‘Running on Emptiness – The Pathology of Civilisation’, John Zerzan (2002) – BIFM No.23

Ramblinactivist’s Videos, 2022/42, 28th December 2022.

All religions have problems with ‘unbelievers’, but that response is insignificant compared to their visceral hatred of ‘apostates’. This is why mainstream media and liberal commentators react so strongly against anarcho-primitivism and neoluddism.

Progress is an ‘uncontested good’: Theoretically, that means scientific and technological progress is assumed to be a positive irrespective of any evidence to the contrary; practically, though, it means the moment technological or scientific progress is questioned it will often illicit silence, or ridicule, or in the worst case, abuse. Questioning ‘progress’ picks at an unhealed sore – our severance from nature – which all those enmeshed in industrial society must endure.

For over forty years, one person who has consistently picked at the contradictions between the purpose and the reality of human progress is John Zerzan. Published twenty years ago, his collection of essays and interviews, ‘Running on Emptiness’, is a milestone not only in his examination of the folly of technological progress, but also his promotion of anarcho-primitivism as the lens through which to view that idea.

For the referenced text and an audio podcast of this post, goto:
http://www.fraw.org.uk/blog/reviews/0...
{NOTE: The web page for this blog links to a FREE copy of the book!}

You can find more of these reviews in ‘A Book in Five Minutes’ here:
http://www.fraw.org.uk/blog/reviews/i...

Finally, it would really help to promote this work if you could follow, subscribe, or like my social media presence – which can be accessed from the link above. In today’s digital analytics popularity contest, all that button-pressing means something in this messed-up world.

Chapters:
00:00 Opening titles.
00:30 Book review.
06:20 After-thoughts.
15:02 Closing credits.

#johnzerzan #anarchoprimitivism #deepecology #anarchism #primitivism #neoluddite #climatecrisis #collapse