john zerzan
John Zerzan was my neighbor in Eugene, Oregon. I got to know him through a long-lost friend who happened to help edit _Green Anarchy Magazine _with John. It was a great honor to meet him. John even critiqued one of my earlier writings, Sociality Undenied. But until now, I had not absorbed his basic ideas from books, only gotten a shallow grasp of his thesis from his articles and conversation.
_Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilization_ is the most intellectually exciting thing I have read in a long time. I knew that suffering, technology, hierarchy were the inventions of civilization. But I did not know time, language, art, and culture itself were, too.
This goes beyond Daniel Quinn’s critique of civilization. Quinn’s and Zerzan’s prescriptions overlap in some ways, differ in others.
Also I find it amazing to read a 60 year-old’s crying out against the inhumanity of our society with such vehemence as John’s. It’s such a relief from feeling alone in my own protestations. Highly recommended.