It’s Chemistry and Genocide
Mindful Solutionism and the Marxist Critique Against Accelerationism
Aesop Rock has long been a staple of conscious rap. Like De la Soul, Tribe, and Tupac, before him and the likes of Sa-Roc and Immortal Technique after him the capital critiques of state violence have become a staple in Bavitz’ work. From benign symbolic violence such as in 9–5ers Anthem to the disassociation with personhood in death in a capitalist society as in Water Towers, Get out the Car, and Crows.
Bavitz begins Mindful Solutionism from an accelerationist perspective arguing that the drive towards technological accelerationism will streamline daily living and will ultimately lead to a society where these technologies are free. In these lines however Bavitz begins his Marxist critique central to the song; nearly hidden in plain sight Bavitz says “What’s a resource local to the grotto/The method isn’t free until the mechanism follow” (7–8) foundationally stripping the accelerationist stance as what it truly is from the get go, a way to perpetuate the dependence on a capitalist society by stealing “resources local to the grotto” for the ever present “mechanism”.
Entering back into character for the second stanza Bavitz asserts that all problems can be solved through technology rapping “There isn’t a condition, complication, or revision/ Where the answer ain’t to build a more sophisticated widget” (11–12). This sentiment reappears in the fourth stanza as he deconstructs the argument intrinsic to this logic, that all problems no matter how human can be solved through technological advancements, when he spits “It’s not about a better knife, it’s chemistry and genocide/ And medicine for tempering the heck in the projector light/ Landmines, agent orange, leaded gas, cigarettes/ Cameras in your favorite corners, plastic in the wilderness” (50–53). The Marxist critique that Bavitz comes to is that accelerationism is genocide through capital and that the benign technology, chemistry, weaponry, medicine is reframed with ideas of ‘doing productivity,’ as derived from Harvey Sack’s “doing ‘being ordinary,’” and ‘social evolution’ to unwittingly aide in genocide, surveillance and state. With this Bavitz turns the tables on the line “the method isn’t free until the mechanism follows” because, of course, the mechanism will never and had never existed meaning that the ‘method’ is always exploiting the populace.
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Ultimately Bavitz lays bare the logic of an accelerationist argument and systematically allows it to decompose under the weight of its own ineptitude. However, in this song Bavitz never provides an alternative to Accelerationism. While on its face this song falls flat in providing an alternative critique Bavitz career, and likely ITS as an album, continually argues that Communalism provides a more sustainable, less destructive and more intentional alternative to capitalist lines of thought weather through the unionization of communities argued in Labor or through community care like in TV on 10.
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Similar to my article ‘on Real Men’ and ‘Paula Kamen’s Feminist Fatale’ I don’t talk at all about the idea of ‘doing ordinary’ linguistically but the ‘doing’ of social person is typically front and center in these pieces.
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Bavitz, Ian as Aesop Rock. Mindful Solutionism. track 2 on Integrated Tech Solutions, 2016, Rhymesayers Entertainment. https://youtu.be/T7jH-5YQLcE?si=oyok-suAf_d3R50V
Sacks, Harvey. “On Doing ‘Being Ordinary.’” Chapter. In Structures of Social Action, edited by J. Maxwell Atkinson, 413–29. Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
