[Samuel Edward Konkin III created a theory of resistance to the state, agorism, that eschewed politics for peaceful but illegal market activity.]
What is Agorism?
Samuel Edward Konkin III, the creator of the political and economic system known as “agorism,” was born in Saskatchewan, on July 8, 1947. Years before he stumbled upon libertarianism and conceived agorism as a statement of his revolutionary ideas, Konkin was already active in student political organizations, heading the University of Alberta’s Young Social Credit League.1 Through his interactions with libertarian luminaries such as Murray Rothbard, Konkin refined his ideas, eventually expounding a “New Libertarianism,” consistent in its application of the principles of the agora, the open marketplace. Political libertarianism, at least for Konkin, was a contradiction in terms, libertarians being opposed to politics in principle. Agorism instead emphasizes the importance of building the “counter-economy,” libertarian economic institutions and enterprises existing outside of the legal strictures of the dominant framework characterized by state intervention and coercion. Agorists regard this counter-economy as a form of nonviolent direct action, a method of simultaneously challenging and evading state power, in the process building a free society based on the principles of unrestricted voluntary exchange. Counter-economics underscores the fact that given the volume of rules, regulations, and licenses already choking economic relations, almost everyone has already participated in the counter-economy in one way or another, perhaps quite unwittingly. By simply paying no heed to arbitrary rules that attempt to prohibit completely voluntary, mutually beneficial trade, agorists are engaged in an attempt to change society without resorting to political action, which agorism regards as capitulating to the existing power structure. Agorists believe that by becoming politically engaged, running candidates and attempting to reform governmental structures and lawmaking, libertarians fall into the trap of politics — the delusion that if we only elect the right person or pass the right law, we can attain freedom. For agorists, the processes and institutions of politics are inherently and unchangeably corrupt and coercive. Konkin thus maintained that it was impossible to accomplish “libertarian ends through statist means, especially political parties.”
As a strategy for achieving political and econo
... keep reading on reddit ➡A famous but oft-overlooked piece by Sam Edward Konkin in "The Journal for Historical Review" entitled "Palestine: Liberty and Justice".
- http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v01/v01p349_Konkin.html
- http://www.scribd.com/doc/97768640/Samuel-Edward-Konkin-III-Palestine-Liberty-and-Justice-Journal-of-Historical-Review-Volume-1-No-4
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For thirty years the conflict raging in the Middle East between Arabs and Israelis has been viewed on tribal partisan grounds. You were either pro-Israel or anti-Israel, and in the latter case, anti-Israel was assumed to be a thin camouflage for "anti-Semitic." With the onset of the 1970s and thanks to the "New" Left, one could be "pro-Arab" rather than just anti-Israel, but the tribalism was expanded, not reduced. Now it was the Arab/Marxist/anti-imperialist tribe against the Israeli/capitalist/Western Democracy camp. Then came the Energy "Crisis" and the division was further muddled by petro-plutocrats lining up with Arabs who were clearly not Marxist and not terribly anti-imperialist.
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In other issues of international importance, from World War II to Vietnam, there was a sense of morality: to which side in a foreign conflict belonged justice? For which side did you cheer in expectation of increased liberty? Not so in Palestine; it was and largely still is assumed we are talking about raw survival: if Israel loses, the Jews will be exterminated (again?); if Israel wins, it might be generous and dole a little noblesse oblige to the losing Arabs. Heads they win, tails they win.
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There has been a third view of "plague on both your houses," but few of any ideology or intellect or religious commitment have attempted to assess the Palestinian Question (however posed) in terms of maximizing justice. The defenders of Israel will cry "aggressor" at surrounding Arab states rattling their sabres at the Israeli state, but revert to amoral technical discussion when Israeli border expansion or internal treatment of non-Jews comes up.
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To find the fourth position of evaluation of historical causation of the present Palestinian situation combined with a determination not to increase the injustice by intervention, one has to look beyond the Left/Right, Zionist/anti-Semitic speeches. As early as the late 1960s, Murray N. Rothbard called exactly for that in his publication Libertarian Forum at the very beginning of the modern libertarian movement.
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Revisionism on the World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam, was integral to libertar
... keep reading on reddit ➡
>Saddiq Bey said he would text and FaceTime the guys in protocols so that they didn’t feel alone.
>Asked Saddiq Bey why he started wearing the headband: “Last year, I tried to put it on. It didn’t look right. My hair wasn’t the shape I wanted it to be. … it was a coincidence.”
