The New Libertarian

Agorism is a political philosophy that advocates for a society based on voluntary interactions and free markets, without the presence of, or interference from the state. Counter-economics is the practice of engaging in economic activities that are outside the control or regulation of the state, such as black markets, grey markets, bartering, cryptocurrencies, entrepreneurship, etc. The term "counter-economics" was coined by Samuel Edward Konkin III, the founder of agorism, in his book The New Libertarian Manifesto . In this blog post, I will explain the main ideas and principles of agorism and counter-economics, and how they can be applied in our daily lives. I will also discuss some of the benefits and challenges of living as an agorist in the modern world. Agorism is based on the concept of the agora, which was the public marketplace in ancient Greece where people could exchange goods and services freely and peacefully. Agorists believe that the agora is the natural and spo

If someone asked you what your favorite emotion was, how do you think you’d answer? For many people, I suspect they would answer “Happiness”, “Joy'', or some variant of exclusively positive emotion. Someone may think more meticulously and answer with “Contentment”, which while a positive emotion has a lot of nuance attached to it. However my answer to that question is what I feel others would consider more orthodox: Bittersweet. Pleasure accompanied by suffering, not exactly most people’s first pick but from my perspective pain is necessary in order to enjoy the pleasure that life gives you. Perhaps I'm over-romanticizing but there’s something to desire from looking back fondly at times where you were hurting and seeing yourself in a better place in the present. Perhaps you finally have moved on from “The one who got away” and can look back on those times with fondness. Perhaps you are sharing stories of a friend or family member at their funeral and though they may never w

Of course cultural degeneracy shouldn’t be “normalized.” The fact is, the recent conversation propelled by some right-libertarians has been entirely fallacious from the get-go. Cultural decline is the direct result of central bankers manipulating the rate of interest & in no way justifies the initiation of force on otherwise peaceful people. It helps to understand the root causes of social phenomena. Degeneracy is a function of time preference. Those with a high time preference generally place a higher value on present conditions than future conditions. These folks are more likely to engage in risky behavior like drug use, sexual promiscuity, & binge eating - preferring present satisfaction over the long term consequences of their behavior. In contrast, those with a lower time preference place a higher value on future conditions than present conditions. Since adults with children have a vested interest in future conditions, they tend to fall in this category. Also, since consu

In March 2020 - some say earlier, but by March 2020 at latest - the banking had sector collapsed. In response, coronavirus was manufactured as a scapegoat to justify the liquidity injection necessary to keep the Federal Reserve’s ponzi scheme alive. The State’s narrative would henceforth be: ‘Since all businesses were shut down, an unprecedented amount of money must be printed and distributed to the public.’ Milton Friedman’s helicopter money had come to fruition. But like a junkie chasing his initial high, the Fed had become immune to the effects of monetary stimulus. Each injection requiring a stronger, more potent dose of cheap & easy money. Less than two years later, and the effects of that stimulus have now waned & the banksters are poised to pull off another heist. As the business cycle continues to ebb and flow until the day of final reckoning, the State can be expected to behave in an increasingly erratic fashion. Like a cornered cat, or a fish out of water, the State

The old guard built this movement. Without them, it’s unlikely any of us would be aware that a liberty movement even exists! This alone is an accomplishment. And the history books will look favorably upon them for it - & justifiably so. Their preference for a political approach however, has been ineffective at bringing about liberty (just take a look around, if you’re still permitted). Progress hasn’t just stagnated, we’ve been losing ground rapidly. It’s time for a paradigm shift. One that moves away from the old way of thinking & instead focuses on teaching people how to opt out of corrupt systems & to build competing, market-based alternatives to state institutions. Like sports teams, ideas also get tired & worn out, old players retire, & new, fresh ideas take their place. In the world of ideas, when paradigm shifts occur, the old guard resists the change at first, but eventually comes around to seeing the benefits and virtues of the new way. This is how progres

One common misconception about agorism - one that’s even held by many agorists - is that we’re natural adversaries of Hans Hoppe, or that his & Konkin’s philosophies are mutually exclusive. Nothing can be further from the truth. Agorists & Hoppeans are in fact, natural friends. True, agorists don’t advocate covenant communities or secession, and hoppeans don’t see counter-economics as the way forward - but there’s plenty of common ground nonetheless. For one, agorists & hoppeans share a common legacy rooted in logic. Agorism is born out of the application of logical consistency to the socio-economic arena. Likewise, Hoppe was and is a master logician. Argumentation ethics is a purely logical argument and perhaps the most important academic contribution to the social sciences in the past 50 years. Agorists and hoppeans also share an unparalleled mastery of economics. Whereas agorism exists exclusively in the economic sense, Hoppe’s mastery of economics imbued his followers w