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4 Responses to “No, no, please don’t go zones”

1. Omar Says:
   January 24th, 2015 at 5:19 pm

   LOL. it’s been a long time since I read TAZ. Happy memories of the lower East side in NYC.

2. Charles Cameron Says:
   January 25th, 2015 at 4:06 am

   Good to read you, Omar. I’ve found Hakim Bey’s writings on esoteric Islam of considerable interest, though somewhat esoteric in their own write.
   .
   Did you ever run across another “outfield” writing from way back when, The Steersman Handbook?

3. zen Says:
   January 25th, 2015 at 4:50 am

   John can speak for himself, of course, by my interpretation of a real T.A.Z. is that an area is under de facto militia-level of armed force control. Law enforcement and other agents of the state cannot enter except (if at all) in a massive show of military or paramilitary force – heavy machine guns, APCs, full auto carbines, armed helicopters overhead, sniper support.
   .
   There are areas of Pakistan, Nigeria and Brazilian favelas (allegedly) like this. Lebanon was like that during the civil war. Colombia at the height of the FARC vs. Paramilitaries war. The very worst parts of mexico qualify but only on a transient basis. French zones seems more akin to a gang-ruled Chicago housing project – the gangs run things but generally seek to avoid confrontations with police, though violence could break out if the unwritten “rules” are violated by either side

4. Charles Cameron Says:
   January 25th, 2015 at 8:24 pm

   Hi Zen:
   .
   After mentioning 18th century Corsairs and the Ismaili Assassins as quasi-examples, Hakim Bey writes:

   I believe that by extrapolating from past and future stories about “islands in the net” we may collect evidence to suggest that a certain kind of “free enclave” is not only possible in our time but also existent. All my research and speculation has crystallized around the concept of the TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS ZONE (hereafter abbreviated TAZ). Despite its synthesizing force for my own thinking, however, I don’t intend the TAZ to be taken as more than an essay (“attempt”), a suggestion, almost a poetic fancy. Despite the occasional Ranterish enthusiasm of my language I am not trying to construct political dogma. In fact I have deliberately refrained from defining the TAZ–I circle around the subject, firing off exploratory beams. In the end the TAZ is almost self-explanatory. If the phrase became current it would be understood without difficulty…understood in action.

   and:

   inasmuch as the TAZ exists now, it stands for much more than the mundanity of negativity or countercultural drop-out- ism. We’ve mentioned the festal aspect of the moment which is unControlled, and which adheres in spontaneous self- ordering, however brief. It is “epiphanic”–a peak experience on the social as well as individual scale.

   So there’s some glee in there — and John Jordan, whom I quoted above, identifies Burning Man as perhaps the pre-eminent contemporary TAZ.