This will be the first in a series of entries where I try to engage with my readings for my university class, Advanced Political Thought.
Theory offers an explanatory framework for interpreting elements of reality. It describes the world, but more importantly structures how we engage with it. The questions we ask, where we direct our attention are guided by our overriding theories. The more dominant a theory is, the more invisible it is. A hegemonic theory, being naturalized, is taken for granted without its proponents consciously contemplating the criteria that is guiding their hand. Thus, with the European Empire for instance, it was a given that Europe represented the pinnacle of human achievement and that all societies were travelling along the same pathway of progression. Given enough time, they would all eventually pull themselves up and join Europe in a state of civilization. From this framework it was natural to see colonization as a civilizing mission which was providing the colonies with the appropriate cultural and social structures so that one day, they too could be civilized. A line of thought which is still present within contemporary political discourse, when Indigenous actors try to seek redress for past atrocities committed against them. Consequently, this leads to the difficulties faced by Indigenous academics within the university setting as asserted by Kidman. Oftentimes limited in their promotional pathways, it is expected that they will put on a happy display with their mere presence within academia being proof of our progress as a society. Efforts to critique the predominant neoliberal discourse can result in them being pushed to the peripheries if not out of the academic landscape in its entirety. Theory then can be seen as a way through which power is enacted and legitimated. Hooks made a similar observation from the other angle when making the case for how theory can be used as a liberatory force with healing and empowering properties. While theory has had a close relation with imperial and colonial forces, it has also been present in the countervailing forces. Indeed power is not a unidirectional force, and the same is true of theory. Academic theory then can either be used as an emancipatory force or an enslaving one.