> I even like Zerzan's criticism of math; it's misguided, but I honestly
> think a sane world has people seriously criticizing such fundamental
> things. It's probably true that primitivism has an element of
> insanity, but it's hardly more insane than the institutional schooling
> which alienates people from things like math and Shakespeare enough,
> that they either hate or fetishize them.
There is nothing insane about primitivism. Plenty of stuff to disagree with, for sure, but these folks are totally sane people with lots of good criticisms.
I think that a big problem people make with Zerzan's critiques is to confuse them with a suggestion for future action. His work does suggest what people should do to change things, but his critiques are mostly focused on examining why oppressive social institutions arose in the first place.
> I'm partial to the idea that anarchist principles are already a staple
> of common life. People join clubs based on mutual interests; people
> generally do better work for a customer they feel genuine sympathy for
> rather than out of coercion.
I think that anarchists have done a poor job of articulating the anarchism found in everyday life. I've tried to talk about this over the years and still have the ambition to write about it in detail.
Rebecca Solnit has started work on a book that follows these lines. She is doing a book on the mutual aid that happened in NYC after the 9/11 attacks and in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I was actually working on a similar project 3 years ago and was going to include a chapter on the NYC blackouts, but finances and other projects put that book on a back burner. I think Solnit will come up with a very interesting book.
> On a free software project I like, a participant wrote a few days ago:
> "it's been a pleasure to work with so many bright and motivated people
> in a kind of directed anarchy: towards goals that we mostly shared,
> even if we differ in the details."
The free software movement is essentially a big example of anarchism in action. This was first pointed out in the late 90s and is more true today given the ongoing developments in free/open source software. As much as I've been burned by Wikipedia, I'll point out that it is very much a successful example of collaborative anarchy.
Chuck -------------------------- Bread and Roses Web Design serving small businesses, non-profits, artists and activists http://www.breadandrosesweb.com/