Shabbos and Shemitah as Temporary Autonomous Zones

An Attempt to Understand Old Ideas with New Vocabulary

I want to advance an understanding of what shabbos and shemittah are using some new vocabulary. Basically, I want to claim that the purpose of Shabbos and Shemitta are Temporary Autonomous Zones.

So, first, what the hell is a Temporary Autonomous Zone? 

 Anarchist thinker Hakim Bey coined the term “Temporary Autonomous Zone” to describe what I’ll call temporary cracks in the control of systems of hierarchy on reality. Most of the time, there are systems of control (of which law is only one) that dictate our reality. Rather than attempt to fight those systems of control in revolutions, which inevitably seem to create their own hierarchies and systems of control, Bey suggested creating small pockets out of sight of the enforcers of those systems which would serve as alternatives, existing for a short time until they are noticed by the enforcers, and then quickly disbanding to move elsewhere. The goal would be not to defeat The System, but to create spaces in which alternatives to hierarchy and control could be tried out.  Bey brings examples like “pirate utopias”, radical communes, and religious sects, all of whom experimented with various types of non-hierarchy in the short time they were out of sight of The System. The fact that these “Zones” are temporary is part of the point. The goal is to capture the spirit of revolution in its purest beginnings, before it is corrupted by the need for control and hierarchy. In his words, ”Any attempt at permanence that goes beyond the moment deteriorates to a structured system that inevitably stifles individual creativity”. 

Bey had in mind something like a party in an abandoned warehouse¹ (and was in fact an influence on Burning Man) but his essential idea of a place or time that is a) temporary b) outside systems of hierarchy might give us a way of understanding Shabbos and Shemitah.