TAZ

[kmusser]

For the Discordians - I highly recommend Hakim Bey's Temporary Autonomous Zone, which is available in its entirety here or you can buy it in actual book form here.

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.

mmmmmm, Discordian geography. I'll be in my bunk.

Comments

[drjon.livejournal.com]

No Discordian Library is adequate without a copy of TAZ.

[wanderingbastet.livejournal.com]

Utterly clueless about the content of your post, but mad props for the Firefly reference. ;-)

[kmusser]

I should've went and stole one of dwarfrage's icons.

[wanderingbastet.livejournal.com]

Heheheh!

[gths.livejournal.com]

Someone should start a mag called the Irrational Geographic.

[wylddelirium.livejournal.com]

No, "someone" should not start this magazine. kmusser should start this magazine.

Now.

Go.

[kmusser]

Yes, in my copious freetime *grin* I'll get right on that.

Hmmm, if I plan the 1st issue for January 2023 it might be doable :-)

[wylddelirium.livejournal.com]

Oh come now. you don't know enough discordians who'd write something for you?

No, I totally get that. I'd be king of the underworld if it weren't for the whole sleeping/eating/doing other stuff at the time.

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, really; I'd write for that. I'm not sure what it is, but I'd like to write for it.

[kmusser]

It would be a magazine about places that aren't quite right :-)

[cosmolinguist]

Oh, I could do that! I'm in one of those now! Everybody here drives on the wrong side of the road! And they keep spelling things wrong. The differences are subtle--they still have coffee shops and toilets and idiots on TV, you know, all the major things we're used to in life--but I've managed to pick up on them nonetheless, and even documented several differences ... somewhere.

[kmusser]

Indeed, England as long been a subject of interest to Discordian geographers - ever since Rosancranz and Guilderstern suggested that it didn't really exist.

[kmusser]

Maybe, then again you know what an easy task herding Discordians is *grin*

[evcelt.livejournal.com]

Good point. After all, y'never know what things are going to be like after 12/22/2012.

[cosmolinguist]

I have to love the Mayans for saying the world is going to end on my birthday...

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Mmm, TAZ.