John Zerzan

American anarchist and primitivist philosopher and author

Person · Open Library

Born: 1943-08-10
Works: 10

Top works

Questioning Technology
Time and Time Again
Breakdown
Trade unionism or socialism
Black and Green Review no 4

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Origin: United States
Active from: 1932-02-08

2008 universal fire victimacademy award winneramericanamerican composercinematic classicalclassical

Discography

Official site Discogs Stream

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Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 45
Total plays: 260

via Last.fm · John Zerzan

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple
· 1996 · cited 200,687x
Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold
· 2021 · cited 41,733x
Gene Ontology: tool for the unification of biology
· 2000 · cited 36,358x
Matplotlib: A 2D Graphics Environment
· 2007 · cited 34,340x
The MOS 36-ltem Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36)
· 1992 · cited 28,860x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“If we once — and for so long — lived in balance with nature and each other, we should be able to do so again. The catastrophe that’s overtaking us has deep roots, but our previous state of natural anarchy reaches much further into our shared history.”
“Agriculture has been and remains a “catastrophe” at all levels, the one which underpins the entire material and spiritual culture of alienation now destroying us. Liberation is impossible without its dissolution”
“Domestication involved the initiation of production, vastly increased divisions of labor, and the completed foundations of social stratification. This amounted to an epochal mutation both in the character of human existence and its development, clouding the latter with ever more violence and work.”
“Logically, humanity itself will also become a domesticate of this order as the world of production processes us as much as it degrades and deforms every other natural system.”
“Everyone can feel the nothingness, the void, just beneath the surface of everyday routines and securities.”
“Never before have people been so infantalized, made so dependent on the machine for everything; as the earth rapidly approaches its extinction due to technology, our souls are shrunk and flattened by its pervasive rule. Any sense of wholeness and freedom can only return by the undoing of the massive division of labour at the heart of technological progress. This is the liberatory project in all its depth.”

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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

Official website: www.johnzerzan.net
Image: John Zerzan - mod.jpg

Show 2 more facts

Commons category: John Zerzan
date of birth: 1943-08-10

Sources (4)

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~18 min read

Article

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.