Anarchoprimitivism: What It Is And What Are Its Political Proposals
Although technology, living in democratic societies and all types of cultural advances are considered by the vast majority to be something inherently positive, a source of well-being and security for humanity, there are those who disagree very strongly.
There are people whose vision of civilization, as we live it today, is seen in such a crude way that they defend returning to a primitive state, to the lifestyle of our ancestors, prehistoric humans.
Anarcho-primitivism is about defending that idea He considers that inequalities between people are fundamentally due to the abandonment of a nomadic lifestyle to move to a sedentary and progressively more complex one. Let’s take a closer look at what this peculiar current of thought consists of.
Primitivist anarchism, shortened to anarcho-primitivism, is a current within individualist anarchism that criticizes the origins and progress of civilization This way of thinking is included within radical environmentalism and ecocentrism, that is, it places extreme environmental conservation as the main objective of its ideology.
Within anarcho-primitivism it is maintained that one of the main historical events that represented a great advance for humanity, the transition from a nomadic hunter-gatherer society to an agrarian and sedentary one gave rise to injustices between human beings, manifesting in the form of social stratification. This stratification would be both the beginning of the idea of civilization and the beginning of the power dynamics within humanity, with dominated and dominators.
Primitivists advocate returning humanity to a primal state, an “uncivilized” era through deindustrialization, the abolition of the division of labor or specialization in professions. An abandonment of technology is also advocated, although, since the idea behind this term is very broad, anarcho-primitivist positions range from the abandonment of electronics to the complete abandonment of any human-made product, no matter how simple as this is.
It should be said that within this current of thought several causes are pointed out as the evils of civilization: the industrial revolution, the invention of monotheism, writing, patriarchy, the use of metal tools… Whatever these causes that generate inequality, what all anarcho-primitivists share, as we said, is the desire to return to a simpler state of humanity, a pre-civilization era, with some being defenders of the return to nudism and “resavage.”
Historical background
Anarcho-primitivism has its origins from the most original anarchism, only with changes in its conception and the way of understanding the need for human beings to live without depending on the organization of a state or political hierarchy.
This school of thought began to have a more ecological focus thanks to the figure of Henry David Thoreau, an American individualist anarchist. In his best-known book, “Walden” (1854) (not to be confused with “Walden 2” by BF Skinner), Thoreau defends the idea of living simply and self-sufficiently, in natural environments, as a way of resisting advance. of industrial civilization. It is for this reason that, although in the book he does not defend the idea of returning to prehistory, Thoreau is considered a precursor of environmentalism and anarcho-primitivism.
Today, the main representative of the anarcho-primitivist movement is John Zerzan, who, although he does not defend an idea as radical as the one that certain violent figures and groups have come to advocate, does defend the idea of returning to a world in which technology does not monopolize our lives, and it is almost better to avoid its use. Zerzan maintains that, eventually, humanity will see this return to its most primitive state as plausible.
As for the most radical and dangerous sector of the movement, there is the figure of Theodore Kaczynski, alias “Unabomber.”, and eco-extremist groups such as Individuals Tending to the Wild. Although Kaczynski is not an anarcho-primitivist per se, part of his thinking could be considered such. The name Ted Kaczynski is known for having carried out several terrorist attacks between 1978 and 1995, sending package bombs that killed three people and injured 23 others.
Theoretical fundament
The main idea behind anarcho-primitivism is that before the advent of agriculture, humans lived in nomadic tribes. In these tribes, individuals were not organized in hierarchies or in relationships of submission-domination; They all lived socially, politically and economically equally In fact, the more general anarchist movement itself sees this type of tribe as a precursor to a properly anarchist society.
Primitivists see in the appearance of agriculture the beginning of greater dependence on technological development, which has worsened over time. In parallel with this greater need for the benefits of technology, society has been promoting an increasingly unfair power structure, based on the division of labor and the creation of social hierarchies.
However, and despite the move from nomadic living to agriculture-based living in sedentary societies, within the movement there are conflicting opinions about the need to completely reject horticulture. While some defend that agriculture, to a greater or lesser extent, is necessary, understanding its risks in terms of there being individuals who may have more than others, Other anarcho-primitivists advocate returning to a strictly hunter-gatherer society
Within anarcho-primitivism, the idea of civilization is considered as a physical and institutional apparatus which is the origin of domestication, control and domination, both above other animals and above human beings themselves. Civilization is the root of oppression and the ultimate goal of anarcho-primitivists is its destruction.
The appearance of the first civilizations, about 10,000 years ago, was the beginning of a disconnection from nature and other human beings which culminated in an individualistic lifestyle, separated from the rest, but in which each of our vital aspects is strongly controlled.
Before civilization, individuals had ample leisure time, gender autonomy and social equality. They had no needs other than the basic ones: to feed, to rest, to reproduce, to maintain contact with others…
Since not many things were needed to live, human beings lived in peace and harmony. Being sedentary societies, there was no idea that a land belonged to one tribe or another and, therefore, there were no territorial conflicts that ended in war.
But with the arrival of civilization this changed. The creation of this type of society is associated with the appearance of war, the oppression of women, demographic growth labor injustices, the idea of property and, eventually, capitalism.
2. Criticism of symbolic culture
Anarcho-primitivists criticize one of the greatest, if not the greatest, advancement of the human species: symbolic culture. That is, they are critical of the idea of language, whether oral or written.
One of the questions that is usually asked in response to this very particular criticism is how do anarcho-primitivists intend to communicate? It is impossible not to think of the stereotyped figure of the prehistoric man, who grunted and gestured to make himself understood.
According to anarcho-primitivism, and in the mouth of John Zerzan himself, it is the idea that prehistoric human beings got along so well because language did not exist, that they communicated in a more direct way.
It should be said that, despite being critical of the idea of the symbolic, they have not yet given a solid argument that allows us to understand why language is a bad communication tool or what alternative exists that is better.
3. Domestication of life
Within the logic of anarcho-primitivism, It is understood that domestication is a process that has served to control life in accordance with the designs of civilization
The mechanisms of this process are several, and are applicable to both animals and human beings (eugenics could be considered one of them): breeding, taming, genetically modifying, caging, educating, governing, enslaving, murdering… .
These mechanisms are imposed through institutions, customs and rituals, regardless of whether they are apparently harmless.
4. Rejection of science and technology
Primitivists reject modern science, especially that which involves the constant use of new technologies in our daily lives They defend the idea that science, as it is developed, is not neutral: there are interests, both commercial and dominant, behind each technological development.
They have a very cold view of science, seeing it as something that has distanced itself from human values and emotions, being extremely quantitative. Scientific implies a mechanical way of looking at life and sometimes behaves as if it were the dominant religion of our time.
Regarding technology, they see it as an element that promotes the alienation of human beings, and meaningful interactions between people decrease This is especially evident with the media, which offer a distorted and partial form of reality.
Criticisms of anarcho-primitivism
Given how radical the anarcho-primitivist foundations are, it was a matter of time before strong criticism arose against the movement.
The main criticism that anarcho-primitivists receive is that they maintain an incoherent attitude They criticize the idea of civilization, but most of them continue to live a properly civilized, often Western, lifestyle. Another idea is that, despite rejecting technology, they use mobile devices, offer interviews via Skype, sell books in both physical and digital formats…
However, it must be said that considering the defenders of this trend hypocritical for defending the abandonment of technology and society as it is organized today, without them taking the first step, is a very simplistic criticism. These are “ad hominem” arguments, which instead of criticizing the ideas they defend, limit themselves to criticizing the lifestyle of those who propose them.
In the same way that they defend a gradual abandonment of civilization, anarcho-primitivists are aware that it is very difficult to abandon the current lifestyle If a catastrophe occurred that forced humanity to organize itself into nomadic societies, it is very likely that the apocalypse would be near, and authors like Zerzan know this.
