Let's talk solutions: AGORISM
Ingenious agorism; an idea worth spreading and a practice worth learning: a key strategy to empower yourself and to build a more peaceful, prosperous society.With such an immensely broad solution, where do I begin to explain?!
Agorism is a method of individuals using intelligence and creativity to cultivate non-violent, efficient alternatives to violent or wasteful tendencies of government.
Agorism is the people taking matters into their own hands, rather than accepting the growing failures of centralized government.
Agorism shows us a system that operates using voluntary exchange/doing business with your fellow individuals is more peaceful and more efficient than the government's operation of using force to seize control from individuals.
Agorism is using economics wisely to decentralize power from the main source (ruling elitists) and give it back to the individuals (from where it originates), cutting out the middleman (the government). This makes the individual more powerful while deeming the State irrelevant, as the illegitimate source of authority that it is.
Agorism has become one of the most prevalent and powerful practices in my everyday life. It is an effective tool, using the strategy of economics (the sum of all human action), to empower the individual and peacefully create a better economic and political human structure.
As a quick note on why agorism is the most effective means for change that we can participate in, allow me to make one point: The government is a monopoly on force: they are the only entity that uses force and violence to achieve their ends without any consequences to them. There is no private entity that can murder, rob, patronize, or violate human rights on such a large scale that the government does, with no one to be held accountable. This also means that the government does not have to offer you anything of value to be successful; you have no choice but to participate. All of it's funding and power comes from the use of force or the threatening of violence (coercion), therefore it has little incentive to improve its performance, even if many find it disagreeable.
On the other hand, in the market a business/organization operates on voluntary exchange: they MUST offer you something of value for you to give them your funding and support. They also have consequences for their shortcomings, such as losing subjects and revenue if their product or policies are bad.. in turn losing their business. Since the power and funding they receive is based on customers voluntarily giving their money to them, they have a lot more incentive to keep improving how they serve their fellow man. Furthermore, in a free-market system there is always room for competition, which drives the entrepreneurs to always be improving. While the free-market is not utopian by any means, corporate power that reigns over the US is only possible because of the government's powerful influence and manipulation on the market.
This is fundamentally why voluntary exchange is so important for peaceful and efficient systems. This is also why our current system of government will NEVER improve, no matter who is in office or what policies are reformed. The use of force inherently creates a faulty system of bad economic incentives and a dirty system of crooked politicians with too much power.To combat this faulty system, we have four options: do nothing, try to change the system from within through voting and democracy, tear the system down using violence, or create a new system that is so good, the old one becomes obsolete. Naturally, the most pragmatic option is also the most likely: we must begin to build a new system and allow the current out-dated one to become irrelevant and collapse in on itself. There are many intelligent strategies of doing this, and agorism is surely at the center stage.
The term agorism was founded in the 1970's by Samuel Edward Konkin III as a means to create a society based on voluntary exchange. There are several key concepts of agorism which we use to create a new system:
1. Counter-Economics: Being independent of the State in our economic affairs, deeming them irrelevant
2. Self-Sufficiency: Being independent of the State in our personal lives, being empowered to support ourselves
3. Education: Teaching and educating ourselves and others is immeasurably powerful, not only in the realm of agorism, but in any hope for a better life and a better world
4. Alternative Currencies: The monetary system is one of the main pillars that gives the State the power it has; using alternative currencies (Bitcoin, gold, cryptocurrency, bartering system, etc.) strips the State of its manipulative power over the economy (i.e. the Federal Reserve) and gives it to the individuals involved in the transaction
5. Entrepreneurship: Creating your own business, even if only a small side-hustle of selling your art, your books, your skilled work, etc., utilizing the counter-economy (also called the black and grey market) is inestimably powerful in creating a society of voluntary exchanges and empowering yourself to offer value to the market
6. Direct Action: Using direct action to build a new system, rather than trying to change it through a faulty system that produces similar results every time
When you go to your local Farmer's Market and purchase a box of tomatoes, that's agorism. When you sell your old books on Craigslist, that's agorism. When you hold a yard sale, selling your old stuff to people for a price that they are willing to pay (possibly even accepting a worthy barter or a currency other than US dollars), that's agorism. Working under the table and employing freelance jobs is agorism.
It really is that simple: voluntary exchanges between people that don't require a middleman (the State) to interfere and take their own cut of your business (taxation) is agorism. It is that profoundly simple to begin building a new system and letting the State become irrelevant, and the seeds are being planted for this type of non-violent revolution every day.
What's more: creating an alternative source of media when the mainstream media has become over saturated in political agendas is agorism; treating yourself with effective homeopathic remedies (such as cannabis oil) when the healthcare industry only offers you harmful pharmaceutical options is agorism; creating a platform of education that is more affordable and effective than college is agorism; creating special economic zones, private cities, or startup societies where new policies can be tested and compete with the policies of our current existing government is agorism on a wide-scale.
Agorism, to reiterate, is individuals offering the market better alternatives and solutions to destructive corporate and government actions that currently act as a barrier to the conscious evolution of humanity.
This is a brief introduction to agorism, a concept I will be indeed elaborating on more in the future and updating my own agorist projects on this blog. Nonetheless, I leave below some resources for the curious mind interested in cultivating this powerful tool into their life.
Agorism Info
The Mises Institute
Quick Video of Agorist Ideology
What is Voluntaryism?
Foundation for Economic Education
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Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:
https://aetherealself.wordpress.com/2017/01/18/agorism-empower-yourself-and-the-people-around-you/
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Yes my other blog :)
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Great blog and thanks for sharing. Upvoted and shared on twitter. Stephen
https://twitter.com/StephenPKendal/status/821868632762449922
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Agorism is a great idea but in the absence of government anarchy will become the order of the day.
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