John Zerzan

John Zerzan (born 1943) is an American anarchist and primitivist philosopher and author. His works critique civilization -- and not just capitalism and the state -- as inherently oppressive, and advocate drawing upon the ways of life of prehistoric humans as an inspiration for what a free society should look like. Some of his criticism has extended as far as challenging domestication, language, symbolic thought and the concept of time. His three major books are Elements of Refusal (1988), Future Primitive (1994) and Running on Emptiness (2002).

Zerzan is also one of the editors of Green Anarchy, a quarterly magazine about anarchist primitivism, or anarcho-primitivism.