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Rhizomatic thought

Rhizomatic thought = ‘rhizomes’ are plant life that don’t follow the root-tree system e.g. fungus or mould. There is no ‘core’, no lesser or greater elements. If you destroy the centre of a mould the rest doesn’t die (like if you destroyed the trunk of a tree), it continues to thrive. Modern terrorist movements have a ‘rhizomatic’ structure: there is no single leader, issuing orders down the chain of command with an overall goal that every unit is working towards. Terrorists work in cells, with their own individual goals and objectives, and though instructions may be sent to them, these are very rarely orders, and they may or may not be followed e.g. when the IRA abandoned armed activity as part of the Northern Irish peace process, some cells decided their leaders had betrayed their ideals, and continued bombing under the name ‘The Real IRA’. Similarly, there is no evidence the 7/7 bombers received any orders or had any contact with the so-called ‘generals’ in the Al-Qaeda; instead they planned, resourced and implemented their attack independently.

Theorists

Gilles Deleuze, philosopher and film critic, worked with a radical psychoanalyst called Felix Guattari to write some of the most impenetrable but insightful books attacking what we think of as ‘common sense’. He championed a vision of human identity that saw the self as multiple, with each ‘self’ possessing an immanence. Therefore there is no higher, ‘core’ you, with other selves that have less meaning – instead each self, each aspect of your identity has an existence that is intense and, though connected to other more stable selves, it doesn’t fit into a hierarchy where there are selves which are ‘more’ or ‘less’ you. He also wrote about lots of other ideas that you have to study philosophy to post-graduate level to be able to understand!

Why is this postmodern?

Along with other postmodern philosophers, Deleuze disputes the idea of a hierarchy to knowledge or experience or identity; and the notion of there being a core ‘truth’ that we can find by adding together knowledge. Instead, like Baudrillard and Lyotard, he encourages a view of the world as full of diversity, multiple truths, none less or more meaningful than the next; what he termed A Thousand Plateaus. Deleuze a great deal more cheerful than the other two, however. Instead of bemoaning the ‘end of history’, Deleuze sees the abundance of ‘immanence’ as creative and playful, with each ‘immanence’ affecting and influencing others, and consequently spawning new experiences, selves and realities (much in the way a mould or fungus spreads out into new and random forms).

Immanence = means literally ‘to remain within’, but seen by postmodernists as concept whereby things can exist without referring to anything outside of themselves for meaning. It is an intensity by itself, without needing to refer to a hierarchy for meaning. (Don’t confuse with imminence, which means the quality of something about to occur!)