Anarcho-primitivism
Anarcho-primitivism, also known as anti-civilization anarchism, is an anarchist critique of civilization that advocates a return to non-civilized ways of life through deindustrialization, abolition of the division of labor or specialization, and abandonment of large-scale organization and all technology other than prehistoric technology. Anarcho-primitivists critique the origins and progress of the Industrial Revolution and industrial society.[1] According to anarcho-primitivism, the shift from hunter-gatherer to agricultural subsistence during the Neolithic Revolution gave rise to coercion, social alienation, and social stratification.[2]
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History
Origins
The writings of Henry David Thoreau, particularly his 1854 book Walden, have been seen as a precursor to anarcho-primitivism, due to his advocacy of simple living and self-sufficiency among natural surroundings in resistance to the advancement of industrial civilization.[3] John Zerzan himself included the text "Excursions" (1863) by Thoreau in his edited compilation of anti-civilization writings called Against Civilization: Readings and Reflections from 1999.[4]
Recent themes
Primitivists extend anarchist ideas of non-domination to all life, not just human life, going beyond the traditional anarchist analysis. Using the work of anthropologists, primitivists look at the origins of civilization so as to understand what they are up against and how current society formed in order to inform a change in direction. Inspired by the Luddites, primitivists rekindle an anti-technological orientation.[5]
Main concepts
Domestication
Anarcho-primitivists, such as John Zerzan, define domestication as "the will to dominate animals and plants", claiming that domestication is "civilization's defining basis".[6]
Consumerism and mass society
Primitivists do not believe that a "mass society" can be free. They believe industry and agriculture inevitably lead to hierarchy and alienation. They argue that the division of labor techno-industrial societies require to function forces people into reliance on factories and the labor of other specialists to produce their food, clothing, shelter, and other necessities and that this dependence forces them to remain a part of this society, whether they like it or not.[7]
Critique of mechanical time and symbolic culture
Regarding those primitivists who have extended their critique of symbolic culture to language itself, Georgetown University professor Mark Lance describes this particular theory of primitivism as "literally insane, for proper communication is necessary to create within the box a means to destroy the box".[8]
Criticism and counter-criticism
Notable critics of anarcho-primitivism include post-left anarchists Wolfi Landstreicher[9] and Jason McQuinn,[10] Ted Kaczynski (the "Unabomber"),[11] and especially libertarian socialist Murray Bookchin, as seen in his polemical work entitled Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism.
Hypocrisy
A common criticism is of hypocrisy, i.e. that people rejecting civilization typically maintain a civilized lifestyle themselves, often while still using the very industrial technology that they oppose in order to spread their message. Activist writer Derrick Jensen counters that this criticism merely resorts to an ad hominem argument, attacking individuals but not the actual validity of their beliefs.[12] He further responds that working to entirely avoid such hypocrisy is ineffective, self-serving, and a convenient misdirection of activist energies.[13] Primitivist John Zerzan admits that living with this hypocrisy is a necessary evil for continuing to contribute to the larger intellectual conversation.[14]
Glorification of indigenous societies
Wolfi Landstreicher and Jason McQuinn, post-leftists, have both criticized the romanticized exaggerations of indigenous societies and the pseudoscientific (and even mystical) appeal to nature they perceive in anarcho-primitivist ideology and deep ecology.[10][15]
Ted Kaczynski has also argued that certain anarcho-primitivists have exaggerated the short working week of primitive society, arguing that they only examine the process of food extraction and not the processing of food, creation of fire and childcare, which adds up to over 40 hours a week.[16]
See also
- Anarcho-primitivists (category)
- Abecedarians, opposed language on religious grounds
- Agrarian socialism
- Anti-modernization
- Deep ecology
- Degrowth
- Deindustrialization
- Doomer
- Earth liberation
- Eco-communalism
- Ecofeminism
- Ecofascism
- Environmental ethics
- Evolutionary psychology
- Freedomites
- Green anarchism
- Green Anarchy
- Hunter-gatherer
- Idea of Progress
- Jacques Camatte
- Neo-Luddism
- Neo-tribalism
- Noble savage
- Post-left anarchy
- Primitive communism
- Romanticism
- State of nature
- Survivalism
- Year Zero (political notion)
- Liver King
- Rewilding (conservation biology)
- Back-to-the-land movement
- Solarpunk
Notes
- el-Ojeili & Taylor 2020, pp. 169–170.
- Jeihouni & Maleki 2016, p. 67.
- Diez, Xavier Diez (2002). "La Insumisión Voluntaria: El Anarquismo Individualista Español Durante La Dictadura Y La Segunda República (1923–1938)" [Draft Avoidance: Spanish Individualistic Anarchism During the Dictatorship and the Second Republic (1923–1938)] (in Spanish). Girona: Centre de Documentació Històrico-Social de Barcelona. Archived from the original on 26 May 2006.
Su obra más representativa es Walden, aparecida en 1854, aunque redactada entre 1845 y 1847, cuando Thoreau decide instalarse en el aislamiento de una cabaña en el bosque, y vivir en íntimo contacto con la naturaleza, en una vida de soledad y sobriedad. De esta experiencia, su filosofía trata de transmitirnos la idea que resulta necesario un retorno respetuoso a la naturaleza, y que la felicidad es sobre todo fruto de la riqueza interior y de la armonía de los individuos con el entorno natural. Muchos han visto en Thoreau a uno de los precursores del ecologismo y del anarquismo primitivista representado en la actualidad por John Zerzan. Para George Woodcock(8), esta actitud puede estar también motivada por una cierta idea de resistencia al progreso y de rechazo al materialismo creciente que caracteriza la sociedad norteamericana de mediados de siglo XIX.
[His most representative work is Walden, published in 1854, although redacted between 1845 and 1847 when Thoreau decided to move to an isolated cabin in the woods and live in intimate contact with nature in a solitary and sober life. His philosophy, from this experience, attempts to transmit the idea that a return to respecting nature is necessary, and that happiness is, above all, a fruit of inner richness and harmony between individuals and the natural environment. Many have seen Thoreau as a precursor to ecologism and anarcho-primitivism, actualized by John Zerzan. For George Woodcock (8), this attitude can also be motivated by the idea of resistance to progress and the rejection of the increasing materialism that characterized North American society in the mid-19th century.] - Zerzan, John, ed. (2005). Against Civilization: Readings and Reflections. Feral House. ISBN 0-922915-98-9.
- Gardenier, Matthijs (2016). "Le courant'anti-tech', entre anarcho-primitivisme et néo-luddisme". Sociétés. 131 (1): 97–106. doi:10.3917/soc.131.0097. ISSN 0765-3697.
- Zerzan, John (2008). Twilight of the Machines. Feral House. p. 55. ISBN 978-1-932595-31-4.
- Wilson, Chris (2001). "Against Mass Society". Green Anarchy, no. 6., via TheAnarchistLibrary.org. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
- Lance, Mark from lecture Anarchist Practice, Rational Democracy, and Community NCOR (2004). Audio files Archived 21 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine
- Landstreicher, Wolfi (2007). "A Critique, Not a Program: For a Non-Primitivist Anti-Civilization Critique".
- McQuinn, Jason. Why I am not a Primitivist.
- Kaczynski, Ted. "The Truth About Primitive Life: A Critique of Anarchoprimitivism".
"It seems obvious, for example, that the politically correct portrayal of hunter-gatherers is motivated in part by an impulse to construct an image of a pure and innocent world existing at the dawn of time, analogous to the Garden of Eden," and calls the evidence of the violence of hunter-gatherers "incontrovertible".
- Jensen, Derrick (2006). The Problem of Civilization. Endgame. Vol. 1. New York: Seven Stories Press. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-58322-730-5.
- Jensen, 2006, pp. 173–174: "[Although it's] vital to make lifestyle choices to mitigate damage caused by being a member of industrial civilization... to assign primary responsibility to oneself, and to focus primarily on making oneself better, is an immense copout, an abrogation of responsibility. With all the world at stake, it is self-indulgent, self-righteous, and self-important. It is also nearly ubiquitous. And it serves the interests of those in power by keeping our focus off them."
- "Anarchy in the USA". The Guardian. London. 20 April 2001.
- "The Network of Domination".
- Kaczynski, Theodore (2008). The Truth About Primitive Life: A Critique of Primitivism.
Bibliography
- Aaltola, Elisa (2010). "Green Anarchy: Deep Ecology and Primitivism". In Franks, Benjamin; Wilson, Matthew (eds.). Anarchism and Moral Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 161–185. doi:10.1057/9780230289680_9. ISBN 978-0-230-28968-0.
- Becker, Michael (2010). Anarcho-Primitivism: The Green Scare in Green Political Theory (Annual Meeting Paper). Western Political Science Association. pp. 1–16.
- Cudworth, Erika (2019). "Farming and Food". In Adams, Matthew S.; Levy, Carl (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 641–658. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_36. ISBN 978-3-319-75620-2. S2CID 242090793.
- Eddebo, Johan (2017). "Babylon Will Be Found No More: On Affinities Between Christianity and Anarcho-Primitivism". Journal of Religion and Society. 19: 1–17. ISSN 1522-5658.
- el-Ojeili, Chamsy; Taylor, Dylan (2 April 2020). ""The Future in the Past": Anarcho-primitivism and the Critique of Civilization Today". Rethinking Marxism. 32 (2): 168–186. doi:10.1080/08935696.2020.1727256. ISSN 0893-5696. S2CID 219015323.
- Gardenier, Matthijs (2016). "The "anti-tech" movement, between anarcho-primitivism and the neo-luddite". Sociétés. 131 (1): 97–106. doi:10.3917/soc.131.0097. ISSN 0765-3697.
- Humphrey, Matthew (2013). "Environmentalism". In Gaus, Gerald F.; D'Agostino, Fred (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy. Routledge. pp. 291–302. ISBN 978-0-415-87456-4. LCCN 2012013795.
- Jeihouni, Mojtaba; Maleki, Nasser (12 December 2016). "Far from the madding civilization: Anarcho-primitivism and revolt against disintegration in Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape". International Journal of English Studies. 16 (2): 61–80. doi:10.6018/ijes/2016/2/238911. ISSN 1989-6131.
- Long, Roderick T. (2013). "Anarchism". In Gaus, Gerald F.; D'Agostino, Fred (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy. Routledge. pp. 217–230. ISBN 978-0-415-87456-4. LCCN 2012013795.
- Marshall, Peter H. (1993). "Epilogue: The Phoenix Rising". Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. London: Fontana Press. pp. 667–705. ISBN 978-0-00-686245-1. OCLC 1042028128.
- Morris, Brian (2017). "Anarchism and Environmental Philosophy". In Jun, Nathan (ed.). Brill's Companion to Anarchism and Philosophy. Leiden: Brill. pp. 369–400. doi:10.1163/9789004356894_015. ISBN 978-90-04-35689-4.
- Moore, John (1995). "An Archaeology of the Future: Ursula Le Guin and Anarcho-Primitivism". Foundation: 32. ISSN 0306-4964.
- Parson, Sean (2018). "Ecocentrism". In Franks, Benjamin; Jun, Nathan; Williams, Leonard (eds.). Anarchism: A Conceptual Approach. Routledge. pp. 219–233. ISBN 978-1-138-92565-6. LCCN 2017044519.
- Price, Andy (2012). "Social Ecology". In Kinna, Ruth (ed.). The Continuum Companion to Anarchism. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 231–249. ISBN 978-1-4411-4270-2.
- Price, Andy (2019). "Green Anarchism". In Adams, Matthew S.; Levy, Carl (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 281–291. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_16. ISBN 978-3-319-75620-2. S2CID 242090793.
- Purkis, Johnathan (2012). "The Hitchhiker as Theorist: Rethinking Sociology and Anthropology from an Anarchist Perspective". In Kinna, Ruth (ed.). The Continuum Companion to Anarchism. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 140–161. ISBN 978-1-4411-4270-2.
- Shakoor, Abdul; Ahmad, Mustanir (2022). "Anarcho-Primitivism in D.H. Lawrence's Post War Fiction: An Eco-Critical Analysis". Pakistan Journal of Social Research. 4 (4): 10–17. doi:10.52567/pjsr.v4i04.782. ISSN 2710-3137.
- Smith, Mick (2002). "The State of Nature: The Political Philosophy of Primitivism and the Culture of Contamination". Environmental Values. 11 (4): 407–425. doi:10.3197/096327102129341154. ISSN 1752-7015.
Further reading
Books
- AbdelRahim, Layla (2015). Children's Literature, Domestication, and Social Foundation: Narratives of Civilization and Wilderness. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-66110-2.
- AbdelRahim, Layla (2013). Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education. Halifax: Fernwood. ISBN 978-1-552-66548-0.
- Booth, Stephen (2001). Primitivism an Illusion With No Future. Green Anarchist. ISBN 0-9521226-3-4.
- Diamond, Stanley (1974). In Search of the Primitive: A Critique of Civilization. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-0-87855-582-6.
- Ellul, Jacques (1964). The Technological Society. New York: Knopf. ISBN 9780394703909.
- Gagliano, Giuseppe (2010). Il ritorno alla Madre Terra. L'utopia verde tra ecologia radicale e ecoterrorismo [The return to Mother Earth. The green utopia between radical ecology and eco-terrorism] (in Italian). Editrice Uniservice. p. 229. ISBN 978-88-6178-595-3.
- Glendinning, Chellis (1994). My Name is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization. Shambhala. ISBN 0-87773-996-X.
- Humphrey, Matthew (2007). "Anarcho-primitivism and direct action politics". Ecological Politics And Democratic Theory: The Challenge to the Deliberative Ideal. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-31431-2.
- Jensen, Derrick (2000). A Language Older Than Words. New York: Context Books. ISBN 1-893956-03-2.
- Jensen, Derrick (2002). The Culture of Make Believe. New York: Context Books. ISBN 1-893956-28-8.
- Kaczynski, Theodore (1996) [1995]. The Unabomber Manifesto: Industrial Society and Its Future (3rd ed.). Berkeley: Jolly Roger Press. ISBN 0-9634205-2-6.
- Kaczynski, Theodore (2008). The Road to Revolution. Xenia Editions. p. 327. ISBN 978-2-88892-065-6.
- Mander, Jerry (1992). In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations. Sierra Club Books. ISBN 9780871565099.
- Perlman, Fredy (1983). Against His-Story, Against Leviathan!. Detroit: Black & Red Books. ISBN 9780934868259.
- Quinn, Daniel (1992). Ishmael. New York: Bantam. ISBN 0-553-07875-5.
- Taylor, Bron (2010). Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future. University of California Press. pp. 91 onwards. ISBN 978-0-520-26100-6.
- Tucker, Kevin (2009). For Wildness and Anarchy. Greensburg, Pa.: Black and Green Press.
- Watson, David (1998). Against the Megamachine. Brooklyn: Autonomedia. ISBN 1-57027-087-2.
- Zerzan, John (1999). Elements of refusal. Columbia, Mo.: C.A.L. Press/Paleo Editions. ISBN 9781890532017.
- James Luchte (2012). Of the Feral Children. London: Createspace. ISBN 978-1479294886.
Periodicals
- Green Anarchy: An Anti-Civilization Journal of Theory and Action
- Species Traitor: An Insurrectionary Anarcho-Primitivist Journal
- Disorderly Conduct (journal)
- Fifth Estate: An Anti-Authoritarian Magazine of Ideas and Action
Web
- Kaczynski, Ted (1999). "Ship of Fools". OFF! Magazine (student zine at SUNY Binghamton). Binghamton, N.Y. Archived from the original on 31 December 2005.
- Kosman, Mark. "Marx, Engels, Luxemburg and the Return to Primitive Communism". Archived from the original on 12 December 2013.
- Etherington, Ben (24 May 2018). "The New Primitives". Los Angeles Review of Books.
External links
