An Introduction to Critical Theory in the 21st Century
(2019)

The truth is a fact; a fib is a fiction;
A theory’s a clear and objective description
Of that which exists — how it is, how it isn’t,
By history, or science, or some defined discipline.
And so theory goes — if you hold the opinion
That truth is easily known and envisioned.
But what if quote-Truth as you know it is hidden
By myths you’ve been told, that you don’t know your livin’?
— What if powers that be control how the truth’s given,
And even how science and history are written?
And even the means of theorizing’s conditioned
By the interest of those in the power position? 
— In that case our theories would need criticism:
And this is called Critical Theory — its mission,
To sift out the shit and call out the System:
What system is it? It’s Capitalism.

It started with a question, within Marxism:
Is the revolution working? — oh darn, it isn’t:
The Bolsheviks revolted, the autocrats coopted it:
But the problem’s not communists: the problem is consciousness.
For all we can think is what we have known,
And all we’ve ever known is that things can be owned,
And to bite, scratch and claw to get your possessions —
And life is a bitch if dog-eat-dog’s your first premise.
It’s get-what-you-get since the get-go, it’s endless:
The notion’s so close we don’t notice it’s presence.
Every system we inscribe’s reinstated its essence
In hieroglyphs, bibles and declarations of independence.
All of our relations — a human and their nation,
A human and another human, a human and mother nature,
Are reduced to an equation of consumeristic labor —
You get what I’m saying? You get what you pay for.

My ancestors owned people, my creditors own me though —
It’s not the same thing but there’s many kinds of evil.
But we don’t overthrow the powers-that-be though,
‘Cause we really don’t even know how to be free — oh,
And even if we did know how, would we want to be?
Don’t we want jobs and a solid economy?
People gotta eat — it’s Nathan’s Hot Dogs, or me.
We’ve got it all — but it’s all ideology.

The system may seem natural but it keeps you in place:
It makes it seem natural to work cheap at a pizza place,
It makes it seem natural to divide the species by class and race,
And makes it seem unnatural to stop and seek peace and grace.
— Nothing against pizza: pizza’s delicious.
But the idea that you need it is cheesy and insidious.
No matter how you slice it, were defined by our interests
In a circle of supply and demand which is vicious.
— And I may understand this, and say it in rap spits,
And pray my supply matches what your demand is,
Yet I must admit, in spite of this rap song —
Even I had to buy my Das Kapital on Amazon.
— Ain’t that ironic? you called it, Alanis.
You call yourself leftist? you’re probably a capitalist.
Not that you don’t mean your call-outs sincerely —
This irony is acknowledged by Critical Theory.

[Refrain:]
F#
Roll your pair of dice,
C#
Make your pair of dimes,
F#
Break no paradigms —
C# F#
They tell me this is paradise.
C# F#
— If I only know how to be free.

So Critical Theory looks at our history,
All of its books, and ambiguous victories,
All of its answers, and questions them critically:
Why everyone says they want freedom but isn’t free?
And so what began in the context of economics,
Became a critique of a complex of concepts
That constitute the basis of the ideological constructs
That course through our culture and complicate all of it.
And it’s the the predecessor of identity politics,
And of feminist call-outs of patriarchal nonsense,
And critiques of white privilege and fights for racial justice
That say what’s left unsaid and just how unjust it is.
And make you wake up to what’s real till you’re woke
To the wheel of control on which you’re a mere spoke:
For the system’s not broken, it breaks you — you’re broke —
And it ain’t funny, bro — your truth is a joke.

But then here’s the problem: if all I’ve been told
Is a product of forces and forms of control
That inform all I do, when I’m thinking of stuff,
Well then how I know who to be critical of?
Take a pair of sources of important information,
Like a couple of our never-ending news organizations
Making two new contradictory yet very forceful statements —
Whose to say who of the two you should believe and who to take as spin?
You may be moved to say, Whichever’s based upon the evidence —  
But if you have had the evidence, you’d only then make sense of it
Directed through the prism of whatever your perspective is,
Perspective that’s affected by whatever else is said of it.

— But if it’s all relative, then how is there a hell to give?
Even that it’s relative itself is kinda relative:
Whether you’re a liberal with conservative relatives,
Or a rebel who would kill to live well in the hell you live.
And this is relevant, since this critical questioning
Gets weaponized by your side and your enemy’s,
Characterizing this 21st Century
In endless critique with increasing intensity.
And so a theory that’s designed to find and call out all the liars
Now is also called upon by those designing to divide us:
It’s the tool that’s used to fight the privileged class and bank insiders,
But it’s also used to justify the climate change deniers —
It’s the basis of all of the words in these raps,
But also fake news and alternative facts —
Even maniacs and bigots try to speak truth to power:
Each is saying louder that their truth is ours.

I don’t know what’s true — I too am a part of it —
The tool is double-edged — choose your department.
I do art, I’m a dude in an apartment:
I don’t know what to do, though I try to regardless.
For myths are not replaced by truths, 
But by other myths that get more use —
The myth uses us, it’s us who invented it:
Let’s invent some that have mutual benefit.
History’s history — let’s see how it ends —
Let’s be each other’s critics and friends.
Let’s tear it all down, then build something fine —
All theories aside — it’s a critical time.

[Refrain:]
F#
Roll your pair of dice,
C#
Make your pair of dimes,
F#
Break no paradigms —
C# F#
Prepare to die in paradise.
C# F#
— I only knew how to be free…
Theoretically.