Pedagogy of hate

Abstract

This paper is a critical engagement with Peter McLaren’s book Pedagogy of Insurrection: From Resurrection to Revolution. The paper focusses on a number of key themes in the book: the historical Jesus; the dialectic of love and hate; cognition and consciousness; and the relationship between capitalist abstraction and revolutionary theory. The conclusion is that McLaren is right about many things, not least the need for a revolutionary theory and action that supports the abolition of capitalism through value-form theory and radical love. But the extent to which McLaren’s work is based on critical rage pedagogy, it is an understatement. His radical love needs a radical hate, not a physical, psychological or pathological hate, but a hate for what the world has become. Radical hate is the critical concept on which negative dialectics is based.