John Zerzan: On Modernity & the Technosphere

See the full video: http://essentialdissent.blogspot.com/search/label/John%20Zerzan

John Zerzan spoke at Binghamton University on April 2, 2008.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• john
• zerzan
• technology
• primitivism
• green
• anarchy
• civilization
• anarchism

[dnHooligan]

i got a lot of respect for this guy.

[breakitupquick]

zerzan is great

[nikkinomad]

@silbitnuoc I think the part of the analysis that you seem to be missing is the fact that if this society carrys on as it is collapse is inevitable if it hasnt already begun. Also your looking at it from the perspective of the dominant culture that claims that uncivilised cultures are less than ours. Are you aware that when America was colonised many a european defected to join the natives? No natives voluntarily took on the colonisers way of life.

[syl0116]

i love to hear him speak!

[silbitnuoc]

@WSWarthog It sounds exactly like what Zerzan and anarcho-primatives want, from what I read. All sounds to me like the early x-tians who were so down on the human race they couldn't wait to die. But that is a matter of free choice. The only problem I have with anarcho-primatives is their desire to impose it on all of us who don't want it. That is also the foundations of the 'system' they preach against.

[WSWarthog]

@silbitnuoc

I believe that is an overly pessimistic and simplistic view of the situation. The human race doesn't need to be exterminated, we just have to ensure that once the system is destroyed the human race wouldn't be capable of re-industrializing (which already seems clear because most if not almost all of the easily accesible natural resources necessary for industrialization have already been burned through).

[silbitnuoc]

@WSWarthog The only way to do that is exterminating the human race. If your that down on people that is the only solution; however, I am certain you would not wish to apply that logic to yourself?

[WSWarthog]

@WSWarthog

...adapted to the needs of the system. We have a bunch of passions, desires, needs and motivations which threatens the harmonious functioning of the system and thus these need to be destroyed for the system's sake. Clearly then the system does not work in the interest of the people, but vice versa.

[WSWarthog]

@silbitnuoc

Why does it differ greatly from all other species? Most of us don't question the system of life we live in, we are simply born into it and accept it out of complacency. We may bicker over the details but the foundations are treated as sacred, questioning it is taboo. This isn't "intelligence", it is the exact opposite.

Furthermore, "developing people with strong emotional intelligence"/teaching people interpersonal skills is simply a veiled way of saying that people need to be..

[silbitnuoc]

@WSWarthog The natural mode of life for humans greatly differs from all other species. Man has enough intelligence to recognize his errors and correct them. right now, that seems impossible, but many people are fighting for the enviroment and more are joining all the time. I am certainly for limiting certain things commercial and techno, but we need to develop people with strong emotional intelligence. Our society does not teach people morals or interpersonal skills.

[WSWarthog]

@silbitnuoc

Even if we "get past the need for money" people will still be slaves to the system, they will still be emotionally caged and divorced from their natural mode of life, and they will still pose a serious threat to the ecological well-being of life on earth.