Unity of Free Thinkers: The Root of the Counter-Economy
Agora-Rising: Episode 1
A detailed look into how we can free ourselves from traditional politics with alternative strategies towards decentralization.
A New Paradigm
We seek to liberate humanity from the violent institutions that rule and degenerate our race. This means we also seek to free humanity from the violent viewpoints of reality that have been embedded into our minds by these institutions, as a measure for them to maintain control. Humanity's perception is manipulated by these violent forces on conscious and unconscious levels, yet it is this perception that influences the sum of all human action. The sum of all human action being synonymous with economics, the mental health of individuals is a root influence of our strategies to create freedom in this world. Encouraging humanity to act in freedom is encouraging humanity to think, feel, and love in freedom; all activities that are discouraged by the powers that be. We seek structures that are more free, but to achieve this we need to be more free to be able to visualize and consistently create structures that are truly better.
This means if we take responsibility for our actions, then we must accept responsibility for our internal states. This work proves more challenging, yet more worthwhile. “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate”, as Carl Jung said. Creating freedom must be more than a good intention; even the most wicked and ignorant have “good intentions” and history shows blind compassion has been just as destructive as blind hatred. To truly make a positive impact on others, one has to be brave enough to go within themselves, see their unconsciousness, and shine light upon their own darknesses. This hard work is how we liberate ourselves from self-destructive, ignorant, malevolent, insensitive, greedy, and blind behavior that is within all of us. These negative behaviors sabotage not only individual lives but collective movements and so we must be aware of this when trying to put our good intentions of creating freedom out into the world. It is consistent in our Agorist strategy to be the change we wish to see, not only on physical level, but also a mental level of encouraging people to be internally free from the collective mental mold that condones violent conditions. Most people are not; many live in active or passive fear in their day to day lives which leaves little room for them to worry about the broader concerns of humanity. The move towards freedom is more than physical, it is internal.. where all liberation and drive for physical freedom comes from. The current power structure is in place not by violence alone, but by engineered ignorance.
We are the pioneers of a post-political world. We are creating the initial momentum towards a humanitarian vision: a world made up of new kinds of communities. We can visualize a paradigm of different decentralized communities that operate on voluntary actions and agreements, rather than the current structures that rely on needless force, violence, and particularly the deeply instilled ignorance that perpetuates it. We must realize this is truly a remarkable and archaic development that is greater than ourselves, for it is the onset of a completely new paradigm and it has already been set into motion by the people who can visualize it. To truly create a positive landmark for freedom and peace, the movers and shakers of this movement must be mentally healthy, strong, and adaptable. This is especially true as humanity grows more complex and chaotic.
Many people still cannot visualize this decentralized paradigm, but all new and radical ideas always cause friction to the status quo of the masses and this is nothing to be discouraged by. We need not be afraid to free ourselves from the collective mold. For the true movers and shakers of this world are not masses of ignorant and willing followers, but those who have the integrity and willpower to actually explore their individuality and create something powerful. That being said, the daily small actions of billions of people is the sum of the economic and political paradigm. Together, these concepts demonstrate the real power of an individual who is not afraid to stand out and speak the truth in an intelligent way. For these movers and shakers are the people that will influence the following masses, which will influence the sum of all human action. We are already seeing a shift as things are changing and this is a fertile time for those individuals who see the humanitarian vision to put in the work they feel called to do. On a deep level, this is what Agorism is about: contributing your piece of the puzzle, no matter how grand or small, to the new world you want to create and suffocate the old paradigm which relies on your complacency. The individual is more empowered than ever in this age. The results of an individual who takes the energy to know and heal himself, to discover his gifts and weaknesses, to commit to a life of goodness which aids in clearing the mind and heart for growth, to consciously use their energy, money, business, talents, etc. to create the world they want to see, rather than mindlessly support the conventional reality which is constructed by the State for its preservation. You create your reality in many ways; we all do and it all influences each other in a very interconnected manner. This realization creates fertile grounds for transformative change on an individual and a collective level and naturally proposes a great menace to existing power structures which seek (and must) influence the perception of reality of the masses.
Creating Freedom
Agorism is using our energy wisely to build the new, rather than destroy the old.
While challenging and resisting the State can be helpful in this process, the ultimate cause for the demise of the State is going to be the State itself. It’s unsustainability is inevitable. Those unfavorable factors that have kept its power thriving are likely the same variables that are going to be the cause of its demise. The violence, the inefficiency, the incompetence, the lack of common sense, the victimizing of non-violent people, the contradiction to the wants and needs of the citizens, the theft of wealth from honest labor, the giving up of morality for material gain, etc. It receives more resistance everyday from every direction, creating enemies out of people who used to not care. This is a process which will take time. We aim to encourage this questioning of authority but importantly provide solutions and non-violent alternatives to it. Knowledge and implementation of alternative solutions will provide working models of better ideas, which naturally destroys the deeply rooted illusion of State governance being a “necessary evil”. We must develop new intelligent and humanitarian structures for people to contemplate and furthermore for people to use when the current one collapses. We have to work together to build this new free-market so well that it out-competes the State. This is how we can work towards actualizing Agorist principles. In essence, this means working towards consciously accelerating the process of decentralization of power.
On a large scale, we are creating a market of governance which will consist of many different kinds of governances for many different kinds of people. It is a needless setback in this movement to have the common dogma that there can only be one kind of legitimate economic system that works the best and is the most efficient for the whole world. As Agorists, we need to transcend this unconscious notion that it can only be one way. In the free market of governance in which traditional politics is truly extinct, there will be entrepreneurs of many kinds with many different ideas implementing various decentralized structures, ranging from anarcho-capitalism to communism. I will elaborate on how the framework of voluntary governance could allow for more possibilities than one may realize.
While I am no fan of communist structures, if people who support such ideas should want to create a community of willing communists on their own private property, how is that my business? So long as all participants are voluntary and do not coerce others, I can co-exist with these people from afar just fine. Though we may vary greatly on economic principles, we can promote the same idea of creating a decentralized free-market of voluntary governance. This means if we respect each other’s views we can cooperate on freeing ourselves from the involuntary State, even with people who don’t share our exact individual beliefs. In a free-market of governance, we would co-exist with different ideas so long as they do not violate the Non-Aggression Principle. It is characteristic of any good market to have many choices available, and the market of governance is not different.
A variety of voluntary economic structures is actually beneficial for the movement towards freedom from illegitimate coercive governance, for it creates multiple models of decentralized startup societies. Not all startup societies are the same and not all will be successful. In the nature of the market, the ones that are faulty will fail and will ultimately prove as helpful experiments and lessons in modern governance. If it is true that communism cannot work, what better way to finally prove this axiom true than to let it play out on its own under voluntary agreements? How else could we finally let communism die than to let those who say "real communism has never been tried" to go off on their own, create what they think real communism is, and let the result speak for itself? If we truly want to manifest a new paradigm of governance, we open our minds to the broader spectrum of humanity and realize we aren’t always up against people who disagree with us. If both parties can simply respect the principles of voluntary agreement, regardless of their other economic and political principles, they could cooperate quite harmoniously. In many ways I am an anarcho-captialist, but I can't be entitled to think that form of governance is going to work for all people, of all cultures, of all geopolitical regions, of all time, everywhere. Humanity is far too diverse for that kind of universal global mentality.
If we want to manifest a decentralized paradigm of governance, we must be able to visualize, at least vaguely, what we are creating here. In doing that, we need to have some humility and be realistic concerning the nature of humanity. If your ideal system is so great, perhaps work on creating a model of it with voluntary participants. You may see great results, yet you can't force your good idea on people. If it is truly a good idea, keep building and people will come when they are ready.
Unity of Free Thinkers
All of this being said, with so many shifts in the consciousness of humanity, I truly believe now is the time that as a movement of freedom and peace lovers, we work together to build the counter-economy that is more peaceful, efficient, and prosperous. I emphasize unity and cooperation in this. We praise the free-market for its individual cooperation and diverse options, yet when it purposes a “meta” solution to the problem of governance, some get cold feet. It is hard for anyone, let alone anarchists, to get along, but it is the only way a market can work. Especially in its young phase, this market is dependent upon the collaboration and support of each other and doing peaceful business with each other. This is how we can decentralize power. There is a lot of work to be done by individuals, but this also means building that network, connecting and building your community, and relating to other people on a level they can understand. Going back to the internal influence of action, this means cultivating patience and humility. Realistically, a lot of people are still scared, confused, and angry. If you come at them with that same mentality, there isn’t much logic in how you expect to get anything productive done.
It isn't always necessary to shove your principles down people’s throats for them to realize they are self-governed. Our inner states reflect our outer states and we should remind ourselves that those who can't perceive external freedom likely are suffering with their own bondings within their individuality. It might be worthwhile to have some compassion because we all suffer from various problems of self-worth and this common neurosis is in many ways created by the State, our enemy, in the first place. Being aggressive, even ideologically, to uneducated Statists is like shitting in your own nest. While it is their responsibility to get their mind out of the hands of cultural engineers, you know that the State mental manipulation is strong. There was a time when you didn’t know what you know now, either. High power structures clearly do not want people to know who they are or what they are really worth. They lead people into the collective cesspool of unclaimed negativity where feeble minds go to get their soul slowly sucked out of them. If you truly wish to spread positive change, you won't beat those who are still under control down for this but realize the root of it is the very thing you’re trying to refute. By feeding into their negativity, you're perpetuating the very paradigm you say you're trying to transcend. I am easily frustrated by Statists, so I understand it is hard. However, it is true that with more freedom comes more responsibility and it’s your prerogative to be consistent in your principles.
Together, practicing the many different strategies of agorism can free us of politicians. For it simultaneously siphons the power and illusion of legitimacy from the State (making it weaker, not a god), it consciously redirects this economical energy towards building a collaborative vision of a better structure (making the alternatives stronger), and it also is so elegant that in this process it creates a mechanism for the transition of these two very different paradigms. The transition aspect is important because many can't visualize how we would implement Voluntaryism into reality. Building the counter-economy causes ripples of decentralization of power in ways that actually creates a very helpful bridge when multiplied. As agorists, we lay the groundwork down for the counter-economy while it is still challenging and frictional to the status quo in hopes of creating an economy that is one day not only more peaceful, but more efficient. A market that is so prosperous where one day even the average docile citizen would rather use and benefit from the counter-economy than the State. This is how we can create a structure that outcompetes the State. People will come for the better service, and stay for the decentralized revolution.
It is helpful to visualize this goal. While being overconfident can be a fatal mistake, having the vision and a degree of healthy optimism will prove useful in actualizing a decentralized paradigm of governance. The one thing all entrepreneurs have in common is that they had faith that their crazy vision would actually work. We need not be discouraged by the naysayers. For this vision of peace, unity, and freedom is one that has seen more resistance than you could fathom and yet has outlived all men, all tyrants, all totalitarian governments, all suffering, and all the defeat that haunts our human history. And it will continue to do so; it does not die. In fact over time, it only gets stronger, especially with a higher quantity of individuals BRAVE enough to dare to believe in it. People mock faith but don’t realize it is something that is actually really hard to have and furthermore is very powerful to cultivate.
The grip the State has on the general perception of humanity is a root obstacle of our goal. Dominating institutions lead people to live and perceive a gray reality where we are powerless, society is hopeless, war is perpetual, people are all evil worthless bastards, life is meaningless and you have no gifts or purpose, etc. The picture of reality the mainstream media paints is not only inaccurate but terribly boring and pathetic; to achieve any kind of freedom, people must break free of this psychological mold. Yet many people are consciously and unconsciously living this perspective without realizing that it’s always been in their power to get out of it and create something worthwhile with their lives. As Agorists, this is what we are encouraging: freedom. I truly believe this. The Agorist movement is more than economic regimes; it has soul because it is about living out freedom to create freedom. Liberation reaches way deeper within you than your material life. Freedom is a way of life, a way of letting go of what doesn't serve you and making room for new creative expressions to manifest. Freedom is everything and it is the greatest tragedy that we live in a authoritative machine which suppresses the very inklings of freedom for its survival. This is degenerating our race again and again. For those who see this, who have this vision, who have the integrity and strength, the willingness to take responsibility for our actions as humans, to walk a path that is riddled with challenges on all levels: it is up to us to keep building the framework for the new paradigm. We must collaborate together wisely; no one can do this alone.
Conclusion
This revolution is going to take time. Yet we need this time. This is our time to grow and build amazing projects. This is our time to be internally strong and adaptable, and not get distracted by the chaos of the state media (which is only going to get worse and more weird). We must be internally free to hold on strong to our vision and create it together with consistency.
As an agorist it pays to be patient and compassionate with your fellow beings. This movement is going to take time and steady energy. Many still can’t conceptualize alternatives to what they have always known. Many people aren't ready to take responsibility or to have their illusion of reality shattered; having your reality shattered is such a difficult time that the brain has an unconscious defense mechanism against it called cognitive dissonance. Yet, their opinions do not stop us from building our ideas and those who do seek solutions in time will find them. Our country has been brainwashed and socially engineered for so many generations that the fact that any free-thinking people still exist is a miracle.
If you see the falling of the state by its own incompetent hand is inevitable, you might agree our focus as Agorists now is to cooperate the best we can, in any way our individual lives allow us to, to BUILD the counter-economy strong and let the free market speak for itself. Actions speak louder than words.
Realize that we are the movers and shakers of this world now, not the government elitists which lose legitimacy in the public eye more everyday. This announcement is not going to be admitted on the news, but look ahead of the curve and you know this to be true. I invite you you to detach from the crafted reality of the collective and look around; you will see that it is true. So don't be afraid to put in that work now, for the opportunities are ripe. We are drawn to create something bigger than ourselves that follows the primordial vision of peace, despite the friction of the masses who don’t understand yet. There is a reason we are drawn to this, it’s the evolution and it’s hard work.
If you take anything away from this, let it be the deep realization that we need to be innovative in how we communicate and collaborate with others in this movement. One does not have to sacrifice her individuality to learn how to work with others effectively. In the free-market of voluntary governance (emphasis on free), it will not matter if you're economic principles are anarchist, libertarian, socialist, communist, or whatever so long as you resonate with the notion that as a race we must evolve past the need for violence and coercion. Diversity of choices is a virtue of the market, not the enemy. Most individuals condemn murder, mass murder, theft, kidnapping, harassment, poison, and manipulation, yet these behaviors are considered acceptable and legitimate by the mobs who currently run very influential institutions. Those of different ideas can cooperate and work together to create something so innovative it allows for diversity in principles, while still refuting and moving past the unnecessary need for violence and involuntary force. To do this we not only need to move past violence, but the ignorance that holds it all in place.
This is how we can begin to visualize implementing voluntaryism in reality. With this vision, we can truly start to build, cooperate, and think outside of the box.
