Abstract

Contemporary theory is experiencing a crisis in grasping the present moment. Various orientations of theory remain divided between positing a fundamental rift or moment of negativity in the past and positing the need to invent or imagine a utopian future. In both cases these gestures are aimed at addressing a present that is regarded as destitute or otherwise lacking. The matrix for this division between past rift and inventive future leaving a destitute present is traced through the influence of Heidegger and, especially, Nietzsche. As a result, contemporary theory inherits a reactionary model of crisis that disables its understanding of the present. Instead, the current moment of crisis and stagnation needs to be critically understood as a result of historical trends and with pathways beyond crisis to an equitable future. This current crisis is characterized by drawing, critically, on the work of Mario Tronti, which suggests the scattered nature of struggles in the present disperses critical knowledge. The result is not only capitalist crisis, but also a crisis of temporality and historical sense that is reflected in the impasses of contemporary theory.