jim leftwich - genus and riot

genus and riot:

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the i:
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genius without the i is genus. to prefer the latter is a kind of heresy, but we should do it.

riot without the i is rot. we have been trained to prefer the latter. we should resist this training. the only encouragement we are likely to receive for our resistance will come through the neoteny of pop culture.

these are the options for the i.

in the confluence of genus and rot there is no i, and only entropy will ensue. in the confluence of genius and riot there is too much of the i. therein lies the history of autocracy and recursive violence.

the confluence of genius and rot might seem irresistibly seductive had it not already given us the velocity and the sheen, the vacuity and the sleep, the volatility and the slippage of the twentieth century. we want our hallucinations to be mutagenic or not at all. the i will rot in any event.

the confluence of genus and riot is the path of centrifugal asymmetry. it is not a strategy. it cannot be systematized. it is not a variety of warfare. it is full-spectrum against dominance. it is provisional, but not temporary. its givens are uniqueness and change, but it is not a popularity contest or a fashion show. it is a radicalized form of democracy, which means it is a kind of anarchy, horizontally inclusive against representative hierarchy. it is a proposal for homeopathic disaster.

it is already underway.
we are making notes at a site of the disasters.

october 2010