Hakim Bey

Peter Lamborn Wilson (pseudonym Hakim Bey; 1945-2022) was an American anarchist author, primarily known for advocating the concept of Temporary Autonomous Zones. While the name "Hakim Bey" has been used by others, Wilson is the primary user of the name.

Writings

In addition to his writings on lifestyle anarchism and Temporary Autonomous Zones, Bey has written essays on other topics such as Tong traditions, the utopian Charles Fourier, the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, alleged connections between Sufism and ancient Celtic culture, technology and Luddism, Amanita muscaria use in ancient Ireland, and Nazar ila'l-murd or sacred pederasty in the Sufi tradition. He has also written about pederasty for NAMBLA Bulletin.

Bey's poetic texts and poems have appeared in: P.A.N.; Panthology One, Two, and Three; Ganymede; Exquisite Corpse; and the various Acolyte Reader paperbacks. Many of these poems, including the 'Sandburg' series, are collected in the as-yet unpublished DogStar volume. Currently his works can be found regularly in publications like Fifth Estate and the NYC-based First of the Month.

He has also published at least one novel, The Chronicles of Qamar: Crowstone.

Bey, especially because of his TAZ work, has often been embraced by rave subculture, as ravers have identified the experience and occasions of raves as part of the tradition of "Temporary Autonomous Zones" that Bey outlines, particularly the "free party" or teknival scene. Bey has been supportive of the rave connection, while remarking in an interview, "The ravers were among my biggest readers... I wish they would rethink all this techno stuff — they didn’t get that part of my writing."

More recently, he has commented on the Occupy Movement in an interview with David Levi Strauss of The Brooklyn Rail:

I was beginning to feel that there would never be another American uprising, that the energy was gone, and I have some reasons to think that might be true. I like to point out that the crime rate in America has been declining for a long time, and in my opinion it’s because Americans don’t even have enough gumption to commit crimes anymore: the creative aspect of crime has fallen into decay. As for the uprising that takes a principled stand against violence, hats off to them, I admire the idealism, but I don’t think it’s going to accomplish much.

In another interview with David Levi Strauss and Christopher Bamford in The Brooklyn Rail, Bey has discussed his views on what he calls "Green Hermeticism":

We all agreed that there is not a sufficient spiritual focus for the environmental movement. And without a spiritual focus, a movement like this doesn’t generate the kind of emotional energy that it needs to battle against global capitalism—that for which there is no other reality, according to most people. It should be a rallying call of the spirit for the environmental movement, or for as many parts of that movement as could be open to it.

Bey has even taken up commentary on interpretations of the ontology of quantum physics, interpreting Nick Herbert's Quantum Reality in terms of the social paradigms from which quantum mechanics may draw its metaphors.

Notable theories

Ontological anarchy

In the compilation of essays called "Immediatism" Hakim Bey explains his particular conception of anarchism and anarchy which he calls "ontological anarchy". In the same compilation he deals with his view of the relationships of individuals with the exterior world as perceived by the senses and a theory of liberation which he calls "immediatism".

Temporary Autonomous Zones

Hakim Bey has written articles on three different types of what he calls "autonomous zones". Regarding his concept of Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ) he said in an interview that

the real genesis was my connection to the communal movement in America, my experiences in the 1960s in places like Timothy Leary's commune in Millbrook...Usually only the religious ones last longer than a generation—and usually at the expense of becoming quite authoritarian, and probably dismal and boring as well. I've noticed that the exciting ones tend to disappear, and as I began to further study this phenomenon, I found that they tend to disappear in a year or a year and a half.

The concept of TAZ was presented in a long elaboration in the book TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism.

Criticism and controversy

Lifestyle anarchism

In Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm, Murray Bookchin included Bey's work in what he called "lifestyle anarchism", which he criticized Bey's writing for tendencies towards mysticism, occultism, and irrationalism. Bey did not respond publicly. Bob Black wrote a rejoinder to Bookchin in Anarchy after Leftism.

Pedophile/pederasty advocacy and NAMBLA

Bey has received criticism for writing for the NAMBLA Bulletin, a pedophile advocacy organization in the United States that works to abolish age of consent laws criminalizing adult sexual involvement with minors. For this he has also received criticism from other anarchists.

Bibliography

• The Winter Calligraphy of Ustad Selim, & Other Poems (1975) (Ipswich, England) ISBN 0-903880-05-9
• Science and Technology in Islam (1976) (with Leonard Harrow)
• Traditional Modes of Contemplation & Action (1977) (editor, with Yusuf Ibish)
• Nasir-I Khusraw: 40 Poems from the Divan (1977) (translator and editor, with Gholam Reza Aavani) ISBN 0-87773-730-4
• DIVAN (1978) (poems, London/Tehran)
• Kings of Love: The Poetry and History of the Nimatullahi Sufi Order of Iran (1978) (translator and editor, with Nasrollah Pourjavady; Tehran)
• Angels (1980, 1994) ISBN 0-500-11017-4 (abridged edition: ISBN 0-500-81044-3)
• Weaver of Tales: Persian Picture Rugs (1980) (with Karl Schlamminger)
• Loving Boys: Semiotext(e) Special (1980) (editor as Hakim Bey; Semiotext(e) (New York))
• Divine Flashes (1982) (by Fakhruddin 'Iraqi, translated and introduced with William Chittick|William C. Chittick; Paulist Press (Mahwah, New Jersey)) ISBN 0-8091-2372-X
• Crowstone: The Chronicles of Qamar (1983) (as Hakim Bey)
• CHAOS: The Broadsheets of Ontological Anarchism (1985) (as Hakim Bey; Grim Reaper Press (Weehawken, New Jersey))
• Semiotext(e) USA (1987) (co-editor, with Jim Fleming)
• Scandal: Essays in Islamic Heresy (1988) (Autonomedia (Brooklyn, New York)) ISBN 0-936756-15-2
• The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry (1988) (translator and editor, with Nasrollah Pourjavady) ISBN 0-933999-65-8
• Semiotext(e) SF (1989) (co-editor, with Rudy Rucker and Robert Anton Wilson)
• The Universe: A Mirror of Itself (1992?) (Xexoxial Editions (La Farge, Wisconsin))
• Aimless Wandering: Chuang Tzu's Chaos Linguistics (1993) (as Hakim Bey; Xexoxial Editions (La Farge, Wisconsin))
• Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam (1993) (City Lights Books (San Francisco)) ISBN 0-87286-275-5
• The Little Book of Angel Wisdom (1993, 1997) ISBN 1-85230-436-7 ISBN 1-86204-048-6
• O Tribe That Loves Boys: The Poetry of Abu Nuwas (1993) (translator and editor, as Hakim Bey) ISBN 90-800857-3-1
• Pirate utopia|Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs and European Renegadoes (1995, 2003) (Autonomedia (Brooklyn, New York)) ISBN 1-57027-158-5
• Millennium (1996) (as Hakim Bey; Autonomedia (Brooklyn, New York) and Garden of Delight (Dublin, Ireland)) ISBN 1-57027-045-7
• "Shower of Stars" Dream & Book: The Initiatic Dream in Sufism and Taoism (1996) (Autonomedia (Brooklyn, New York)) ISBN 1-57027-036-8
• Escape from the Nineteenth Century and Other Essays (1998) (Autonomedia (Brooklyn, New York)) ISBN 1-57027-073-2
• Wild Children (1998) (co-editor, with Dave Mandl)
• Avant Gardening: Ecological Struggle in the City & the World (1999) (co-editor, with Bill Weinberg) ISBN 1-57027-092-9
• Ploughing the Clouds: The Search for Irish Soma (1999) ISBN 0-87286-326-3
• Temporary Autonomous Zone|TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism, Second Edition (2003) (as Hakim Bey; incorporates full text of CHAOS and Aimless Wanderings; Autonomedia (Brooklyn, New York)) ISBN 1-57027-151-8
• Orgies Of The Hemp Eaters (2004) (co-editor as Hakim Bey with Abel Zug) ISBN 1-57027-143-7
• rain queer (2005) (Farfalla Press (Brooklyn, New York)) ISBN 0-9766341-1-2
• Gothick Institutions (2005) ISBN 0-9770049-0-2
• Green Hermeticism: Alchemy and Ecology; (with Christopher Bamford and Kevin Townley, Lindisfarne (2007)) ISBN 1-58420-049-9
• Black Fez Manifesto (2008) ISBN 978-1-57027-187-8
• Ec(o)logues (Station Hill of Barrytown, 2011) ISBN 978-1-58177-115-2

External links

Articles and interviews

• http://www.hermetic.com/bey/ The Writings of Hakim Bey A collection of his articles is available here
• http://www.brooklynrail.org/2004/07/express/an-anarchist-in-the-hudson-valley-br-pet July 2004 interview from The Brooklyn Rail
• http://commoncontent.org/catalog/audio/speech/3700/ Audio of 1993 talk featuring Hakim Bey
• http://www.rootsofrebellion.org/index.asp?pagemode=I&ID=127 Roots of Rebellion audio interview with Hakim Bey
• Christian Greer, 'Hakim Bey', Chapter 43 in Christopher Partridge (ed.), The Occult World (2014) https://www.academia.edu/9121109/Hakim_Bey_Chapter_43_The_Occult_World_