It’s only just come to my attention that the brilliant anti-civilization writer John Zerzan has mentioned my book The Anarchist Revelationin an article posted on Anarchist News a month ago.
I probably missed it because of a slight typo that renamed me Cedenec – a slip of the keyboard that’s been put right in this French translation.
Zerzan has been a very strong influence on the development of my ideas and I’m delighted to learn that he’s read the book.
Unsurprisingly, I agree wholeheartedly with the thrust of his article, entitled Why Hope? He notes “It’s pretty fashionable, among anarchists as well, to sneer at the notion of hope, to explicitly rule out any chance of overall victory over domination and oppression”.
But he points out “Our overcoming the disease of civilization is in no way guaranteed, obviously, but clearly it is possible”.
Zerzan refers to The Anarchist Revelation as “the least pessimistic book I can recall reading” and judges that “it brings anarchist resistance and the spirit together in a very wide-ranging and powerful contribution”.
And he concludes his insistence on the necessity for hope in these “dire times” with an inspiring quote from a one-time resident of my home town of Worthing, Oscar Wilde: “We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars”.
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