Anti-universalist critique can reproduce the speculative universalism it attacks.
Evidence
The danger in the practice of any materialism is that whereas it begins by opposing all those speculative systems of thought which make universal and categorical claims without the necessary physical evidence for the grounding of such claims, irs own sustained oppositional practice rends to push ir in a direction where it is impelled to assert universal laws of its own, different from those it opposes, bur without sufficient evidence of irs own; a materialism which does not sufficiendy resist such pressure, and does nor recognize the gap between the validity of a universalise aspiration and the paucity ofborh evidence and method that might in fact give us a universal history of all humankind, becomes speculative in its own way. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 1082
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: Captures a mirror-trap logic: oppositional critique structurally tends toward the very universal-categorical claim-making it set out against. Dense, reversible, worth sitting with.
- XREF: Structural parallel to how ‘strategic’ essentialism risks collapsing into the literal essentialism it borrowed; the materialist that becomes speculative mirrors the ironist who becomes resident. — connects to: Said’s own critique reproduces the fixed Occident-Orient essentialism it attacks — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 747; Counter-speculations weaponize speculation’s own volatility against it. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 306; Globalist frameworks can reproduce the imperial binary they oppose — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3423 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Said’s own critique reproduces the fixed Occident-Orient essentialism it attacks
#exemplifies(0.92) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 747 - Anti-colonial theory can reproduce the very binary it criticizes.
#corroborates(0.88) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3403 - Globalist frameworks can reproduce the imperial binary they oppose
#corroborates(0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3423 - Counter-speculations weaponize speculation’s own volatility against it.
#expands(0.83) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 306