write The Poverty of Theory.
92. vi] The accusation of theoreticism is not intended as a form of anti-intellectual posturing. Rather, it is to raise the
93. issue of the inadequacy of those forms of theorizing that so monolithically reject any theme even remotely
94. associated with the legacy of Marxism and humanism.
95. vii] For an elaboration on the distinction between the ‘subject’ and the ‘self,’ see Scatamburlo-D’Annibale & Langman, 2002.
96. ix] See, for example, McLaren & da Silva, 1993.
97. x] For an elaboration of this line of argument, see Scatamburlo-D’Annibale & McLaren, 2003.
98. xi] PNAC stands for the Project for the New American Century. For a brief discussion of PNAC’s aspirations of
99. American global rule, see Scatamburlo-D’Annibale & McLaren’s (2003) “Operation Human Freedom.”
100. xii] For an extended discussion on Marxian formulations of class, see McLaren & Scatamburlo, 2004.