“Deserting the Digital Utopia” is a zine formated version of an article published by Crimethinc in 2013. The zine provides an excellent introductory look at the role that computers, social networking, mobile phones, etc play in many of our lives. It’s a wide-ranging essay that covers a lot of interesting topics including social media, the enclosure of the commons, domination, digital utopianism, and more. It’s worth reading as a means towards developing stronger critiques and understandings of the contemporary era.

The following short excerpt gives a good representation of what you will find in the zine:

The Internet has often been compared to the Wild West: a largely unregulated space rich in opportunities, in which people may experiment with new relations. Most commentators miss the full implications of this metaphor. The Wild West was the final frontier of colonization, where the last zones of ungoverned territory were mapped, stripped of resources, and integrated into state control. Many who fled to the Wild West in search of freedom only accelerated this process of colonization. Similarly, those who champion the Internet as the new frontier of freedom may inadvertently hasten the enclosure of the last aspects of human life that remain outside the economy.

The zine has been a good conversation piece when we table at zine fests and draws interest from a broad range of people.

You can get the zine from us as a PDF or order it online.