Agorism: Empower Yourself, Empower Others

  

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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