Review - Twilight of the Machines, by John Zerzan

John Zerzan

How can this be?

Even at the top of the world, people are reportedly unhappier than ever before. One attractive solution that's seen widespread success in alleviating the postmodern suburban blues is voluntary simplicity - the act of voluntarily living with less. It turns out that simplifying your life makes you enjoy the little things more and desire the big things less.

As Kalle Lasn, co-founder of Adbusters, once wrote: When everything is at hand, nothing is ever hard-won, and when nothing is hard-won, nothing really satisfies. Having everything at our fingertips inherently drives its value down and makes it less valuable. That's simple economics. Therefore a society full of easy-bought quick-meals and instant everything seems fraught with potential for existential crises.

That's where philosophers like John Zerzan come in. Primitivism -- or the philosophical position which contends that much is wrong with modern society and that the solution is to mirror the behaviors of "primitive" populations -- is Zerzan's answer to the concrete malaise in the big city.

Ideas Addressed:
--Is a world without technology possible?
--What will become of human societies if (when) cheap fuels become unavailable?
--Is there something inherently wrong with the "civilization" mindset?

It's an important subject that deserves your attention.
Goes beyond thinking outside the box.

The arguments are sometimes flawed.
Over-idealizes prehistory.

Can you imagine a world without words?

We all know that the world is heating up. Global temperature is rising and, yes, it's industry's fault. Fresh water is running down. Cheap oil is depleting fast. Industrialized agriculture will faulter below ideal outputs and people will starve. Resources are thinning and already there are "climate refugees" fleeing inarable lands and spilling across multiple borders. It's no joke: the world is in trouble. These are the problems that touch the surface that almost everyone knows about. The problems with human civilization that most people don't consider are the psychological conditions it brings about and how human adaptation is taking shape.

You may have already read that these days, more people who live in large cities are quite out of touch with nature, seem more drawn to the internet and technology than social interaction and face more issues of loneliness and depression. But it goes even deeper than that. Humans are actually developing more differently than they used to.

Zerzan's Twilight of the Machines touches on the prospect of sensory deprivation within the cityscape. What's not in Zerzan's favor is that he never sources anything, but what does go in Zerzan's favor is that it makes sense within neuropsychological research. The less you use something - a skill, ability, sensation, or knowledge - the more you lose it. The less you practice, the easier it is to lose the pattern in your mind for how to do it. The same goes with sensations: if populations develop within an environment that does not require the use of, say, heavy lifting - they are more likely to develop into physically weaker population.

Picture a man growing up in a cave: he may develop an uncanny ability to see in the dark, but were he ever to enter the outside world, his ability to detect shades of light may forever be hindered (depending on the extent of his cave dwelling). If he were to be born in that cave and remain within it throughout childhood and adolescence, then suddenly be taken outside -- he may not even have the potential to view shades of light. The famous Stanford cats experiment within neuroscience demonstrates that even higher mammals lose sensory capacity if it's not used. Cats reared within an environment of only vertical lines became unable to detect horizontal lines in new environments after only half a dozen months.

So truly, our environment poses a strong ability to shape development. How does this reflect upon children born and raised within a city, as opposed to a child who grows up in the country? Or as opposed to a nearly-feral hunter-gatherer child that grew up on the cusp of the Neolithic?

The child that needs to use his/her sensory capacities in a desperate stake for survival during Neolithic times will grow deeply-honed, well-developed senses for each nuance of environmental change. Children growing up in the countryside will experience more to suit senses within that environment -- and children growing up in the city, who see many of the same sights and perform routine operations more often are more likely to see sensory development stunted as a result of the invaried input. This sensory incubation alters 'normal' human development and creates, to Zerzan's horror, a generation of individuals more accustomed to being distanced from direct sensory input and closeness with nature. This is completely contrary to how he feels humanity should develop -- which is to say, attuned to nature and accustomed to closeness with others.

Zerzan initially touched on this issue in his seminal work, Running on Emptiness. He basically implies that many people currently living within cities are actually insane because they unwittingly propagate the "civilization" mindset without ever questioning its validity. There are many things that people living within the developed world take for granted and, for one reason or another, never come to question. These things include aspects of progress that Zerzan feels were 'wrong turns' in human development overall. Like the first community of humans to stop travelling the countryside in search of fresh game and wild herbs and settle down to commence agriculture. Or the natural off-shoot of agriculture: the domestication of plants and animals. Then, later, the division of labor within societies. To Zerzan, the division of labor allowed people to specialize in specific trades and free up time for development and culture...but also set the stage for individuals becoming dependent on the crowd, out of touch with the means of their survival, and more focused on repeated, routine daily life rather than a rich, varied experience.