| Root/tree | Radicle | Rhizome | |
| taproot or dichotomous roots | proliferation of secondary roots | subterranean stems, bulb or tuber, burrow | |
| Hierarchy | cutting of the taproot causes the destruction of all other parts | unity of the root maintained in supplementary dimension | autonomous. Loosely interconnected parts |
| Operation | imitation of the world | Is it working? How is it working (for me)? Is something coming through? | |
| Unity | Linear: everything turns around a single axis | Cyclical: unity within the supplementary dimension (e.g. dimension of knowledge or of sentence) | Unitary idea is missing |
| Multiplicity | missing: it has been eliminated by dualism | rules of combination reduce the growth of multiplicity | multiplicity is achieved by subtracting the one from the existent: n-1 |
I found this diagram in 2005 in a web article about architecture. What struck me about the chart was that through a close reading of the rhizome plateau, its creator identified the third structure of books suggested by Deleuze and Guattari. And in introducing the third term, which is often left out, the chart serves as a powerful argument for my theory of “contrasts” and against the all-too-easy slide into the golden mean performed by thinkers like DeLanda.
I have added a PDF of it to the downloads sections for easy reference.
Anarchist Without Content 