The temporary autonomous zone

 

3

uprising--but as soon as "the Revolution" triumphs and the State returns, the dream and 

the ideal are already betrayed. I have not given up hope or even expectation of change--

but I distrust the word Revolution. Second, even if we replace the revolutionary approach 

with a concept of insurrection blossoming spontaneously into anarchist culture, our own 

particular historical situation is not propitious for such a vast undertaking. Absolutely 

nothing but a futile martyrdom could possibly result now from a head- on collision with 

the terminal State, the megacorporate information State, the empire of Spectacle and 

Simulation. Its guns are all pointed at us, while our meager weaponry finds nothing to 

aim at but a hysteresis, a rigid vacuity, a Spook capable of smothering every spark in an 

ectoplasm of information, a society of capitulation ruled by the image of the Cop and the 

absorbant eye of the TV screen. 

 

In short, we're not touting the TAZ as an exclusive end in itself, replacing all other forms 

of organization, tactics, and goals. We recommend it because it can provide the quality of 

enhancement associated with the uprising without necessarily leading to violence and 

martyrdom. The TAZ is like an uprising which does not engage directly with the State, a 

guerilla operation which liberates an area (of land, of time, of imagination) and then 

dissolves itself to re-form elsewhere/elsewhen, before the State can crush it. Because 

the State is concerned primarily with Simulation rather than substance, the TAZ can 

"occupy" these areas clandestinely and carry on its festal purposes for quite a while in 

relative peace. Perhaps certain small TAZs have lasted whole lifetimes because they 

went unnoticed, like hillbilly enclaves--because they never intersected with the Spectacle, 

never appeared outside that real life which is invisible to the agents of Simulation. 

 

Babylon takes its abstractions for realities; precisely within this margin of error the TAZ 

can come into existence. Getting the TAZ started may involve tactics of violence and 

defense, but its greatest strength lies in its invisibility--the State cannot recognize it 

because History has no definition of it. As soon as the TAZ is named (represented, 

mediated), it must vanish, it will vanish, leaving behind it an empty husk, only to spring up 

again somewhere else, once again invisible because undefinable in terms of the 

Spectacle. The TAZ is thus a perfect tactic for an era in which the State is omnipresent 

and all-powerful and yet simultaneously riddled with cracks and vacancies. And because 

the TAZ is a microcosm of that "anarchist dream" of a free culture, I can think of no better 

tactic by which to work toward that goal while at the same time experiencing some of its 

benefits here and now. 

 

In sum, realism demands not only that we give up waiting for "the Revolution" but also 

that we give up wanting it. "Uprising," yes--as often as possible and even at the risk of 

violence. The spasming of the Simulated State will be "spectacular," but in most cases 

the best and most radical tactic will be to refuse to engage in spectacular violence, to 

withdraw from the area of simulation, to disappear. 

 

The TAZ is an encampment of guerilla ontologists: strike and run away. Keep moving the 

entire tribe, even if it's only data in the Web. The TAZ must be capable of defense; but 

both the "strike" and the "defense" should, if possible, evade the violence of the State, 

which is no longer a meaningful violence. The strike is made at structures of control, 

essentially at ideas; the defense is "invisibility," a martial art, and "invulnerability"--an 

"occult" art within the martial arts. The "nomadic war machine" conquers without being 

noticed and moves on before the map can be adjusted. As to the future--Only the 

autonomous can plan autonomy, organize for it, create it. It's a bootstrap operation. The 

first step is somewhat akin to satori--the realization that the TAZ begins with a simple act 

of realization. 

 

(Note: See Appendix C, quote by Renzo Novatore)  

 

4 

The Psychotopology of Everyday Life 

THE CONCEPT OF THE TAZ arises first out of a critique of Revolution, and an 

appreciation of the Insurrection. The former labels the latter a failure; but for us uprising 

represents a far more interesting possibility, from the standard of a psychology of 

liberation, than all the "successful" revolutions of bourgeoisie, communists, fascists, etc. 

 

The second generating force behind the TAZ springs from the historical development I 

call "the closure of the map." The last bit of Earth unclaimed by any nation-state was 

eaten up in 1899. Ours is the first century without terra incognita, without a frontier. 

Nationality is the highest principle of world governance--not one speck of rock in the 

South Seas can be left open, not one remote valley, not even the Moon and planets. This 

is the apotheosis of "territorial gangsterism." Not one square inch of Earth goes unpoliced 

or untaxed...in theory. 

 

The "map" is a political abstract grid, a gigantic con enforced by the carrot/stick 

conditioning of the "Expert" State, until for most of us the map becomes the territory- -no 

longer "Turtle Island," but "the USA." And yet because the map is an abstraction it cannot 

cover Earth with 1:1 accuracy. Within the fractal complexities of actual geography the 

map can see only dimensional grids. Hidden enfolded immensities escape the measuring 

rod. The map is not accurate; the map cannot be accurate. 

 

So--Revolution is closed, but insurgency is open. For the time being we concentrate our 

force on temporary "power surges," avoiding all entanglements with "permanent 

solutions." 

 

And--the map is closed, but the autonomous zone is open. Metaphorically it unfolds 

within the fractal dimensions invisible to the cartography of Control. And here we should 

introduce the concept of psychotopology (and -topography) as an alternative "science" to 

that of the State's surveying and mapmaking and "psychic imperialism." Only 

psychotopography can draw 1:1 maps of reality because only the human mind provides 

sufficient complexity to model the real. But a 1:1 map cannot "control" its territory 

because it is virtually identical with its territory. It can only be used to suggest, in a sense 

gesture towards, certain features. We are looking for "spaces" (geographic, social, 

cultural, imaginal) with potential to flower as autonomous zones--and we are looking for 

times in which these spaces are relatively open, either through neglect on the part of the 

State or because they have somehow escaped notice by the mapmakers, or for whatever 

reason. Psychotopology is the art of dowsing for potential TAZs. 

 

The closures of Revolution and of the map, however, are only the negative sources of 

the TAZ; much remains to be said of its positive inspirations. Reaction alone cannot 

provide the energy needed to "manifest" a TAZ. An uprising must be for something as 

well. 

 

1. First, we can speak of a natural anthropology of the TAZ. The nuclear family is the 

base unit of consensus society, but not of the TAZ. ("Families!--how I hate them! the 

misers of love!"--Gide) The nuclear family, with its attendant "oedipal miseries," appears 

to have been a Neolithic invention, a response to the "agricultural revolution" with its 

imposed scarcity and its imposed hierarchy. The Paleolithic model is at once more primal 

and more radical: the band. The typical hunter/gatherer nomadic or semi- nomadic band 

consists of about 50 people. Within larger tribal societies the band-structure is fulfilled by 

clans within the tribe, or by sodalities such as initiatic or secret societies, hunt or war 

societies, gender societies, "children's republics," and so on. If the nuclear family is 

produced by scarcity (and results in miserliness), the band is produced by abundance--

---