Brian Oliver Sheppard

Primitivism is a movement drawing inspiration from pre-cilivised human existence, with various different conclusions and philosophical currents. This pamphlet is a critical contribution, looking closely at what the author considers the fundamental conflicts between anarchism and primitivism. It traces primitivism's basic precepts back to authoritarian roots, reveals primitivist misconceptions about anarchism, capitalism and technology, shows how the corporate media have used primitivism to discredit anarchism, and also shows how ideology-driven primitivists, much like fundamentalist Christians opposed to evolution, have picked through anthropological evidence to support their predetermined conclusions, while ignoring data that contradict those conclusions.

Sheppard also considers the many primitivist straw-man attacks upon anarchism, and asks: What kind of an anarchist movement do we want - one that looks often ugly, authoritarian social reality in the eye, with the aim of transforming it into something something that will lead to freer, happier lives for all of us on planet Earth, or one that wastes its time fantasising about a non-existent Golden Age, and that would result in the deaths of billions if its precepts were followed?

• publisher: Active Distribution

• 76 pages

• 2023