Agorism
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Agorism is an anarchist political philosophy founded by Samuel Edward Konkin III and characterized by proponents as left-libertarian. The ultimate goal of all Agorists is a society in which all "relations between people are voluntary exchanges — a free market."[1]. The term comes from the Greek word "agora" an open place for assembly and market in ancient Greek city-states. Ideologically, it is a term representing a revolutionary type of free market anarchism.[2] The characteristic distinguishing it from other forms of market anarchism is its strategic emphasis on "counter-economics" - untaxed "black" market activity.
The seminal and definitive treatise, Konkin's New Libertarian Manifesto[3], was published in 1980. However, the philosophy was presented fictionally previously in J. Neil Schulman's novel Alongside Night in 1979. He was inspired to portray Konkin's ideas in fictional form by the example of Ayn Rand's proto-libertarian novel Atlas Shrugged, and Konkin wrote an afterword 'How Far Alongside Night?' for the 1987 Avon paperback edition of Alongside Night.
Agorists are propertarian market anarchists who consider that property rights are natural rights deriving from the primary right of self-ownership and are not opposed in principle to collectively held property if individual owners of the property consent to collective ownership by contract or other voluntary mutual agreement. Thus, Agorism can be considered a type of anarcho-capitalism.[4] Agorists consider their ideas to be an evolution and superation of those of Murray Rothbard. Konkin describes agorists as "strict Rothbardians...and even more Rothbardian than Rothbard."[5]
Strategically, agorists are advocates or conscious practitioners of counter-economics (peaceful black and grey markets). Agorism advocates achieving a market anarchist society through advocacy and growth of the underground economy or "black market" — the "counter-economy" as Konkin put it — until such a point that the State's perceived moral authority and outright power have been so thoroughly undermined that revolutionary market anarchist legal and security enterprises are able to arise from underground and ultimately suppress government as a criminal activity (with taxation being treated as theft, war being treated as mass murder, et cetera).
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[edit] Early publications
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J. Neil Schulman, managing editor of Konkin's magazine New Libertarian at the time of its first publication in 1979, first promoted the philosophy of Agorism in his novel Alongside Night, which he began writing in 1974, when he was an editor for Konkin's magazine, New Libertarian Notes. On their cross-country automobile trip from New York to California in August 1975, Konkin and Schulman outlined a book to be co-authored by them titled CounterEconomics. When the outline and sample chapters for CounterEconomics failed to achieve a contract with an advance from a major publisher, Schulman went back to work finishing Alongside Night while Konkin devoted his energies to his own magazine publishing before eventually writing The New Libertarian Manifesto and An Agorist Primer, scheduled to be published by Victor Koman's KoPubCo, which published the most recent edition of The New Libertarian Manifesto. Before his death Konkin completed a manuscript for CounterEconomics which is also scheduled to be published by KoPubCo.
[edit] Counter-economics as revolutionary theory
According to a short summary of the agorist conception of market anarchist revolution, Agorist Revolution in a Nutshell:
Agorism is revolutionary market anarchism.In a market anarchist society, law and security will be provided by market institutions, not political institutions. Agorists recognize, therefore, that those institutions can not develop through political reform. Instead, they will come about as a result of market processes.
As government is banditry, revolution culminates in the suppression of government by market providers of security and law. Market demand for such service providers is what will lead to their emergence. Development of that demand will come from economic growth in the sector of the economy that explicitly shuns state involvement (and therefore can not turn to the state in its role as monopoly provider of security and law). That sector of the economy is the counter-economy — black and grey markets.
– Brad Spangler, Agorist Revolution in a Nutshell
[edit] Views on property
By preferring the term "free market" agorists feel they are not bound by the implications of the term "capitalism". Government-favored corporations are viewed by agorists to link the illegitimacy of the state to many such businesses. State restrictions that limit liability on corporations are believed to corrupt those businesses such that the upper management acts irresponsibly with corporate assets. For example, if such businesses excessively pay executives and are then unable to meet contractual debts, many state laws protect the wages of those responsible for the bankruptcy. Agorists argue that liability cannot simply disappear by act of government and so legitimate business will always have managers or owners who will be held responsible for any actions taken.
Corporations are creatures of the State, created by it and having two privileges that protect them from market pressures. First, corporate liability for damages to others is automatically limited by fiat; and second, responsibility is shifted away from individuals to a fictional entity. Each of the Cadre assumes full responsibility for his or her actions, though liabilities may be insured.– Merce Rampart, "Chairman of the Revolutionary Agorist Cadre" in Schulman's Alongside Night
Konkin was opposed to the concept of intellectual property rights, and wrote the article "Copywrongs" to explain and support this position. Schulman later took position against Konkin's arguments in "Informational Property: Logorights." While Konkin opposed state copyright and patent laws as constructs of the state, and creators of illegitimate monopoly, as did Benjamin Tucker before him, Schulman argued that the material identity displayed by an original creation could be owned as an exclusive natural property right.
Agorists may promote and argue for reconciliation between writings by authors as different as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and David Friedman in part by acknowledging terminological differences, most evident by the word "property" itself.[citation needed]
[edit] Three types of capitalists
Many agorists, like all anarcho-capitalists, refer to the free market as capitalism. However, according to Konkin, agorists make a 3-part distinction between participants in capitalism.
| entrepreneur[6] or venture capitalist | non-statist capitalist | pro-statist capitalist |
| (good) | (neutral) | (bad) |
| innovator, risk-taker, producerthe strength of a free market | holders of capitalnot necessarily ideologically aware"relatively drone-like non-innovators" | "the main Evil in the political realm" |
Konkin claimed that anarcho-capitalists tend to conflate the first and second types, and implies that "Marxoids and cruder collectivists" conflate all three. [7]
[edit] Political action
Agorists tend to oppose voting and political participation, and at least do not believe that such could ever be an effective means to bring about a free society. They support education and direct action, with a particular focus on counter-economics.
Agorism might be considered an attempt to reconcile anarcho-capitalism with mutualism, left-libertarianism, and libertarian socialism.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Konkin, Samuel Edward. New Libertarian Manifesto
- ^ Agorism is revolutionary market anarchism. Agorism.info
- ^ New Libertarian Manifesto
- ^ Agorism satisfies standard definitions of anarcho-capitalism, including the one in the anarcho-capitalism Wikipedia article. For a discussion, see Discussion on Agorism vs. Anarcho-Capitalism.
- ^ "Interview With Samuel Edward Konkin III"
- ^ Note that an entrepreneur in this instance is not necessarily a capitalist.
- ^ Interview with Samuel Edward Konkin III.
[edit] External links
- Agorism.info
- Agorist Action Alliance (A3)
- The New Libertarian Manifesto
- Interview With Samuel Edward Konkin III
- http://127.0.0.1:8888/SSK@Ly3m~RoTy6qxyGMYTKyziSmAPb8PAgM,88PHE2a2FK2kYfxGUpbnJg/MLL/5// — You must be running Freenet 0.5 for this link to work.de:Agorismus
es:Agorismo fr:Agorisme pl:Agoryzm pt:Agorismo sv:Agorism tr:Agorizm
