Criticism
In his essay "Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm", Murray Bookchin directed criticism from an anarchist point of view at Zerzan's anti-civilisational and anti-technological perspective. Bob Black's Anarchy After Leftism is a known book within primitivist circles, written as a rebuttal to Bookchin. Another notable anarchist work directed at Bookchin's perspective is David Watson's Beyond Bookchin.
Aside from Murray Bookchin, several other anarchist critiques of Zerzan's primitivist philosophies exist. The pamphlet, "Anarchism vs. Primitivism" by Brian Oliver Sheppard criticizes many aspects of the primitivist philosophy. Some authors, such as Andrew Flood, have argued that destroying civilization would lead to the death of a significant majority of the population. John Zerzan contends the collapse of civilization as having a gradual decrease on population size, with the possibility of people having the need to seek means of sustainability more close to nature. Additionally, several related thinkers, such as Derrick Jensen, argue that civilization is in fact unsustainable, and as such the decline of civilization and the accompanying loss of population is unavoidable, rather than a matter of choice and debate.
Theodore J. Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, is a harsh critic of the current Anarcho-Primitivist mainstream and Zerzan in particular for what he sees as a foolish and invalid projection of leftist values such as gender equality, pacifism and leisure time onto the primitive way of life. Kaczynski holds that the values of gender equality, pacifism, leisure time etc. while still admirable, are exactly the values of techno-industrial civilization and its promised techno-utopia. Second, he holds that having such an interpretation is counter-productive to the ultimate anti-civilization/anti-tech goal as it attracts "leftist types" who are by nature uncommitted and act to dilute the movement. Kaczynski insists that the core values of freedom, autonomy, dignity, and human fulfillment must be emphasized above all others.
Read more about this topic: John Zerzan
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