Future Primitive and Other Essays
{{Short description|Book by John Zerzan}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Future Primitive and Other Essays
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Future Primitive and Other Essays.jpg
| caption =
| author = John Zerzan
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language =
| series =
| subject = Anarcho-primitivism
| genre = Anthropology, political economy
| publisher = Autonomedia,
Anarchy: a Journal of Desire Armed
| pub_date = December 1, 1994
| english_pub_date =
| media_type = Paperback
| pages = 192 pages
| isbn = 1-57027-000-7
| oclc = 30630861
| preceded_by = Elements of Refusal
| followed_by = Running on Emptiness
}}
Future Primitive and Other Essays is a collection of essays by anarcho-primitivist philosopher John Zerzan published by Autonomedia in 1994. The book became the subject of increasing interest after Zerzan and his beliefs rose to fame in the aftermath of the trial of fellow thinker Theodore Kaczynski and the 1999 anti-WTO protests in Seattle.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/apr/18/mayday.features11 |work=The Guardian |title=Anarchy in the United States |date=April 18, 2001 |first=Duncan |last=Campbell |access-date=2008-10-06 }} It was republished in 1996 by Semiotext(e), and has since been translated into French (1998), Turkish (2000), Spanish (2001), and Catalan (2002). As is the case with Zerzan's previous collection of essays, Elements of Refusal, Future Primitive is regarded by Anarcho-Primitivists and technophobes as an underground classic.
{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE3DD113FF934A35756C0A963958260 |title=Prominent Anarchist Finds Unsought Ally in Serial Bomber |first=Kenneth B. |last=Noble |date=May 7, 1995 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2008-10-06}}
Thesis
Future Primitive is an unequivocal assertion of the superiority of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.{{cite book | last = Gowdy | first = John | title = Limited Wants, Unlimited Means | publisher = Island Press | location = Washington | year = 1998 | isbn = 1-55963-555-X |pages=220}} Zerzan rejects the thesis that time and technology are neutral scientific realities, arguing instead that they are carefully constructed means of enslaving people.{{cite book | last = Veseth | first = Michael | title = The New York Times Twentieth Century in Review: the Rise of the Global Economy | publisher = Routledge | location = New York | year = 2002 | isbn = 1-57958-369-5 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/riseofglobalecon0000unse/page/515 515] | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/riseofglobalecon0000unse/page/515 }} He cites as examples the computer and the Internet, which he maintains have an atomizing effect on society, creating novel divisions of labour, demanding ever increasing efficiency and portions of leisure time. Life prior to domestication and agriculture, Zerzan argues, was predominantly one of "leisure, intimacy with nature, sensual wisdom, sexual equality and health".{{cite book |author-link=Murray Bookchin | last = Bookchin | first = Murray | title = Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism | publisher = AK Press | location = Stirling | year = 1995 | isbn = 1-873176-83-X |pages=39}} In the Paleolithic era, as The Wall Street Journal summarized Zerzan's thesis, "people roamed free, lived off the land and knew little or nothing of private property, government, money, war, even sexism. In the wild, the shackles of civilization weren't necessary, as people were instinctively munificent and kind, the primitivist argument goes."{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB944436891605794366 |title=An Anarchist Looks to Provide Logic To Coterie Leading WTO Vandalism |work=The Wall Street Journal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311002244/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB944436891605794366 |archive-date=March 11, 2016 |last=Waldman |first=Peter |date=December 6, 1999 |publisher=Dow Jones & Company}} [http://www.infoshop.org/octo/wto_zerzan2.html Alt URL]
See also
{{Portal|Anarchism}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://libcom.org/files/FuturePrimitive.pdf Future Primitive and Other Essays] (PDF) – Libcom.org
{{Anarchism}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:1994 non-fiction books
Category:Books about anarchism
Category:Literature critical of work and the work ethic