Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilization (Paperback)

by John Zerzan (Author) "To what degree can it be said that we are really living?..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Running On Emptiness, Star Trek (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Thinker and revolutionary John Zerzan has been widely credited with inspiring the new generation of antiglobalization activists. Collecting essays and interviews, Running on Emptiness reflects Zerzan’s wide range of interests, from the political (“We All Live in Waco”) to the personal (“So ... How Did You Become an Anarchist?”). This book deftly mixes history, anthropology, science, cultural theory, and politics to offer a critique of society as well as a blueprint for change. “John Zerzan ... can now credibly claim the ... honor of being America’s most famous anarchist. ” — Derrick Jensen, Utne Reader

Product Details

• Paperback: 214 pages
• Publisher: Feral House (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 092291575X
• ISBN-13: 978-0922915750
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #443,907 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is Technological Progress Good for You? , February 3, 2003

By	J.W.K (Nagano, Japan) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

What a wonderful book! After reading it, I had so many question, I felt the need to talk with the author in person. After tracking down his number, I gave him a call (noting how odd it was to be talking with an "anarcho-primitivist" on the phone) and we arranged to meet the following week.

Within no time, I was down in Eugene, Oregon, walking through the infamous Whitaker district, known for it's vagrants and black-block anarchists, searching for Zerzan's co-op.

After spotting him on the porch, he greated me and invited me into his small, box-shaped house. Asside from a desk and a giant bookcase filled to the brim with old ragtag books and zines, his little house was empty and austere.

Sitting on an old, cleary-secondhand softa, we talked for over an hour about anarchism, ecology, history, technology, society, permaculture, natural farming and ecovillages. Then we took a walk to a local, independent coffee house to chat some more.

What struck me about Zerzan was his humility, patience, kindness, and penchent for critical thought. I mentioned my suprise that he had a telephone, and he agreed, in an ideal world one would not need a telephone. But, he said, he does not have a watch, or any of the other things that weigh us down and distract more than they help. Despite his revolutionary prose, I realized that a certain degree of compromise must be made for those who wish to stay inside civil society and reform it.

Sure, one could pack up and go live in a commune, but how would that help? The global economy would still spin out of control, and people would continue to live in ways that destroy the planet. Aside from the phone (and I have heard now that he sometimes borrows a friend's computer), which keeps him connected to the larger movement as well as curious people like me, Zerzan purposefully chooses to live as "primitive" as possible - a word and way of life he esteems for reasons outlined in this book.

I highly recommend reading RUNNING ON EMPTINESS even if you are an avowed progressive or technophile, if only for the sake of balance. As Zerzan shows, technological progress is not a unilinear process of self-refinement. In many ways it has alienated us from self, other and earth.

For those who have already begun to notice that civilization is not all roses, this book is absolutely essential. There is perhaps no better perspective on this subject. Zerzan will enrich and deepen whatever nascent criticisms you already have, and inspire you to learn more and take action.

A MUST READ

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding Our Dillema, April 19, 2002

By	M. Gaines (Alabama, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

John Zerazan has put together a philosophy that enables us to understand and connect the insanitiy that is playing out before our very lifetimes. Civilizations have been the root foundation for the development of domestication of the human race, turning us into complacent, obediant non-connected beings. Zerzan's references will lead you to greater depths of research drawing you to your own conclusions. As for my own, I fear the worst is yet to come. Welcome to the revolution in reclaming your TRUE freedom. I would love to see a joint project with Derrick Jensen, perhaps reaching out to an even broader audience!
"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees of things through narrow chinks of his cavern" (William Blake)

38 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unmatched for erudition, clarity, and scholarship....., August 17, 2002

By	Craig Chalquist, PhD, author of TERRAPSYCHOLO... (Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

....and for presenting some very provocative challenges to our usual ways of thinking. I'm going to spend some time giving more consideration, for example, to the neo-Luddite insistence that technology is NOT neutral and that technologies based on a division of labor are inherently fragmenting. Hm.

What made this book hard reading for me was its steady tone of blaming: technocrats are idiots, compromisers are cowards, etc. Unfortunately, this judgmental tone, with us since the admirable Muir and perhaps before, is one of the least effective things about anarchistic OR ecological thought. A good example is the author's letter to Marvin Minsky, whom he calls "vermin" and to whom he delivers several other personal insults. This kind of rhetoric precludes all chance at dialog and makes one look to those still on the fence like a well-schooled loudmouth. (I find Minsky's thoughts about the fusion of machine with human downright frightening, extraordinarily arrogant, even apocalyptic....but I've never met the man and would not presume to call him any names until I did....)

By all means let us launch uncompromising and openly outraged attacks on the denial that excuses behaviors and attitudes that clearly harm self, community, and world--but can't we do it without all the self-defeating shaming, finger-pointing, and personal attacks that make us sound more petulant than earnest in our concerns?