Activism Change

"Dour John Zerzan …."

Question:

GI: If with a single action you could launch a cataclysmic upheaval, like anarchist Gavrilo Princip when he shot Archduke Ferdinand and started the Great War, would you? Wasn’t the man who shot the Archduke a Serbian nationalist or a pan-Slavist? It seems strange to blame World War I on the anarchists, who for the most part were its biggest opponents— and many of whom (like Emma Goldman) went to prison for opposing it.

That is true, Princip was not an anarchist.  The fellow who assainated Alexander II I believe was … I am surprised Zerzan did not correct the journalist. Anyway, regarding Zerzan: John Zerzan does a good job of making anarchism look foolish, so it’s no wonder that the capitalist media is so fond of him.

He’s not so bad … in an anarchist society, there would be plenty of room for primitivists too.  You can actually read some of his stuff here: http://www.spunk.org/library/writers/zerzan/index.html He does make some good points, but overall I don’t agree with his primitivism either.

Response:

I think I exercised freedom enough for now, I`m gonna` crush.(But wy do the english always use a capital A?I?) Bye and till another Time. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – GI: If with a single action you could launch a cataclysmic upheaval, like anarchist Gavrilo Princip when he shot Archduke Ferdinand and started the Great War, would you? Wasn’t the man who shot the Archduke a Serbian nationalist or a pan-Slavist? It seems strange to blame World War I on the anarchists, who for the most part were its biggest opponents— and many of whom (like Emma Goldman) went to prison for opposing it. (Kropotkin was about the only anarchist who wasn’t against the war, and he was an old fart at the time). Anyway, regarding Zerzan: John Zerzan does a good job of making anarchism look foolish, so it’s no wonder that the capitalist media is so fond of him.  There very few people who will consider the abolition of the state to be a desirable goal if you tell them that they need to revert to a pre-technological level first.  There are not many people who will take you seriously if you tell them that the invention of the wheel was a bad idea. (Of course, as an anarchist, I think that police cars would be better without wheels—but it’s hard to take issue with the wheels on Leo Tolstoy’s bicycle, for instance). If people are made to think that anarchism means banging rocks together to start a fire, there is not much danger of them becoming anarchists.         –dave

Response:

Hi,         I question whether John Zerzan is an anarchist.  I have read his stuff for a number of years.  It has only been recently that he has claimed to be an anarchist.  His group in Oregon is actually called "Anti-Authoritarians Anonymous".         Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Zerzan used to write that "All ‘isms are ‘wasms!" Meaning that all ideologies were out of date.  He made no bones about it that he included anarchism as one of these "wasms".         In the 1990s Zerzan made an about face and began calling himself an "anarchist".  But if you compare his views to those of say Emma Goldman, or Bakunin, or Kropotkin, or any of the classical anarchists you find his pro-stone age views to be very different.  Also Zerzan’s support for the psychopathic Unabomber, would have made no sense to the old guard anarchists.         What troubles me about Zerzan is the attention he gets from the media.  The capitalist media likes nothing better than to seize on Zerzan’s nutty views and portray this as "anarchism", as a way of discrediting the entire anarchist movement. Jeff Stein – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – GI: If with a single action you could launch a cataclysmic upheaval, like anarchist Gavrilo Princip when he shot Archduke Ferdinand and started the Great War, would you? Wasn’t the man who shot the Archduke a Serbian nationalist or a pan-Slavist? It seems strange to blame World War I on the anarchists, who for the most part were its biggest opponents— and many of whom (like Emma Goldman) went to prison for opposing it. That is true, Princip was not an anarchist.  The fellow who assainated Alexander II I believe was … I am surprised Zerzan did not correct the journalist. Anyway, regarding Zerzan: John Zerzan does a good job of making anarchism look foolish, so it’s no wonder that the capitalist media is so fond of him. He’s not so bad … in an anarchist society, there would be plenty of room for primitivists too.  You can actually read some of his stuff here: http://www.spunk.org/library/writers/zerzan/index.html He does make some good points, but overall I don’t agree with his primitivism either.

Response:

        In the 1990s Zerzan made an about face and began calling himself an "anarchist".  But if you compare his views to those of say Emma Goldman, or Bakunin, or Kropotkin, or any of the classical anarchists you find his pro-stone age views to be very different.  Also Zerzan’s support for the psychopathic Unabomber, would have made no sense to the old guard anarchists.         What troubles me about Zerzan is the attention he gets from the media.  The capitalist media likes nothing better than to seize on Zerzan’s nutty views and portray this as "anarchism", as a way of discrediting the entire anarchist movement.

I’d agree with you here. I have a copy of that collection of essays that has "Future Primitive," and I think it is an incredible perspective, but I also think he gets a lot of points wrong. Just because oppressive people use reason does not mean that WE can’t. A much better essayist is Bob Black (author of that infamous "Abolition of Work"). He’s reasonable about technology, and he recognizes the need for ideological, reasoned thinking in fighting against authority. And yes, the greatest amount of his work deals with capitalist society, most specifically wage labor. Unlike Black’s writings, from what I see following Zerzan by the letter would drastically weaken the anarchist movement. For a good online resource that trashes Zerzan, Black, and Hakim Bey, surf to: http://connect.ab.ca/~mctsoul/playpen.htm While the essay is very long-winded, and the attacks on Black totally MISS the point of his work, (the author seems to be obsessed with Black not doing his laundry as opposed to the truth of him disliking wage slavery) it still is a decent criticism of the primitivists once you cut through the ad-hominem attacks. Ken [Phoenix, Arizona, USA] http://tbns.net/daelix

Response:

GI: If with a single action you could launch a cataclysmic upheaval, like anarchist Gavrilo Princip when he shot Archduke Ferdinand and started the Great War, would you?

Princip wasn’t an anarchist, IIRC, but a nationalist zealot — Tim Kelley

Response:

GI: If with a single action you could launch a cataclysmic upheaval, like anarchist Gavrilo Princip when he shot Archduke Ferdinand and started the Great War, would you?

Wasn’t the man who shot the Archduke a Serbian nationalist or a pan-Slavist? It seems strange to blame World War I on the anarchists, who for the most part were its biggest opponents— and many of whom (like Emma Goldman) went to prison for opposing it. (Kropotkin was about the only anarchist who wasn’t against the war, and he was an old fart at the time). Anyway, regarding Zerzan: John Zerzan does a good job of making anarchism look foolish, so it’s no wonder that the capitalist media is so fond of him.  There very few people who will consider the abolition of the state to be a desirable goal if you tell them that they need to revert to a pre-technological level first.  There are not many people who will take you seriously if you tell them that the invention of the wheel was a bad idea. (Of course, as an anarchist, I think that police cars would be better without wheels—but it’s hard to take issue with the wheels on Leo Tolstoy’s bicycle, for instance). If people are made to think that anarchism means banging rocks together to start a fire, there is not much danger of them becoming anarchists.         –dave

Response:

Dour John Zerzan wants to destroy civilization while staying out of jail BY PETER FENTON [ 12.15.99 ]        verybody wants a piece of The        Anarchist. Elevated by mainstream        mouthpieces like Newsweek to the        position of ideologicial leader of the black-clad trashers of Seattle ‘99, 56-year-old John Zerzan is in heavy media demand, quickly becoming the most-quoted political radical since the heyday of Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. After decades of solitude, Zerzan finds himself pursued by the Big Media Machine he aches to destroy. Along with the rest of civilization. That’s right, John’s gripe goes way beyond corporate greed, way beyond the picayune WTO. As I gather it, John wants you to SMASH that TV, Cuisinart and computer, sever your Internet connection, unplug your stereo, put your car up on blocks, turn off the electricity, destroy the supermarket, dig a well, throw your shit onto the compost pile, start subsistence farming and staunch your menstrual flow with moss. Called Future Primitivism, it’s John’s Impossible Dream. Think suburban tract homes modeled on Theodore Kaczynski’s cabin and the picture is complete. Does Zerzan live like that? No way. "It’s too daunting a task," he admits. But that’s beside the point. After the debacle in Seattle, he’s white-hot. For instance, on December 14th John was part of a major 60 Minutes II profile on the Eugene, Oregon, anarchists alleged to have played an integral role in the controversial trashing of downtown Seattle. He’s just completed an exhausting two hours as a guest on a WABC talk radio show which, John tells me, "is heard in 40 states." He’s looking for a new book deal after negotiations with Simon & Schuster broke down. And John just turned down an appearance on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, an act that would have any self-respecting publicist tearing her hair out. As John told me, "I wrestled with that because of the large audience I could reach with our message. But then I sat down and watched the thing, and it was just a bunch of entertainers gossiping and trying to sell their latest records and so on. The show had nothing remotely political about it." Why all this interest in a dour guy who babysits for a living? Plain and simple, Zerzan’s well-documented Unabomber connection has turned him into a rising star. In case you don’t recall, a couple of years back The New York Times noticed a similarity between the writings of Zerzan and Kaczynski. They contacted John and — bingo! — it turns out that John corresponds with his ideological soulmate and has even visited him in prison. Instantly, a Zerzan interview became the next best thing to the Unabomber himself. And the demand has only intensified since Zerzan and his Eugene Anarchists took center stage in Seattle. John and I met at the hippie-esque Bagel Bakery near his quaint cottage in Eugene. In person, he is the antithesis of the apoplectic bomb-throwing madman. Mournful, with an elongated, sallow face and grey, close-cropped beard, he’s more like a monk in a dark Goya painting. Or the figure in Edvard Munch’s The Scream with its mouth closed. Painfully shy, he spent most of the interview staring down at the table. GETTINGIT: What, for you, was the hardest part of the WTO protest? JOHN ZERZAN: Definitely the walking. There are a lot of hills in Seattle. GI: But it must have been exhilarating. JZ: It was. I’m still coming down from a sort of high. Everybody thinks it was highly orchestrated, that the activist community had everything planned. The truth is, until it happened, we had no idea how many people were going to show up, if anyone at all. It was truly a watershed event. It was a spontaneous uprising, in a sense… the start of something bigger… the beginning of a worldwide mass movement. GI: What do you have to say about the debate over violence? JZ: The destruction of inanimate objects isn’t a violent act. You can only be violent against other human beings, like the Seattle police were against demonstrators. And at any rate, you wouldn’t be interviewing me, and the rest of the media would barely have noticed, had there not been property destruction. It made the WTO and its repellent policies a topic for discussion around the world. GI: That’s fine, John. But what happens when a kid who’s gotten all heated up by your rhetoric takes it a step further — blows up a building, shoots a filthy capitalist? JZ: That’s something I worry about all the time. But I don’t have control over the actions of others. GI: But you’re old enough to be a grandfather to some of these people. Don’t you bear some sort of responsibility if they get carried away? JZ: It’s really my worst nightmare. GI: John, you live a simple life many people would envy. You own a cottage, spend the day reading, write position papers, get them published, and ride your bike around town. Could you give all that up and go underground? Live life on the run? JZ: [Long pause] I hope it never comes to that point. GI: Have you ever been arrested? JZ: Once. I’d rather not spend time in jail. GI: Have you experienced increased surveillance since Seattle? JZ: I operate on the assumption that my phone is tapped. I’ve heard that Janet Reno might convene a grand jury about us. People have been noticing strange guys filtering into town, possibly federal agents. GI: If with a single action you could launch a cataclysmic upheaval, like anarchist Gavrilo Princip when he shot Archduke Ferdinand and started the Great War, would you? JZ: No. I don’t believe in that, anyway. Change takes a series of actions. Peter Fenton is creator of Truth Or Tabloid!, a free email newsletter and simple-minded game. — Dan Clore The Website of Lord We

Filed under: Activist Movement

Related Posts

• U.S. gives green light to Israeli repression
• Hamas wins hearts by saving lives where Arafat fails
• CONFERENCE: Oppose US Intervention
• POLITICAL PRISONERS IN THE U.S.
• Clinton Scrapes Bottom
• Gallup poll: 50 million Americans are libertarian
• Two Zionist soldiers seriously wounded in Nablus old city
• CAR BUSTERS MAGAZINE RELEASED
• An Importan Life Lesson (2)
• Left Handed Needlepoint