Civilisation, Primitivism and anarchism - Social Struggles

14 Pages·2005·0.74 MB·English

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Civilisation, Primitivism
and anarchism
Over the last decade a generalized
critique of civilization has been made
by a number of authors. Some of these
have chosen to identify as anarchists
although the more general self-iden-
tification is primitivist. Their overall
argument is that ‘civilisation’ itself is
the problem that results in our failure
to live rewarding lives. The struggle
for change is thus a struggle against
civilization and for an earth where
technology has been eliminated.
Facing this challenge anarchists need
to look to see if primitivism offers
any sort of realistic alternative to the
&
world as it is.
Is primitivism realistic:
an anarchist reply to John Zerzan and others
The article ‘Civilisation, Primitivism and Anarchism’
sketched out the glaring contradictions in primitivism
and where it clashed with anarchism. The article has
circulated on and off-line over the year and sparked nu-
merous discussions. A number of primitivists, including
John Zerzan, have replied directly to it, and others have
published what appear to be indirect replies. Here I want
to answer the direct replies and, in doing so, expand the
critique of primitivism.
A PDF pamphlet from the Struggle site - http://struggle.ws - http://anarchism.ws
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Civilisation, Primitivism
and anarchism
Over the last decade a generalized critique of civilization has been made
by a number of authors, mostly based in the USA. Some of these have
chosen to identify as anarchists although the more general self-identifica-
tion is primitivist. There overall argument is that ‘civilisation’ itself is the
problem that results in our failure to live rewarding lives. The struggle for
they want to go forward. With that in
change is thus a struggle against civilization and for an earth where technol-
mind a reasonable summary of their
ogy has been eliminated. This is an interesting argument that has some mer-
position is that certain technologies
its as an intellectual exercise. But the problem is that some of its adherents
are acceptable up to the level of small
have used primitivism as a base from which to attack all other proposals for
village society sustained by hunting
changing society. Facing this challenge anarchists need to first look to see if
and gathering. The problems for
primitivism offers any sort of realistic alternative to the world as it is.
primitivists start with the develop-
Our starting point is that the expres- society can never be attained in prac-
ment of agriculture and mass soci-
sion ‘life is hard’ can always receive tice because their interests, being an-
ety.
the reply that ‘it is better than the al- tagonistic, can never be reconciled. To
ternative’. This provides a good gen- this objection I reply that if these inter-
Of course civilization is a rather gen-
eral test of all critiques of the world est have never as yet come to mutual
eral term, as is technology. Few of
‘as it is’, including anarchism. Which accord, it was because the State has
these primitivists have taken this ar-
is to ask if a better alternative is pos- sacrificed the interests of the majority
gument to its logical conclusion. One
sible? for the benefit of a privileged minority.
who has is John Zerzan who iden-
That is why this famous incompatibil-
tifies the root of the problem in the
Even if we can’t point to the ‘better ity, this conflict of personal interests
evolution of language and abstract
alternative’, critiques of the world ‘as with those of society, is nothing but a
thought. This is a logical end point
it is’ can have a certain intellectual fraud, a political lie, born of the theo-
for the primitivist rejection of mass
value. But after the disaster of the logical lie which invented the doctrine
society.
20th century when so-called alterna- of original sin in order to dishonor man
tives like Leninism created long last- and destroy his self-respect. .... We are
For the purposes of this article I’m
ing dictatorships that killed millions, convinced that all the wealth of man’s
taking as a starting point that the
the question ‘is your alternative any intellectual, moral, and material devel-
form of future society that primi-
better then what exists?’ has to be put opment, as well as his apparent inde-
tivists argue for would be broadly
to anyone advocating change. pendence, is the product of his life in
similar in technological terms to that
society. Outside society, not only would
which existed around 12,000 years
The primitivist critique of anarchism he not be a free man, he would not even
ago on earth, at the dawn of the ag-
is based around the claim to have dis- become genuinely human, a being con-
ricultural revolution. By this I do not
covered a contradiction between lib- scious of himself, the only being who
claim that they want to ‘go back’,
erty and mass society. In other words thinks and speaks. Only the combina-
something that is in any case impos-
they see it as impossible for any soci- tion of intelligence and collective labor
sible. But rather that if you seek to
ety that involves groups much larger was able to force man out of that savage
go forward by getting rid of all the
than a village to be a free society. If and brutish state which constituted his
technology of the agricultural revo-
this was true it would make the an- original nature, or rather the starting
lution and beyond what results will
archist proposal of a world of ‘free point for his further development. We
look quite like pre-agricultural socie-
federations of towns, cities and coun- are profoundly convinced that the en-
ties of 10,000 BC. As this is the only
tryside’ impossible. Such federations tire life of men - their interests, tenden-
example we have of such a society in
and population centers are obviously cies, needs, illusions, even stupidities,
operation it seems reasonable to use
a form of mass society/civilisation. as well as every bit of violence, injus-
it to evaluate the primitivist claims.
tice, and seemingly voluntary activity
However the anarchist movement has - merely represent the result of inevita-
A question of numbers
been answering this very so-called ble societal forces. People cannot reject
Hunter-gatherers live off the food
contradiction since its origins. Back the idea of mutual independence, nor
they can hunt or gather, hence the
in the 19th century liberal defenders can they deny the reciprocal influence
name. Animals can be hunted or
of the state pointed to such a contra- and uniformity exhibiting the manifes-
trapped while fruits, nuts, greens
diction in order to justify the need for tations of external nature.”
and roots are gathered. Before about
one set of men to rule over another.
12,000 years ago every human on
Michael Bakunin answered this in What level of technology
the planet lived as a hunter-gatherer.
1871 in his essay on ‘The Paris Com- Most primitivists evade the ques-
Today only a tiny number of people
mune and the Idea of the State’[1]. tion of what level of technology they
do, in isolated and marginal regions
wish to return to by hiding behind the
of the planet including deserts, ar-
“It is said that the harmony and uni- claim that they are not arguing for a
tic tundra and jungle. Some of these
versal solidarity of individuals with return to anything, on the contrary
groups like the Acre have only had
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contact with the rest of the planet turing the solar energy that falls on it. countryside would consist mostly of
in recent decades(2), others like the But with the lettuce a huge percentage mature oak forest with some hazel
Inuit(3) have had contact for long of the captured energy goes into food scrub and bogs. Go into an oak for-
periods of time and so have adopted (around 75%). With pine tree none est and see how much food you can
technologies beyond those developed of the energy produces food we can gather - if you know your stuff there
locally. These latter groups are very eat. Compare the amount of food to is some. Acorns, fruit on brambles in
much part of the global civilization be found in a nearby woodland with clearings, some wild garlic, strawber-
and have contributed to the develop- the amount you can grow in a couple ries, edible fungi, wild honey, and the
ment of new technologies in this civi- of square meters of garden cultivated meat from animals like deer, squir-
lization. in even an organic low energy fash- rel, wild goat and pigeon that can be
ion and you’ll see why agriculture is hunted. But this is many, many, many
In marginal ecosystems hunter-gath- a must have for the population of the fewer calories then the same area cul-
ering often represents the only feasi- planet. An acre of organically grown tivated as wheat or potatoes would
ble way of producing food. The desert potato can yield 15,000 lbs of food(5). yield. There is simply not enough
is too dry for sustained agriculture A a square that is 70 yards wide and land in Ireland to support 5 million,
and the arctic too cold. The only other 70 yards long measures just over an the current population of the island,
possibility is pastoralism, the reliance acre. as hunter gatherers.
on semi-domesticated animals as a
food source. For instance in the Scan- The estimated population of human Typically hunter gathers live at a pop-
dinavian arctic the Sami(4) control the on the earth before the advent of ag- ulation density of 1 per 10 square km.
movement of huge reindeer herds to riculture (10,000 BC) varies with some (Ireland’s present population den-
provide a regular food source. estimates as low as 250,000 (6) Other sity is around 500 per 10 square km
estimates for the pre-agricultural or 500 times this). By extending this
Hunter-gatherers survive on the food hunter gather population are more standard calculation from elsewhere
they hunt and gather. This requires generous, in the range of 6 to 10 mil- on the planet the number that could
very low population densities as pop- lion.(7). The earth’s current popula- be supported in Ireland would be less
ulation growth is limited by the need tion is nearing 6,000 million. then 70,000. Probably a lot less as only
to avoid over hunting. Too much gath- 20% of Ireland is arable land. Blanket
ering of food plants can also serve to This 6,000 million are almost all sup- bog or Burren karst provide little in
reduce the number of plants that are ported by agriculture. They could not the way of food useful for humans. In
available in the future. This is the core be supported by hunter gathering, winter there would be very little food
problem with the primitivist idea that indeed it is suggested that even the to be gathered (perhaps small caches
the whole planet could live as hunter- 10 million hunter gathers who may of nuts hidden by squirrels and some
gatherers: there is not nearly enough have existed before agriculture may wild honey) and that even 70,000 peo-
food produced in natural ecosystems have been a non sustainable number. ple living off hunting would eradi-
for even a fraction of the current pop- Evidence for this can be seen in the cate the large mammals (deer, wild
ulation of the world to do so. Pleistocene overkill(8), a period from goat) very quickly. The coastal areas
12,000 to 10,000 BC in which 200 gen- and larger rivers and lakes would be
It should be obvious that the amount era of large mammals went extinct. In the main source of hunting and some
of calories available to humans as the Americas in this period over 80% gathering in the form of shellfish and
food in an acre of oak forest will be a of the population of large mammals edible seaweed.
lot lower then the amount of calories became extinct.(9) That this was due
available to humans in an acre of corn. to over hunting is one controversial But being generous and assuming
Agriculture provides far, far more use- hypothesis. If correct than the advent that somehow Ireland could sustain
ful calories per acre than hunter gath- of agriculture (and civilisation) may 70,000 hunter gatherers we discover
ering in the same acre would. That is even have then due to the absence of we need to ‘reduce’ the population by
because we have spent 12,000 years large game which forced hunter gath- some 4,930,000. Or 98.6%. The actual
selecting plants and improving agri- ers to ‘settle down’ and find other archaeological estimates for the popu-
cultural techniques so that per acre ways of obtaining food. lation of Ireland before the arrival of
we cram in lots of productive plants agriculture is around 7,000 people.
that put their energy into producing Certainly in recorded history the same
plant parts that are food for us rath- over hunting has been observed with The idea that a certain amount of land
er then plant parts that are not food the arrival of man on isolated Polyne- can support a certain amount of peo-
for us. Compare any cultivated grain sian islands. Over hunting caused the ple according to how it is (or in this
with its wild relative and you will see extinction of the Dodo in Mauretania case is not) cultivated is referred to as
an illustration of this, the cultivated and the Moa in New Zealand not to its ‘carrying capacity’. This can be es-
form will have much bigger grains mention many less famous species. timated for the earth as a whole. One
and a much larger proportion of grain modern calculation for hunter gathers
to stalk and foliage. We have chosen Living in the bog in winter actually give you 100 million as the
plants that produce a high ratio of ed- Another way of looking at the fact maximum figure but just how much
ible biomass. that primitivism cannot support all of of a maximum this is becomes clear
the people of the planet is more anec- when you realize that using similar
In other words a pine tree may be as dotal and uses Ireland (where I live) methods gives 30 billion as the maxi-
good or better then a lettuce at cap- as an example. Left to itself the Irish mum farming figure.(10) That would
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be six times the world’s current popu- ilized world. One basic write-off is that a clude that ‘primitivism’ offers noth-
lation! lot of people would die upon civil collapse. ing to fight for. A very few, like the
While being a hard thing to argue to a survivalists confronted by the threat
But let’s take this figure of 100 million moralistic person, we shouldn’t pretend of nuclear war in the 1980’s, might
as the maximum rather then the his- this wouldn’t be the case”(14) conclude that all this is inevitable and
torical maximum of 10 million. This is start planning how their loved ones
generous estimate, well above that of More recently Derrick Jensen in an in- will survive when others die. But this
those primitivists who have dared to terview from Issue #6 of The ‘A’ Word later group has moved far, far beyond
address this issue. For instance Miss Magazine[15] said civilization “needs any understanding of anarchism as I
Ann Thropy writing in the US Earth to be actively fought against, but I don’t understand it. So the ‘anarcho’ prefix
First! magazine estimated, “Ecotopia think that we can bring it down. What we such primitivists try to claim has to be
would be a planet with about 50 million can do is assist the natural world to bring rejected.
people who are hunting and gathering for it down..... I want civilization brought
subsistence.” (11) down and I want it brought down now.” Most primitivists run away from the
We have seen above what the conse- requirement for mass death in one
The earth’s population today is quences of ‘bringing down’ civiliza- of two ways. The more cuddly ones
around 6000 million. A return to a tion are. decide that primitivism is not a pro-
‘primitive’ earth therefore requires gram for a different way of running
that some 5900 million people disap- In short there is no shortage of primi- the world. Rather it exists as a critique
pear. Something has to happen to 98% tivists who recognize that the primi- of civilization and not an alternative
of the world’s population in order for tive world they desire would require to it. This is fair enough and there
the 100 million survivors to is a value in re-examining
have even the slightest hope the basic assumptions of
of a sustainable primitive civilization . But in that case
utopia. primitivism is no substitute
for the anarchist struggle for
Dirty tricks? liberation, which involves
At this point some primitivist adopting technology to our
writers like John Moore cry needs rather then rejecting
foul, dismissing the sugges- it. The problem is that primi-
tion “that the population levels tivists like to attack the very
envisaged by anarcho-primitiv- methods of mass organiza-
ists would have to be achieved tion that are necessary for
by mass die-offs or nazi-style overthrowing capitalism.
death camps. These are just Reasonable enough if you
smear tactics. The commitment believe you have an alterna-
of anarcho-primitivists to the tive to anarchism but rather
abolition of all power relations, damaging if all you have is
including the State with all its an interesting critique!
administrative and military ap-
paratus, and any kind of party Other primitivists however
or organization, means that such take the Cassandra path,
orchestrated slaughter remains telling us they are merely
an impossibility as well as just prophets of an inevitable
plain horrendous.”(12) doom. They don’t desire the
death of 5,900 million they
The problem for John is that just point out it cannot be
these ‘smear tactics’ are based not “mass die-offs”. I’ve not come across prevented. This is worth examing in
only on the logical requirements of a any who advocate “nazi-style death some detail precisely because it is so
primitivist world but are also explic- camps” but perhaps John just threw disempowering. What after all is the
itly acknowledged by other primitiv- this in to muddy the water. Primi- use of fighting for a fair society today
ists. Miss Ann Thropy’s 50 million has tivists like John Moore can therefore if tomorrow or the day after 98% of
already been quoted. Another primi- refuse to confront this question of die us are going to die and everything we
tivist FAQ claims “Drastic population off by upping the emotional ante and have built crumble to dust?
reductions are going to happen whether by accusing those who point the need
we do it voluntarily or not. It would be for die-off out as carrying out ‘smear Are we all doomed?
better, for obvious reasons to do all this tactics’. It’s up to him to either explain Primitivists are not the only ones
gradually and voluntarily, but if we don’t how 6 billion can be fed or to admit to use the rhetoric of catastrophe to
the human population is going to be cut that primitivism is no more then an panic people into accepting their po-
anyway.”(13) intellectual mind game. litical proposals. Reformists such as
George Monbiot, use similar ‘we are
The Coalition Against Civilization My expectation is that just about all doomed’ arguments to try and
write “We need to be realistic about what everyone when confronted with this stampede people into support for re-
would happen were we to enter a post-civ- requirement of mass death will con- formism and world government. In
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the last decades acceptance that the become more expensive over the dec- Those who fell victim to the mass die
world is somehow doomed has be- ades the process to develop substitutes off would not include Rubert Mur-
come part of mainstream culture, first for it is already underway. Denmark doch, Bill Gates or George Bush be-
as the cold war and then as looming for instance intends to produce 50% cause these people have the money
environmental disaster. George Bush of its energy needs from wind farms and power to monopolise remaining
and Tony Blair created a panic over by 2030 and Danish companies are al- supplies for themselves.
Weapons of Mass Destruction to give ready making vast amounts of money
cover to their invasion of Iraq. The because they are the leading produc- Instead the first to die in huge number
need to examine and dismantle such ers of wind turbines. The switch over would be the population of the poorer
panics is clear. from oil is likely to provide an oppor- mega cities on the planet. Cairo and
tunity to make profits for capitalism Alexandria in Egypt have a popula-
The most convincing form the ‘end of rather then representing some form of tion of around 20 million between
civilisation’ panic takes is the idea of a final crisis. them. Egypt is dependent both on
looming resource crisis that will make food imports and on the very inten-
life as we know it impossible. And There may well be an energy crisis as sive agriculture of the Nile valley and
the best resource to focus on for those oil starts to rise in price and alterna- the oasis. Except for the tiny wealthy
who wish to make this argument is tive technologies are not yet capable elite those 20 million urban dwellers
oil. Everything we produce, including of filling the 40% of energy generation would have nowhere to go and there
food, is dependant on massive energy filled by oil. This will cause oil and is no more land to be worked. Current
inputs and 40% of the worlds energy therefore energy prices to soar but high yields are in part dependent on
use is generated from oil. this will be a crisis for the poor of the high inputs of cheap energy.
world and not for the wealthy some
The primitivist version of this argu- of whom will even profit from it. A se- The mass deaths of millions of people
ment goes something like this, ‘every- vere energy crisis could trigger a glo- is not something that destroys capi-
one knows that in X number of year bal economic downturn but again it talism. Indeed at periods of history
the oil will run out, this will mean civ- is the world’s workers that suffer the it has been seen as quite natural and
ilization will grind to a halt, and this most in such times. There is a good even desirable for the modernization
will mean lots of people will die. So argument that the world’s elite are al- of capital. The potato famine of the
we might as well embrace the inevi- ready preparing for such a situation, 1840’s that reduced the population of
table’. The oil running out argument many of the recent US wars make Ireland by 30% was seen as desirable
is the primitivist equivalent of the or- sense in terms of securing future oil by many advocates of free trade.(16)
thodox Marxist ‘final economic crisis supplies for US corporations. So was the 1943/4 famine in British
that results in the overthrow of capi- ruled Bengal in which four million
talism’. And, just like the orthodox Capitalism is quite capable of surviv- died(17). For the capitalist class such
Marxists, primitivists always argue ing very destructive crisis. World War mass deaths, particularly in colonies
this final crisis is always just around 2 saw many of the major cities of Eu- afford opportunities to restructure the
the corner. rope destroyed and most of the indus- economy in ways that would other-
try of central Europe flattened. (By wise be resisted.
When looked at in any detail this ar- bombers, by war, by retreating Ger-
gument evaporates and it becomes mans and then torn up and shipped The real result of an ‘end of energy’
clear that neither capitalism nor civi- east by advancing Russians). Millions crisis would see our rulers stock pil-
lization face a final crisis because of of European workers died as a result ing what energy sources remained
the oil running out. This is not be- both in the war years and in the years and using them to power the helicop-
cause oil supplies are inexhaustible, that followed. But capitalism not only ter gunships that would be used to
indeed we may be reaching the peak survived, it flourished as starvation control those of us fortunate enough
of oil production today in 1994. But allowed wages to be driven down and to be selected to toil for them in the
far from being the end of capitalism profits soared. biofuel fields. The unlucky majority
or civilization this is an opportunity would just be kept where they are and
for profit and restructuring. Capital- What if? allowed to die off. More of the ‘Ma-
ism, however reluctantly, is gearing However it is worth doing a little trix’ then utopia in other words.
up to make profits out of developing mental exercise on this idea of the oil
alternative energy sources on the one running out. If indeed there was no al- The other point to be made here is that
hand and on the other of accessing ternative what might happen? Would destruction can serve to regenerate
plentiful but more destructive to ex- a primitivist utopia emerge even at capitalism. Like it or not large scale
tract fossil fuel supplies. The second the bitter price of 5,900 million people destruction allows some capitalist to
path of course makes global warm- dying? make a lot of money. Think of the Iraq
ing and other forms of pollution a lot war. The destruction of the Iraqi in-
worse but that’s not likely to stop the No. The primitivists seem to forget frastructure may be a disaster for the
global capitalist class. that we live in a class society. The people of Iraq buts it’s a profit making
population of the earth is divided into bonanza for Halliburton and co[18].
It is not just primitivists who have be- a few people with vast resources and Not coincidentally the Iraq war, is
come mesmerized by the oil crisis so I power and the rest of us. It is not a helping the US A, where the largest
intend to deal with this in a separate case of equal access to resources, rath- corporations are based, gain control
essay. But in summary, while oil will er of quite incredible unequal access. of the parts of the planet where much
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future and current oil production knowledging this and he retreats to their methods of fumigation will be
takes place. the position of seeing language and completely effective.”(20)
abstract thought as the problem. He is
We can extend our intellectual exer- both right and ludicrous at the same This is where you end up when you
cise still further. Let us pretend that time. His vision of utopia requires celebrate spirituality over rationality.
some anarchists are magically trans- not only the death of the mass of the When the hope of ‘running with deer’
ported from the Earth to some Earth worlds population but would require overcomes the need to deal with the
like planet elsewhere. And we are the genetically engineered lobotomy problem of making a revolution on a
dumped there without any technolo- of those who survive and their off planet of 6 billion people. The ideas
gy at all. The few primitivists amongst spring! Not of course something he above have only reactionary conclu-
us might head off to run with the deer advocates but a logical end point of sions. Their logic is elitist and hierar-
but a fair percentage would sit down his argument. chical , little more than a semi-secular
and set about trying to create an an- version of gods chosen people laying
archist civilisation. Many of the skills Why argue against it? waste to the unbelievers. It certainly
we could bring might not be that use- So why spend so much space de- has nothing in common with anar-
ful (programming without computers molishing such a fragile ideology as chism.
is of little use) but between us we’d primitivism. One reason is the embar-
have a good basic knowledge of ag- rassing connection with anarchism We need more not less technology
riculture, engineering, hydraulics and some primitivists seek to claim. More Which brings us back to the start.
physics. Next time the primitivists importantly primitivism both by im- Civilisation comes with many, many
wandered through the area we settled plication and often in its calls wants problems but it is better than the alter-
they’d find a landscape of farms and its followers to reject rationalism for native. The challenge for anarchists is
dams. mysticism and oneness with nature. in transforming civilization to a form
The are not the first irrational ecologi- that is without hierarchy, or imbal-
We’d at least have wheeled carts and cal movement to do so, a good third ances of power or wealth. This is not a
possibly draft animals if any of the of the German Nazi party came from new challenge, it has always been the
large game were suitable for domesti- forest worshipping blood and soil challenge of anarchism as shown by
cation. We’d send out parties looking movements that sprang up in Germa- the lengthy Bakunin quote at the start
for obvious sources of coal and iron ny in the aftermath of world war one. of this essay.
and if we found these we’d mine and
transport them. If not we’d be felling This is not an empty danger. Within To do this we need modern technol-
a lot of lumber to turn into charcoal primitivism a self-proclaimed irra- ogy to clean our water, pump away
to extract whatever iron or copper we tional wing has developed that if not and process our waste and inoculate
could from what could be found. The yet advocating “nazi-style death camps” or cure people of the diseases of high
furnace and the smelter would also has openly celebrated the deaths and population density. With only 10 mil-
be found on that landscape. We have murder of large numbers of people as lion people on the earth you can shit in
some medical knowledge, most im- a first step. the woods providing you keep mov-
portantly an understanding of germs ing on. With 6 billion those who shit
and medical hygiene so we’d have In December 1997 the US publica- in the woods are shitting in the wa-
both basic water purification and tion Earth First wrote that “the AIDS ter they and those around them will
sewage removal systems. epidemic, rather than being a scourge, is have to drink. According to the UN
a welcome development in the inevitable “each year, more than 2.2 million people
We’d understand the importance of reduction of human population.”(19) die from water and sanitation related dis-
knowledge so we’d have an educa- Around the same period in Britain eases, many of them children”. Close to
tion system for our children and at Steve Booth, one of the editors of a one billion urban dwellers have no
least the beginnings of a long-term magazine called ‘Green Anarchist ‘, access to sustainable sanitation. Data
store of knowledge (books). We could wrote that for “43 African cities .... shows that 83
probably find the ingredients for gun- percent of the population do not have toi-
powder, which are quite common, “The Oklahoma bombers had the right lets connected to sewers”(21).
which would give us the blasting idea. The pity was that they did not
technology need for large-scale min- blast any more government offices. The challenge then is not simply the
ing and construction. If there was any Even so, they did all they could and construction of a civilization that
marble nearby we could make con- now there are at least 200 government keeps everyone’s standards of living
crete, which is a much better building automatons that are no longer capable at the level they are now. The chal-
material then wood or mud. of oppression. lenge is raising just about everyone’s
standard of living but doing so in a
Technology did not come from the The Tokyo sarin cult had the right idea. manner that is reasonably sustain-
gods. It was not imposed on man by The pity was that in testing the gas able. Only the further development
a mysterious outside force. Rather it a year prior to the attack, they gave of technology coupled to a revolution
is something we developed and con- themselves away. They were not secre- that eliminates inequality across the
tinue to develop. Even if you could tive enough. They had the technology planet can deliver this.
turn the clock back it would just start to produce the gas but the method of
ticking again. John Zerzan seems to delivery was ineffective. One day the It is unfortunate that some anarchists
be the only primitivists capable of ac- groups will be totally secretive and who live in the most developed, most
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wealthy and most technological na- greatly increasing the production of also introduce a libertarian society.
tions of the world prefer to play with bicycles, motorbikes, trains, buses, And on the way we need to find ways
primitivism rather than getting down trucks and mini-buses. to halt and even reverse some of the
to thinking about how we can really worst of the environmental threats
change the world. The global trans- I’m neither a ‘transport expert’ nor capitalism is generating.
formation required will make all pre- a worker in the transport industry
vious revolutions fade into insignifi- so I can do no more then guess at Primitivism is a pipe dream - it offers
cance. what these changes might be. But we no way forwards in the struggle for a
should be aware that outside of the free society. Often its adherents end
The major problem is not simply that west the need for transport is often up undermining that struggle by at-
capitalism has been happy to leave a solved in far less individualistic ways. tacking the very things, like mass or-
huge proportion of the world’s popu- Only the wealthy can afford a car but ganization, that are a requirement to
lation in poverty. The problem is also the mass of the population can often win it. Those primitivists who are se-
that development has been aimed at move almost as quickly from one lo- rious about changing the world need
creating consumers for future prod- cation to another making use not only to re-examine what they are fighting
ucts rather then providing what peo- of bus and rail but also of systems for.
ple need. of long distance collective taxis and
mini-buses that run between towns Andrew Flood
Transport provides the simplest ex- whenever they are full. June 11 2004
ample. A variety of forms of mass
transport exist that can move huge This is the challenge for anarchism. Footnotes
numbers of people from place to place Not simply to overthrow the exist- All urls active in June 11 2004, some may no
at great speed. Yet in the last decade ing capitalist world order but also to longer be active
capitalism has concentrated on the see the birth of a new world. A world
1 http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anar-
form that uses the greatest resources that is at least capable of delivering chism/bakunin/paris.html
2 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/
per traveler both in terms of what the same access to goods, transport,
Column/0,5673,234225,00.html
goes into making it and what is re- healthcare and education as is acces- 3 http://www.heritage.nf.ca/aboriginal/inuit.
html
quired to keep it running. This is the sible to the ‘middle class’ in Scandina-
4 http://www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/
individual car. vian countries today. ~agraham/nost202/norwaysami.htm
5 http://www.gardensofeden.org/
04%20Crop%20Yield%20Verification.htm
Across large areas of the most devel- It is that new society that will decide 6 http://biology.queensu.ca/~bio111/
pdf%20files/lect9-human-demography-1.PDF
oped parts of the globe this is pretty what new technologies are needed
7 http://qrc.depaul.edu/lheneghan/ENV102/
much the only way to get around in an and how to adopt existing technolo- env102Lecture8.htm
8 http://geography.berkeley.edu:16080/Pro-
efficient manner. The car has created gies to the challenge of a new world.
gramCourses/CoursePagesFA2002/geog148/
the sprawling mega city of which Los It is quite likely that some technolo- Term%20Papers/Anita%20Lee/THEPLE~1.
html
Angeles is perhaps the most infamous gies, if not discarded, will be very
9 http://qrc.depaul.edu/lheneghan/ENV102/
example. There a city has been created much downgraded. It’s hard to be- env102Lecture8.htm
10 http://www.google.ie/search?q=cache:
whose urban layout makes individual lieve we would happily decide to
SC6WTwBCazUJ:library.thinkquest.org/
car ownership almost compulsory. build new nuclear power stations for C003763/index.php%3Fpage%3Dterraform03
+maximum+hunter+gather+population&hl=e
instance. GMOs would need to prove
n&ie=UTF-8
This form of transport is simply not a something beyond the possibility of (sorry for the long URL but the page is not
directly accessible)
solution for most of the world’s popu- GMO’s meaning greater profits and
11 “Miss Ann Thropy,” Earth First! Dec. 22,
lation. And it’s not simply that most monopolies for corporations, not least 1987, cited at http://www.processedworld.
com/Issues/issue22/primitive_thought.htm
people cannot afford a car at the mo- that the benefit was greater than the
12 http://www.eco-action.org/dt/primer.
ment. The resources consumed in the dangers. html A Primitivist Primer By John Moore
13 http///www.eco-action.org/spellbreaker/
construction of the 3 billion odd cars
faq.html
needed for every adult inhabitant of As long as capitalism exists it will 14 the Practical Anarcho-Primitivist: actual-
izing the implications of a critique -Coalition
the globe are simply not available. continue to wreak environmental
Against Civilization, online at http://www.
Nor are the resources (petrol) to run havoc as it chases profits. It will only coalitionagainstcivilization.org/speciestrai-
tor/pap.html
these 3 billion cars available. effectively respond to the energy crisis
15 Issue #6 of The ‘A’ Word Magazine, this
once that becomes profitable and be- interview online at http://www.infoshop.org/
inews/stories.php?story=04/02/11/5876278
So taking hold of existing technolo- cause there will be a lag of many years
16 http://struggle.ws/ws95/famine45.html
gies and developing new ones cannot before oil can be replaced this might 17 http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ock-
ham/stories/s19040.htm
simply mean carrying on capitalist mean worsening poverty and death
18 For a reasoned critique of collapism from a
production (or production methods) for many or the poorer people in the Green anarchist perspective see http://pub47.
ezboard.com/fanarchykkafrm1.showPrevMes
under a red and black flag. Just as a world. But we cannot fix these prob-
sage?topicID=372.topic
future anarchist society would seek lems by dreaming of some lost golden 19 Earth First!, Dec. 22, 1987, cited at http://
www.processedworld.com/Issues/issue22/
to abolish the boring monotonous age when the world’s population was
primitive_thought.htm
work of the assembly line so it would low enough to support hunter gather- 20 Green Anarchist, number 51, page 11, a
defense of these remarks was published in
need to radically change the nature of ing. We can only sort it out by build-
Number 52. The author Steve Booth was a GA
the products that are produced. At a ing the sort of mass movements that editor (and the treasurer) at the time
21 http://www.unhabitat.org/global_water.
simple level in terms of transport this can not only overthrow capitalism but
asp
would perhaps begin with greatly
reducing the production of cars and Comment on this essay at http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=1451
p8
Is primitivism realistic
- an anarchist reply to John Zerzan and others
Last year I published the article ‘Civilisation, Primitivism and Anarchism’*
to sketch out what I saw as the glaring contradictions in primitivism and
where it clashed with anarchism. Primitivism, I argued, was an absurdity
that could never happen without the ‘removal’ of the vast majority of the
world’s population. And far from being related to anarchism it was in con-
tradiction with the basic tenet of anarchism; the possibility of having a free
mass society without a state.
The article has circulated on and off-
line over the year and sparked nu- Far from being a refutation to the
merous discussions. A number of original essay this re-enforces the cen-
primitivists, including John Zerzan tral point of it. That there is no way
(1), have replied directly to it, and oth- the advocates of primitivism could
ers have published what appear to be take the idea seriously if they thought
indirect replies. Here I want to answer its consequences through. A lot of
the direct replies and, in doing so, ex- primitivism theory strikes me as the
pand the critique of primitivism. work of those who like playing with
ideas but really have no idea of how
wrong. It therefore implies we should
The original essay was also using these ideas could be implemented. As
return to pre-agricultural methods of
‘primitivism’ as a stalking horse to with Aragorn who even finds the idea
getting food, that is hunter-gather-
address what I see as one of the major of implementation of his own ideas
ing. But agriculture allows us to get
problems in anarchism as it appears “bizarre”. But this is also a problem in
vastly greater quantities of food from
in the ‘English speaking’ world. That the anarchist movement. All too often
a given area. Estimates can be made
is a large-scale failure to take itself se- plans are drawn up or slogans trotted
of how many people could live on the
riously. So-called ‘anarcho’-primitiv- out without asking if they are realis-
planet as hunter-gathers based on the
ism is the most obvious example. But tic. Can they actually achieve what
amount of food that would be avail-
sections of the actual anarchist move- they claim to be about? The only test
able to them. These estimates suggest
ment have also constructed a set of that appears to be used is whether
a maximum population of around 100
ideological positions that almost seem the plan is ‘pure’ enough. What sort
million.
designed to make successful mass of test is this for anything except per-
work impossible. Large sections of haps for a religious sect?
This is what is called an ‘Elephant in
the anarchist movement seem to have
the living room’ argument. The ques-
forgotten that the goal of anarchism The core issue
tion of what would happen to the oth-
is to change the world, not simply to Generally responses to the essay from
er 5,900 million people is so dominant
provide a critique of the left or be a primitivists were often a lot more con-
that it makes discussion of the vari-
minor thorn in the side of the state. structive then what I expected. I ex-
ous other claims made by primitivism
pected to get mostly abuse, and I did
seem a waste of time until the popu-
Is primitivism realistic? but a few did attempt to address the
lation question is answered. Yet the
This reply continues in the same vein, arguments. However there was no
only attempts at a response showed
on the surface it is about primitivism real attempt to address the core point
a rather touching faith in technology
but you don’t have to dig that deep of my original article. Which was that
and civilisation, quite a surprise (4).
to see that some of the criticisms can the ‘population question’ made a joke
This response can by summarised as
be applied in a more general sense. out of any claim by primitivism to
that such population reductions can
A good place to start in that context be anything beyond a critique of the
happen slowly over time because peo-
is with a poster called Aragorn who world. This is unsurprising - as far
ple can be convinced to have fewer or
posted on more than one of the sites as I can tell there is no answer to the
even no children.
that carried the original article. In very obvious problem that emerges
a comment on AnarchistNews.org when you compare the number of
There was no attempted explanation
Aragorn states that Flood “seems to fo- people living on the planet (6 billion
for how convincing the 6 billion peo-
cus his critique on what he calls the ques- plus) and the optimistic maximum of
ple of the earth to have no children
tion of whether primitivism provides ‘any 100 million (2% of this) that the planet
might go ahead. Programs that ad-
sort of realistic alternative’ which always might be able to support if civilisation
vocate lower numbers of children are
seems like a bizarre metric for an anarchist was abandoned for a return to a hunt-
hardly a new idea. They have already
to use as measurement” (2). This is the er-gather existence (3).
been implemented both nationally
statement that inspired the title of this
and globally without much success.
essay. Here we have someone who I’ll summarise my argument from
China’s infamous ‘One Child’ pro-
openly proclaims it to be “bizarre” to the previous essay. Primitivism gen-
gram includes a high degree of com-
even ask if primitivism provides a re- erally argues that the development
pulsion but has not even resulted in a
alistic alternative to capitalism. of agriculture was where it all went
population decrease. China’s popula-
p9
tion is forecast to grow by 100 to 250 population is hardly a given. It seems to be worse - like Derrick Jensen - wanted
million by 2025. An explanation of more an effect than a cause, for instance: to bring it on. As I pointed out in the
how primitivists hope to achieve by an effect of domestication ab origino original article, Jensen is on record
persuasion what others have already (Latin for ‘from the beginning/from as writing “I want civilization brought
failed to do by compulsion is needed the source’ (5)), if we are talking about down and I want it brought down now”
yet no such attempt to even sketch civilization. And so it seems to me likely (6). In fact since my article was pub-
this out exists. that the numbers might come down fairly lished he has taken this further with a
quickly were we to move away from do- call for concrete action “We need people
As if this was not difficult enough for mestication. I do not know anyone who to take out dams, and we need people to
primitivists the implications of other says this could happen overnight, Flood knock out electrical infrastructures” (7).
arguments they make turn an impos- to the contrary.(1)” So while Zerzan may be smart enough
sible task into an even more impos- to be evasive on this not all of his fol-
sible task. For primitivist arguments Well first off population is a given. I lowers are (8). And while Zerzan may
normally include the idea that civili- am not imagining that there are 6 bil- have forgotten Jensen he does know
sation is about to create a major crisis lion people on the earth - there are six him - at least he was interviewed by
that will either end, or come close to billion plus on the planet. We cannot him in 2000 (9) and the 10,000 word
ending life on the planet. Whether simply wish that there were 100 mil- interview that was published which
caused by peak oil, global warming lion. There are 6 billion and this is a would suggest they have at least spent
or another side effect of technology figure that is forecast to rise. Whatev- some hours in each others company.
we are told this crisis is at best a few er about the forces that drove the de-
decades away. velopment of agriculture 12,000 years Zerzan, like other primitivists, con-
ago (where there is a debate about tinues to evade the logic of his own
Even if primitivists could magically cause and effect) the reality today is position. It’s all very well to talk of a
convince the entire population of the that stopping the cultivation of all do- gradual population reduction but just
planet to have few or no children this mestic plants and animals would re- how does he think primitivists are
process could only reduce the popula- sult in the death by starvation of 5.9 going to achieve a population reduc-
tion over generations. But if a crisis billion people. So yes a move away tion from 6 billion to 0.1 billion “in a
is only decades away there is no time from domestication would indeed few decades”? What would be gradual
for this strategy. For even if 90% of the mean that “numbers might come down about this? This would require a ban
population was to be magically con- fairly quickly”: starvation only takes a on all but 2% of the earth’s population
vinced tomorrow it would still take few months. having any children at all!
decades for the population to reduce
to the 100 million or less that could be Zerzan is also misquoting me. I never The ball is really in Zerzan’s court; he
supported by hunter-gathering. And claimed that some primitivists said needs to demonstrate a mechanism
in the real world there is no mecha- civilisation had to go “overnight”. One for a non-compulsory and rapid re-
nism for magically convincing people can see why Zerzan needed to invent duction in population that would re-
of any argument – not least one that this particular red herring, like other quire the vast majority of the earth’s
requires them to ignore what many primitivists he believes that time is population to be happy to have no
people find to be a fundamental bio- running out. In an interview with children at all. He needs to explain
logical drive to have children. Some fellow primitivist academic Derrick how he can even explain this message
of the older primitivists I know even Jensen, Zerzan himself said “in a few to all of the people in the world - never
have children themselves. If they decades there won’t be much left to fight mind convince them of it. And Zerzan
can’t convince themselves then why for. Especially when you consider the ac- needs a ‘voluntary’ mechanism of en-
do they think they can convince eve- celeration of environmental degradation suring that those he fails to convince
ryone else? and personal dehumanization.” Again do not undermine this reduction, for
I’ll point out if we only have “a few instance religious or other minorities
The contradiction between these two decades” this is hardly the time span in who disagree with the primitivists
positions is so obvious that I can only which a ‘voluntary’ reduction of the and choose to have many children .
conclude that those primitivists who earth’s population by some 98% could And all this has to happen within his
have put forward this ‘convince eve- occur. In particular as the Earth’s own deadline of “a few decades”. With
ryone to have fewer babies’ position population is actually forecast to rise this sort of burden of proof it is easy
have only done so in order to shore to perhaps to as much as 10 billion in to see why primitivists are not so keen
up their faith. It is an argument in- that time. on demonstrating that they have a re-
vented to try and hide the elephant in alistic alternative.
the living room but really it only hides The evasive language Zerzan uses in
it from themselves. It is impossible his response to me is typical of the The nasty side
to see how they could expect anyone primitivist approach to the popula- Those not blinded by ideology look-
else to find it a convincing answer to tion question. And although he might ing at this burden of proof will con-
the population question. throw out the red herring that “I do not clude either that primitivism is of no
know anyone who says this could happen practical use or that those primitiv-
Zerzan’s reply overnight “ in the original essay I ac- ists who are rational and still hold
John Zerzan’s reply to my essay in- tually quoted some primitivists who to primitivism have some program
cluded a variation of this defence of either saw the collapse of civilisation they are not revealing. Quite clearly
primitivism. “It could also be noted that as a short term inevitability or who some of those who see themselves as
p10
primitivists do favour die offs or ad- development of agriculture that “The even a ‘primitive’ society that only
vocate policies that would make them debasing of life in all spheres, now pro- aimed to return to say, 1800 would
inevitable. Jensen’s call for people “to ceeding at a quickening pace, stems from still have to get rid of the majority of
take out dams ... to knock out electrical the dynamics of civilization itself. Domes- the earth’s population. Evasion aside,
infrastructures” would result in large tication of animals and plants, a process it is quite clear that from the primitiv-
numbers of deaths if any number of only 10,000 years old, has penetrated ist point of view it was the agricul-
people were to take him seriously. It’s every square inch of the planet. The result tural revolution and the changes that
just a toned down version of Steve is the elimination of individual and com- happened alongside this where things
Booth’s lauding of the Tokyo Sarin munity autonomy and health, as well as went bad.
attacks and Booth’s fantasy in Green the rampant, accelerating destruction of
Anarchist that “One day the groups will the natural world” (10) For understandable reasons (not
be totally secretive and their methods of wanting to deal with the population
fumigation will be completely effective.” This is relevant because a number of question) primitivists and their fel-
These sorts of murderous anti-hu- people who replied objected to me low travellers tend to avoid any date
man sentiments are not only tolerated choosing the development of agricul- even as general as the agricultural
within primitivism but their authors ture as the point at which civilisation revolution. But it’s the one I choose to
are promoted - you’ll find their es- can be said to have developed (11). work with and this appears to be fair
says uncritically reproduced all over But as the original essay explained, enough with those primitivists more
the web and in various print publica- “Of course civilization is a rather general willingly to openly argue their posi-
tions. term .. For the purposes of this article I’m tion. Agriculture also seems a very
taking as a starting point that the form logical starting point because agri-
My previous essay produced howls of of future society that primitivists argue culture is what makes a mass society
outrage because I pointed out the ex- for would be broadly similar in techno- possible. Hunter-gathers can’t gather
istence of such writings. But the prob- logical terms to that which existed around in large groups for a long period be-
lem here is not that I point out their 12,000 years ago on earth, at the dawn cause they exhaust local food sources.
existence, it is that the primitivists ig- of the agricultural revolution”. I could Nor do small groups of hunter-gath-
nore them until it is pointed out. ers generally have the surplus food
Yet they work with these people, required to develop a high degree
they publish these people and of specialisation of labour, and any
then they shuffle around with specialisation is a bad thing accord-
embarrassment and cry unfair ing to most primitivists.
when what they say is pointed
out. And it is not just the primi- I also think its hard to construct a
tivists even sections of the an- coherent primitivism that does not
archist movement in the name exclude agriculture since the dawn
of maintaining a broad church of agriculture and class society seem
uncritically publish Jensen and to occur together. This fact has been
invite him to address meetings. understood on the left at least as far
This is quite astounding given back as Engels ‘The Origin of the
the consequences of what he is Family, Private Property and the
advocating. I can only presume State’ and I’ll discuss its implica-
he is tolerated in some anarchist tions next. But in terms of the over-
circles because of the general all argument about food production
confusion that equates militant this is a side argument - the earths
tactics with militant politics, current population requires the ag-
forgetting that elements of the ricultural technology of the last 100
far right can also use militant odd years - going back to primitive
tactics. agriculture is not much more of an
option then going back to Hunter-
There is no critique of the die off point have picked an older date - the first gathering. It would still leave billions
of view from those who call them- cave paintings for instance but this of facing death by starvation.
selves ‘anarcho’-primitivists. Zerzan would not only have been more ar-
is happy to do a lengthy interview bitrary but would have presented an Is primitivism a branch of
with someone who says he wants even greater population problem for anarchism?
“civilization brought down and I want the primitivists. It is true that agriculture is required
it brought down now” without even before the surplus is generated on
bringing the consequences of such a I could have picked a more recent date which a state structure can be built.
position up with them. If he wanted but this would hardly have helped the This is about the only argument the
to distance himself from Jensen he has primitivists as they then would have primitivists have - the state has al-
already had the opportunity to do so. had to include many of the features ways been a feature of civilisation.
of civilisation - including the state - The challenge for those who want to
The centrality of the agricultural in their primitive utopia. And, as our abolish the state - and this has always
revolution ability to support a large population been understood as a central chal-
Elsewhere Zerzan has written of the has escalated sharply in recent years, lenge of anarchism from the 1860’s -