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Title: Permanent TAZs Author: Hakim Bey Date: 1993 Language: en Topics: autonomy, Peter Lamborn Wilson, TAZ Source: Retrieved on April 23rd, 2009 from http://www.hermetic.com/bey/paz.html][www.hermetic.com]]. Proofread online source [[http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=4202, retrieved on November 20, 2020.
TAZ-theory tries to concern itself with existing or emerging situations
rather than with pure utopianism. All over the world people are leaving
or “disappearing” themselves from the Grid of Alienation and seeking
ways to restore human contact. An interesting example of this — on the
level of “urban folk culture” — can be found in the proliferation of
hobby networks and conferences. Recently I discovered the zines of two
such groups, Crown Jewels of the High Wire (devoted to the collection of
glass electrical insulators) and a journal on cucurbitology (The Gourd).
A vast amount of creativity goes into these obsessions. The various
periodic gatherings of fellow-maniacs amount to genuine face-to-face
(unmediated) festivals of eccentricity. It’s not just the
“counter-culture” which seeks its TAZs, its nomad encampments and nights
of liberation from the Consensus. Self-organized and autonomous groups
are springing up amongst every “class” and “sub-culture”. Vast tracts of
the Babylonian Empire are now virtually empty, populated only by the
spooks of Mass Media, and a few psychotic policemen.
TAZ-theory realizes that THIS IS HAPPENING — we’re not talking about
“should” or “will be” — we’re talking about an already — existing
movement. Our use of various thought — experiments, utopian poetics,
paranoia criticism, etc., aims at helping to clarify this complex and
still largely undocumented movement, to give it some theoretical focus
and self-awareness, and to suggest tactics based on coherent integral
strategies — to act the midwife or the panegyrist, not the “vanguard”!
And so we’ve had to consider the fact that not all existing autonomous
zones are “temporary”. Some are (at least by intention) more-or-less
“permanent”. Certain cracks in the Babylonian Monolith appear so vacant
that whole groups can move into them and settle down. Certain theories,
such as “Permaculture”, have been developed to deal with this situation
and make the most of it. “Villages”, “communes”, “communities”, even
“arcologies” and “biospheres” (or other utopian-city forms) are being
experimented with and implemented. Even here however TAZ-theory may
offer some useful thought-tools and clarifications.
What about a poetique (a “way of making”) and a politique (a “way of
living-together) for the “permanent” TAZ (or “PAZ”)? What about the
actual relation between temporariness and permanence? And how can the
PAZ renew and refresh itself periodically with the “festival” aspect of
the TAZ?
Recent events in the US and Europe have shown that
self-organized/autonomous groups strike fear into the heart of the
State. MOVE in Philadelphia, the Koreshites of Waco, Deadheads, Rainbow
Tribes, computer-hackers, squatters, etc., have been targeted for
varying intensity-levels of extermination. And yet other autonomous
groups go unnoticed, or at least unpersecuted. What makes the
difference? One factor may be the malign effect of publicity or
mediation. The Media experience a vampiric thirst for the shadow-Passion
play of “Terrorism”, Babylon’s public ritual of expiation, scapegoating,
and blood-sacrifice. Once any autonomous group allows this particular
“gaze” to fall upon it, the shit hits the fan: — the Media will try to
arrange a mini-armageddon to satisfy its junk-sickness for spectacle and
death.
Now, the PAZ makes a fine sitting target for such a Media smart-bomb.
Besieged inside its “con-pound”, the self-organized group can only
succumb to some sort of cheap pre-determined martyrdom. Presumably this
role appeals only to neurotic masochists??? In any case, most groups
will want to live out their natural span or trajectory in peace and
quiet. A good tactic here might be to avoid publicity from the Mass
Media as if it were the plague. A bit of natural paranoia comes in
handy, so long as it doesn’t become an end in itself. One must be
cunning in order to get away with being bold. A touch of camouflage, a
flair for invisibility, a sense of tact as a tactic...might be as useful
to a PAZ as a TAZ. Humble suggestions: — Use only “intimate media”
(zines, phonetrees, BBSs, free radio and mini-FM, public-access cable,
etc.) — avoid blustering-macho- confrontationist attitude — you don’t
need five seconds on the Evening News (“Police Raid Cultists”) to
validate your existence. Our slogan might be: — “Get a life, not a
life-style.”
People probably ought to choose the people they live with.
”Open-membership” communes invariably end up swamped with freeloaders
and sex-starved pathetic creeps. PAZs must choose their own membership
mutually — this has nothing to do with “elitism”. The PAZ may exercise a
temporarily open function — such as hosting festivals or giving away
free food, etc. — but it need not be permanently open to any
self-proclaimed sympathizer who wanders by.
Once again, this is already happening — but it still needs a huge amount
of work before it comes into focus. The sub-economies of “lavoro nero”,
untaxed transactions, barter, etc., tend to be severely limited and
localized. BBSs and other networking systems could be used to link up
these regional/marginal aeconomies (“household managements”) into a
viable alternative economy of some magnitude. “P.M.” has already
outlined something like this in bolo’bolo — in fact a number of possible
systems already exist, in theory anyway. The problem is: — how to
construct a true alternative economy, i.e. a complete economy, without
attracting the IRS and other capitalist runningdogs? How can I exchange
my skills as, say, a plumber or moonshiner, for the food, books,
shelter, and psychoactive plants I want — without paying taxes, or even
without using ally State-forged money? How can I live a comfortable
(even luxurious) life free of all interactions and transactions with
CommodityWorld? If we took all the energy the Leftists put into “demos”,
and all the energy the Libertarians put into playing futile little
3^(rd)-party games, and if we redirected all that power into the
construction of a real underground economy, we would already have
accomplished “the Revolution” long ago.
The hollowed-out effigy of the Absolute State finally toppled in “1989”.
The last ideology, Capitalism, is no more than a skin-disease of the
Very Late Neolithic. It’s a desiring-machine running on empty. I’m
hoping to see it deliquesce in my lifetime, like one of Dali’s
mindscapes. And I want to have somewhere to “go” when the shit comes
down. Of course the death of Capitalism needn’t entail the Godzilla-like
destruction of all human culture; this scenario is merely a terror-image
propagated by Capitalism itself. Nevertheless it stands to reason that
the dreaming corpse will spasm violently before rigor mortis sets in —
and New York or LA may not be the smartest places to wait out the storm.
(And the storm may already have begun.) [On the other hand NYC and LA
might not be the worst places to create the New World; one can imagine
whole squatted neighborhoods, gangs transformed into Peoples’ Militias,
etc.] Now, the gypsy-RV way of life may be one way to deal with the
on-going melt-down of Too-Late Capitalism — but as for me, I’d prefer a
nice anarchist monastery somewhere — a typical place for “scholars” to
sit out the “Dark Ages”. The more we organize this NOW the less hassle
we’ll have to face later. I’m not talking about “survival” — I’m not
interested in mere survival. I want to thrive. BACK TO UTOPIA.
The PAZ serves a vital function as a node in the TAZ-web, a meetingplace
for a wide circle of friends and allies who may not actually live full
time on the “farm” or in the “village”. Ancient villages held fairs
which brought wealth to the community, provided markets for travelers,
and created festal time/space for all participants. Nowadays the
festival is emerging as one of the most important forms for the TAZ
itself, but can also provide renewal and fresh energy for the PAZ. I
remember reading somewhere that in the Middle Ages there were one
hundred and eleven holidays a year; we should take this as our “utopian
minimum” and strive to do even better. [Note: the utopian minima
proposed by C. Fourier consisted of more food and sex than the average
18^(th) century French aristocrat enjoyed; B. Fuller proposed the term
“bare minimum” for a similar concept]
I believe that there exist plenty of good selfish reasons for desiring
the “organic” (it’s sexier), the “natural” (it tastes better), the
“green” (it’s more beautiful), the Wild(er)ness (it’s more exciting).
Communitas (as P. Goodman called it) and conviviality (as I. Illich
called it) are more pleasurable than their opposites. The living earth
need not exclude the organic city — the small but intense conglomeration
of humanity devoted to the arts and slightly decadent joys of a
civilization purged of all its gigantism and enforced loneliness — but
even those of us who enjoy cities can see immediate and hedonic motives
for fighting for the “environment”. We are militant biophiles. Deep
ecology, social ecology, permaculture, appropriate tech..we’re not too
picky about ideologies. Let 1000 flowers bloom.
A “weird religion” or a rebel art movement can become a kind of
non-local PAZ, like a more intense and all-consuming hobby network. The
Secret Society (like the Chinese Tong) also provides a model for a PAZ
without geographic limits. But the “perfect case scenario” involves a
free space that extends into free time. The essence of the PAZ must be
the long-drawn-out intensification of the joys — and risks — of the TAZ.
And the intensification of the PAZ will be....Utopia Now.
Hakim Bey
D R E A M T I M E, A U G U ST 1 9 93
CONTACT:
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