Twilight of the Machines

by John Zerzan

The mentor of the green anarchist and neo-primitive movements is back with his first book in six years, confronting civilization, mass society, and modernity and technoculture—both the history of its developing crisis and the possibilities for its human and humane solutions.

As John Zerzan writes, “These dire times may yet reveal invigorating new vistas of thought and action. When everything is at stake, all must be confronted and superseded. At this moment, there is the distinct possibility of doing just that.”

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Politics, Anarchism, Sociology, Economics, Law

260 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

American anarchist and primitivist philosopher and author.

His works criticize agricultural civilization as inherently oppressive, and advocate drawing upon the ways of life of hunter gatherers as an inspiration for what a free society should look like.

Some subjects of his criticism include domestication, language, symbolic thought (such as mathematics and art) and the concept of time.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good critiques postmodernism. It claims that postmodernism is the ultimate outgrowth of a technological civilization, which has completely overtaken direct, real personal interaction and naturalness. The direct is replaced by the simulated and self-referential. Postmodernism also entails a retreat into total relativism which destroys the ability to critique anything. If all perspectives are just another equally valid narratives decontextualized from any meta-narrative, then whats the point of changing anything? PoMo makes us complacent, or unwilling to be activists or to imagine a better future. Postmodernism in its attempt to smash all false binaries, smashes the binaries of culture and nature, freedom and slavery, ignorance and knowledge. The book argues that postmodernism while associated with the modern left, should really be more strongly associated with capitalism. Postmodernism cutting the legs out from under any social critique, and thus strongly bolsters the status quo which just so happens to be capitalism.

There are also good critiques of modern leftism in here as well, as fundamentally defensive of the nihilistic, technological status quo.

A lot of the critique of modern technology rests on the idea purported by Freud in "Civilization and its Discontents" in which he claims that civilization requires the repression of natural instincts and desires. However it takes this beyond Freudian beliefs to claim that civilization should therefore be dismantled. Zerzan disagrees with the conception of the state of nature as being a "nasty" or "brutish" environment. They see a state of nature as paradisiacal, and rely on archeology, nutritional science, psychology, anthropology, and history to make these judgements.

Crucial to his critique of modernity is the disharmony, alienation, and psychological problems which result from it. There is also the environmental devastation, the dissolution of "Dunbar number" type tribal units, the arms race between medical technology and the diseases produced by the rest of technology, gender inequality, aggression against animals, and a bunch of other crap.

Where face to face interaction breeds authenticity, closeness, and socialness, electronic and urban life produces inauthenticity, alienation, anti-socialness. He sees Japanese culture as the furthest progression of this, as japanese society is also the most technology obsessed one on the planet.

Theres also some stuff about how symbolic language is bad. That was dumb. I get a lot of its critiques of technology and of "mass society". It makes legitimate points. But It never brings forth primitivism as a viable or attractive solution to these problems. It really doesn't explain much about primitivism at all. You mostly have to piece it together through the critiques. So it ends up being a mostly complaintative book which draws illogical conclusions from those complaints.

Most people do acknowledge that technological progress has drawbacks. Most view it as a two steps forward one step backwards scenario. Zerzan posits a sort of one step forward two steps backwards scenario, but isn't very persuasive as to why this model is more correct other than to mock the idea that "more modernity can solve the problems of modernity".

I enjoyed this book for its pre-apocalyptic attitude, critiques of postmodernism, and supremely unique perspective. However, the primitivist thesis is left undeveloped, and many of the more radical critiques (like the one of symbolic thought) were highly uncompelling. His critique of postmodernism would also have been better if he had addressed some of the ways which PoMos try to get out of the uncomfortable philosophical position he accuses them of. Namely, I'm thinking about Stirnerian or Neitzchean postmodernists who wallow in ambiguity, yet are also very individualistic and action oriented.

[Joshua Finnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar to Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols, a criticism of contemporary German culture, Twilight of the Machines is Zerzan's concise introduction to the crisis of modern civilization. Focusing on the acquisition of symbolic thought {language, images} in our species, Zerzan criticizes the development of our symbolic culture {civilization} as a force of control, minimizing direct experience. Technology is a direct result of symolic culture. According to Zerzan, division of labor, from farming to computer programmers, leads to hierarchical forms of organization that alienate the individual from his or her environment and directly assault the natural world. The collective solution to the crisis of civilization isn't more efficient forms of technology, rather an unlearning of mediated experience through symbolic culture. Zerzan ultimately calls for an abandonment of the industrial mode of existence and a return to direct experience with nature.

[Matt Wilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

the only time I've read such unfounded, declarative, pretentious, incoherent babble was when I read some of the most egregious examples of neo-fascist anti-rationalist rambling. this guy's politics is not post-left, it's fundamentally, deeply right wing. the man is a charlatan and an imbecile.

[Brian Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Zerzan's work for the most part...he's extremely critical of everything "we" call civilized. The drawback is that: he's a broken record. His books literally repeat the same info over and over ad nauseum. Buy "Future Primitive" (or even this book) and you'll have all of Zerzan's ideas in a nutshell.

[Cobertizo · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Un visitante de otro planeta podría concluir sin ningún problema que todo lo que hay en la Tierra hoy es representación. La mediación está enterrando lentamente la inmediatez más elemental. La linealización de símbolos en el lenguaje prefiguró el triunfo de la tecnología, y la consecuencia es que ahora la realidad es un mundo dominado por imágenes. En una sociedad que se dedica, por encima de todo a consumir, las mercancías son, cada vez más, lo mismo que los símbolos. Este es el estatus real del significado simbólico que rige mediante equivalencia -no como un regalo, que se da sin la expectativa compartida equivalente. La cultura se come el paisaje y lo configura"

[Jorge Luis · Rating 3 out of 5]

La propuesta primitivista, basada en un concienzudo análisis antropológico del origen de las desigualdades de clase y género, de la cultura de la dominación, del dualismo... del que extrae como conclusión la necesidad de recuperar formas de relación y producción anteriores a las prácticas de acumulación y control de la naturaleza.
Texto denso plagado de referencias, perfecto para un TFG de antropología.

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting set of essays, worth reading to get a lesser explored way of thinking.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most concise and comprehensive book on anti-civilization and primitivism I have seem thus far. A must.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zerzan’s analyses of civilization get a little repetitive at times, but they always give me plenty to think about.

[melancholinary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note: I read the Indonesian translated version, extremely unreadable. Though with Zerzan, one can easily grasp his core ideas as he repeated in every book he wrote.

[ネリ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I especially liked the chapter where he compared Nietszche with Kaczynsky.
But I must also agree with a lot of people here saying that he is a broken record.

[Burak ATILGAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've ever read. Looking forward to read more of Zerzan's works.

[Steve Mathews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that anarchists and primitivists are guilty of deliberate disingenuity when they discuss what "we" should do to improve society. Were their ideas heeded at all, there would be so few of "us" remaining that the original audience of someone like Zerzan might be completely gone.

Don't these guys know how technically challenging it is to provide for everyone? Are they intentionally calling for billions of deaths?

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good critique of the postmodern

[Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Getting through the challenging parts is worth it.