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In the specialist culture of our bureaucratic-industrial age, the reliance on experts to interpret and evaluate inner life is in itself the most malignant and invasive reach of division of labor.

— John Zerzan Future Primitive Revisited (2012)

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More quotes by John Zerzan

Everyone can feel the nothingness, the void, just beneath the surface of everyday routines and securities.

Elements of Refusal (1988)

Democratic forms have always cloaked the rule of elites.

A People's History of Civilization (2018)

Most fundamentally, I would see Anarchism as a synonym for anti-authoritarianism.

Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilization (2008)

If we once — and for so long — lived in balance with nature and each other, we should be able to do so again. The catastrophe that’s overtaking us has deep roots, but our previous state of natural anarchy reaches much further into our shared history.

If, on the other hand, your primary goal is wholeness, egalitarianism, autonomy, and an intact world, then there's quite a lot wrong with it.

All John Zerzan quotes →

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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

James Howell English Proverbs (1659)

When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.

Robert Frost A Boy's Will (1913)

In a society such as ours, it is almost impossible for a person to be responsible.

Jacques Ellul The Betrayal by Technology (1993)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Zerzan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.