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John Zerzan

John Zerzan Quotes

Philosopher

John Zerzan is an American philosopher known for his critical views on industrial society and modernity. His ideas are deeply influenced by anarchism and ecology, advocating for a return to nature and primitive lifestyles. Zerzan's works explore technology, consumerism, and human exploitation of nature.

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All People Anarchy Community Ifs Technological Thinking Wholeness Able Aboriginal Balance

Famous John Zerzan 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 .”

Ifs Should Long States Able Natural Balance Roots Anarchy Catastrophe Anarchism Deep Roots Overtaking

Author:John Zerzan

“The pleasure of authenticity exists only against the grain of society.”

Pleasure Authenticity Grain

Book:Future Primitive Revisited

Source: Future Primitive Revisited

“We live in an era with no real sense of community or connection to nature.”

Real Community Connections Eras

Author:John Zerzan

“There's a hollowness to civilized life. It doesn't appeal to people, and some people react with extreme violence.”

People Violence Extremes Appeals Civilized Hollowness

Author:John Zerzan

“The more the society becomes a technological society, the less it has to hold itself together.”

Together Technological

Author:John Zerzan

“I don't think it could be a coincidence that the more technological a society is, the less it connects people.”

People Thinking Technological Coincidence

Author:John Zerzan

“If you have a problem in mass society, you call the cops. The experts. You no longer have any operative connection with yourself or others, or with a functioning community.”

Ifs Problem Community Mass Connections Experts Cop

Author:John Zerzan

“Mass society has displaced real community, where people function together and account for their own lives.”

People Real Together Community Mass Accounts Function

Author:John Zerzan

“"The people" aren't running anything. That's why technology has replaced politics as the source of ideology. The ideological claims are hollow and absurd, and nobody believes them anymore.”

People Believe Running Technology Source Claims Absurd Ideology Replaced Hollow Ideological

Author:John Zerzan

“Republicans don't want to shrink government. They want more and more military, more and more surveillance. They'd like to have the government banning gay marriage and so forth.”

Want Government Military Republican Gay Shrinks Gay Marriage Surveillance

Author:John Zerzan

“I think pushing the ideas is important. I wouldn't say it's more important than action. You can't really separate the two.”

Thinking Two Important Ideas Action Pushing

Author:John Zerzan

“I do what I do and hope that it might connect with people who are thinking along the same lines.”

People Thinking Might Lines

Author:John Zerzan

“The largely hidden key to the symbolic world is time; indeed it is at the origin of human symbolic activity. Time thus occasions the first alienation, the route away from aboriginal richness and wholeness.”

World Firsts Humans Keys Activity Occasions Wholeness Routes Alienation Richness Symbolic Aboriginal

Book:Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilisation

Source: Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilisation

“If we once, and for so long, lived in balance with nature and each other, we should be able to do so again.”

Ifs Should Long Able Nature Environment Balance Natural Environment Overtaking

Author:John Zerzan

“Everyone can feel the nothingness, the void, just beneath the surface of everyday routines and securities.”

Feels Security Everyday Surface Anarchy Void Nothingness Beneath The Surface Everyday Routine

Author:John Zerzan

“We can either passively continue on the road to utter domestication and destruction or turn in the direction of joyful upheaval, passionate and feral embrace of wildness and life that aims at dancing on the ruins of clocks, computers and that failure of imagination and will called work. Can we justify our lives by anything less than such a politics of rage and dreams?”

Source: Future Primitive Revisited

“Culture has lead us to betray our own aboriginal spirit and wholeness, into an ever-worsening realm of synthetic, isolating, impoverishing estrangement. Which is not to say that there are no more everyday pleasures, without which we would loose our humanness. But as our plight deepens, we glimpse how much must be erased for our redemption.”

Spirit Culture Pleasure Everyday Redemption Realms Betray Wholeness Glimpse Plight Aboriginal Humanness Synthetic Estrangement

Author:John Zerzan

“We have the freedom to choose between brand A, brand B, and brand C. That´s about it for freedom.”

Brands Freedom To Choose

Author:John Zerzan

“The liberty that remains to us is essentially the freedom to choose among brands A, B, and C.”

Liberty Remains Brands Freedom To Choose

Book:Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilisation

Source: Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilisation

“A great deal of anthropological/ethnological literature describes indigenous peoples who live in oneness with the natural world and one another. Survival itself necessitates a borderlessness between inner and outer worlds. At times we still feel a return to that unified state. T.S. Eliot’s designation of our return is ‘through the unknown remembered gate.'”

World Feels Stills States Literature Natural Deals Return Survival Oneness Remembered Gates Indigenous Natural World Unified Indigenous People Outer Worlds Eliot Designation

Author:John Zerzan

“We are lost, but other animals point to the right road. They are the right road.”

Lost Animal Right Road

Book:Why Hope?: The Stand Against Civilization

Source: Why Hope?: The Stand Against Civilization

“It is our fall from a simplicity and fullness of life directly experienced, from the sensuous moment of knowing, which leaves a gap that the symbolic can never bridge.”

Moments Fall Knowing Simplicity Bridges Gaps Fullness Symbolic Sensuous Fullness Of Life

Book:Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilisation

Source: Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilisation

“We don't need more stupid ideas.”

Needs Ideas Stupid Stupid Ideas

Author:John Zerzan

“Never before have people been so infantalized, made so dependant 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.”

Source: Future primitive: and other essays

About the Author

Born: 1943
Known for: Philosopher
Quotes: 24

Related Topics

People Anarchy Community Ifs Technological Thinking Wholeness Able Aboriginal Balance

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of CivilisationRelated source material

Future Primitive RevisitedRelated source material

Future primitive: and other essaysRelated source material

Why Hope?: The Stand Against CivilizationRelated source material

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