John Zerzan
Sign in to saveAmerican anarchist and primitivist philosopher and author
Film & TV
Known for
- END:CIV — Self2011
- Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers — Self2003
via TMDB
Key facts
- Born
- August 10, 1943 ( 1943-08-10 ) (age 82), Salem, Oregon , U.S.
- Alma mater
- Stanford University San Francisco State University University of Southern California
- Era
- Contemporary philosophy
- Region
- Western philosophy
- School
- Anarcho-primitivism , post-left anarchy
- Main interests
- Hunter-gatherer society , civilization , alienation , symbolic culture , technology, mass society
- Notable ideas
- Domestication of humans, rewilding
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- John
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Salem
- Occupation
- historian
- Educated at
- San Francisco State University
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Native language
- English language
- Academic degree
- doctoral student
- Field of work
- philosophy
- Movement
- post-left anarchy
- Official website
- www.johnzerzan.net
- Image
- John Zerzan - mod.jpg
- Political ideology
- anarcho-primitivism
Show 3 more facts
- Commons category
- John Zerzan
- date of birth
- 1943-08-10
- influenced by
- Ivan Illich
via Wikidata · CC0
~18 min read
Encyclopedic overview
John Edward Zerzan (/ˈzɜːrzən/ ZUR-zən; born August 10, 1943) is an American anarcho-primitivist author and radio host. His works criticize agricultural civilization as inherently oppressive, and advocate drawing upon the ways of life of hunter-gatherers as an inspiration for what a free society should look like. Subjects of his criticism include domestication and symbolic thought (such as language, number, art and the concept of time).
His eight major books are Elements of Refusal (1988), Future Primitive and Other Essays (1994), Running on Emptiness (2002), Against Civilization: Readings and Reflections (2005), Twilight of the Machines (2008), Why hope? The Stand Against Civilization (2015), A People's History of Civilization (2019), and When We Are Human: Notes from the Age of Pandemics (2021). In 2024, he released his memoir The Education of an Anarchist: A Memoir.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “John Zerzan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.