John Zerzan rants against techno-culture and Civilization @ Tampere, June 6th

[partaradikaali]

Please forward the invitation freely!

John Zerzan is a leading theorist of the anti-civilization movement. John's arguments are based in part on an assessment of human prehistory that is now part of the standard university curriculum. Contrary to long-held stereotypes that described prehistoric human life as "nasty, brutish, and short," for the past few decades, scholars have considered our two-million-year existence as gatherers and hunters as the only successful human adaptation to the planet. Origins alone do not contain the whole solution to the why of the emptiness and the deteriorating quality of social existence today. But looking at how life was once and for such a long time, combined with existing indigenous wisdom, may point to a way forward. [more: http://johnzerzan.net/]

As a part of his 2007 speaking tour in Europe, he will arrive at Tampere on Wednesday, June 6th. The introduction he will give us is titled "The Enveloping Crisis: Roots and Alternatives". The occasion takes place at the "klubisali" auditorium in Moreenia Center of Environmental Knowledge, beginning at 6pm (18:00). Moreenia is situated on top of the dam of Tammerkoski rapids, right in the center of Tampere (see map). Welcome to listen and to discuss!

"The Enveloping Crisis: Roots and Alternatives" (Abstract)

Modernity/mass society has turned out to a disaster, a wasteland, a swindle. The crisis deepens at every level or sphere of life. Everyday life is plundered just as much as the physical environment. Technology has replaced the texture or fabric of living with that of a disembodied, desolate techno-culture characterized by depression, anxiety, stress, isolation. Postmodern cynicism is another way to describe the reigning ethos, accepting all of toxic Progress.

How did this happen? How deep are the roots of this collapsing world? Is a total break with all of it not required? Is the Left not one more obstacle, in its monumental, historical failure?

More and more do people know or at least sense that a paradigm shift is urgently needed. This is our hope. A vision and critique that questions all the old assumptions, drawing on the emptiness felt by everyone, drawing on the ageless millenia of life outside of civilization, daring to pose the vista of dismantling all this that imprisons and strangles us!

--
Resources:

Texts by John Zerzan at http://insurgentdesire.org.uk/

Against Civilization, ed. J.Zerzan:
http://takku.net/staticpages/index.php/agciv

Surplus - Terrorized into Being Consumers (a film featuring J.Z.):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5AEiwOM4fAY

Green Anarchy magazine: http://greenanarchy.org/