An Invitation to Act

It has been said that actions speak louder than words.

In the economy, we know this to be true. There are many minds seeking to shape the world around them. The aspiration of a peaceful and efficient society is not lacking in humanity; it is the understanding of the MEANS towards this aspiration.

While many seek to shape the world around them for what they think is best, it is important they consider their means and ends. Some try navigating change through the government, usually to much futility. Some try changing the world through their ideas and arguments, often to some degree of success.

Yet, there is an alternative and often more effective way to spread an individual's idea: action. For the way you "vote" with how you spend your money will always be more effective than how you cast your vote in a ballot. And how you spread an idea with your actions will always be more effective than by mere arguments alone. And what you create from an theory's practice will always bear more fruit than a theory alone.

It is high time for people to consider effective means to achieve real models of their ideas, rather than mere arguments alone.

This is true as we try to spread individual freedom and liberty in an age where people subconsciously think the government is God. That being said, we must adopt innovative strategies for spreading not just the theory of freedom, but real FREEDOM. The key is using economics of course, a power we all posses.

Yet, this is a vital point that seems to be missing from many libertarian minds when considering the means of economic liberty which I would like to invite you to consider: the PRACTICE of the theory (agorism).

While the economic theory of the market is indeed an important part of the means, it needs applicable practice in the real world to demonstrate it’s true value. Ultimately, the free market will speak for the free market, better than the best economist/philosopher.

I present 3 main reasons of why we must introduce the practice as a strategy just as much as we need to introduce the theory.

The first reason I would like to draw upon is that many people are hands-on learners, and simply don’t want to learn about economics. It seems dreadful and irrelevant to them; they’re not interested. However, when they can SEE the free market at work, this is when they begin to understand. When they can see its effects and actually participate in it, this is when people actually want to learn the theory. It is through my practice of the free-market, agorism, that I have been able to build a community of anarchists where I live, not theory initially. People are hands-on learners, and need to experience a TRUE free-market (instead of the crony capitalism we live in) before they are interested in using the theory.

The second reason is what the practice of the free market creates: believe it or not, economic freedom! It creates a free market, albeit an underground economy, that encourages voluntary cooperation among the people for mutual benefit, it creates peaceful and efficient alternatives to the state, it creates competition with the state, it creates independence for the people, it encourages entrepreneurship, it shows them (not just in theory, but in empirical evidence) the real works of the free-market, even if it must compete alongside a violent state for now. It creates a new economy with the free market, hence it creates an alternative, better system to the current state and encourages people to navigate the free-market.

The third reason is the effects the free-market produces on the State. Free-market action acts as the ultimate civil disobedience to a tyrannical state. It siphons power away from the State’s legitimacy by directing the economic energy elsewhere. In fact, between using alternative currencies, creating private (better) services, and dissolving the illusion of State being the supreme authority of man, it hits every critical pillar of the States power. It siphons away the both the human energy and monetary funding invested into the state, and directs it into a new system: an economy created by the people. There are reasons why the State cracks down on even the smallest acts of commerce: over time, the acts of many individuals has a large impact on the economy and hence our economic freedom.

It comes as a surprise to me that some people who spend so much time thinking and speaking about the empowerment of free-market theory, forget to recognize the markets power when its actually in ACTION, to create a free market. Perhaps they haven't witnessed all of the underground activities that go on, that no matter how small, encourage and build economic freedom at a massive level.

For it is not some huge revolutionary act we need, and it is not an untouchable power keeping the evil at bay: it is the social cooperation of the actions of countless individuals that is the real say of society.

So while of course it is important to spread knowledge of the theory, this attempt is hardly effective without real appliance of the free-market in action. It is the free-market in action that will answer for itself, showing it as an effective mechanism of social cooperation. It is the free-market that will encourage the free-market, and it is the free-market that will out-compete the State.

OR, so through my view. I have seen a transformation just in the small town I live, in people making the move towards individual freedom and away from the State using their economic power. It is nearly the beginning of this movement, and efficient and peaceful private services already are appearing on the market that threaten the State’s legitimacy.

Despite the infighting, Libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, and agorists will agree the free market is the means to peaceful efficiency of the economy, and the epitome of social cooperation. So perhaps instead of trying to only use theory to debate, as a universal Libertarian theory could never exist, to include the practice to spread economic freedom. For is this not the goal of the free-market? To achieve a feedback system from that allows the ideas that satisfy the most to see profit, and the ones that satisfy the least to see loss?

With practice, different flavors of liberty can coexist and compete. This is the remarkable idea of startup societies (special economic zones, private cities, seasteads, etc) , which builds a market of governances.. that will likely one day out-compete State governance in being much more peaceful and efficient, satisfying more people than the current model of a coercive state. In fact, acting as a real model of an idea, rather than just an argument.

In the words of the Startup Society Foundation: “Don’t argue, build”.