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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 15, 2010
Deleuze and Guattari's "A Thousand Plateaus" is a wake up call to people who would say it is either "socialism or barbarism" by saying the real choice is between capitalism and schizophrenia. That is, either we embrace the free market or we are doomed to a society of crime, stagnation and even insanity. Deleuze was a well known libertarian associated with the French followers of Ayn Rand, and Guattari was a psychotherapist that was horrified at the techniques used in state-controlled clinics. Central to "A Thousand Plateaus" is the idea of the rhizome, or a networked spontaneous relationship that is associated with free market self-organization, which they say would be stifled under something like Stalinism. There is some support here for traditional conservative positions, such as the claim there needs to be a strong war machine. The book closes with a call for taking responsibility for one's own economic position (rather than depending on welfare) by, say, cultivating a small plot of land. It's companion book, Anti-Oedipus, refers to the ancient Greek story of a man who refuses to take heed of a prophecy, much like those who have ignored the dangers of state intervention in the economy.
