How old is agorism, really? We know the concept was articulated in 1974 by Samuel Edward Konkin III, but I’d be willing to bet the concept in its raw, natural state is a lot older than that.  My theory is that Konkin just developed a political and anthropological label that is agorism to describe something humans have been doing for as long as governments have existed.

Let’s start with the definition of agorism as provided by Wikipedia.

“Agorism is a social philosophy creating a society in which all relations between people are voluntary exchanges by means of counter-economics, engaging with aspects of peaceful revolution.”

Peaceful revolution refers to strategies agorists implement to try and remove monetary support for the state. These include: opting out of fiat money, working tax-free and unreported (under the table), selling things and not paying taxes on it and more. So as far as I’m concerned, anyone who’s actively resisted taxes throughout history is or has been an agorist.

For me personally, as someone raised by agorists who were unaware of it, this seemed to be the natural way of things that I was looking for when I became an adult. I had a hunch that the status quo was not for me and I was exploring all options. I even went to a socialist democrat event to confirm that I wasn’t in that line of thinking. None of it felt natural to me, like I was an elephant trying to be a human.

I first found the concept of agorism when I read about it in the New Libertarian Manifesto when I worked at the library at my college. Immediately it stuck with me more than just about everything else I encountered because it makes the most sense. Agorism was something that suited me, I didn’t have to change myself to suit it like I would have with virtually every other political philosophy.

The idea of changing the world through politics to achieve a world without government seems ridiculous to me and a cumbersome journey at best. The government, at the end of the day, seeks to control markets. If the people take back the control of the market, what use is the government? To me it always seemed a hassle free way to actually start living free instead of just talking about it and trying to bring about “political change.”

Because let’s face it, when I found anarchism I kept coming across the phrase in Ron Paul’s campaign that stuck with me and honestly bugged me: “Freedom in our lifetime”. Like we had to depend on Ron Paul for that.  And he failed, so does that mean it’s no longer a possibility? That’s what I sort of felt after the disappointment of that election before I found agorism.

When I found agorism, I honestly had no idea how recently it had been introduced to the world. When I read about it, it just seemed so common sense it had to just be the natural way of going about things, something ancient.

And when you think about it, history has been a series of struggles over power of the markets between the free people and the state. As long as there have been governments, their prime objective has always been to control the people through the markets. Perhaps on some level the governmental powers realize if we free the market, we free the world. To prove my point, there’s literally a list of events of tax resistance dating back to 1500 B.C on Wikipedia.  Check it out!

How many people have died throughout history in more brutal times for refusing to pay taxes? That’s agorist behavior! That’s actively resisting the status quo where it matters and where it truly affects the common person: the markets. If we take away the funding for the government by only opting to use alternative currency and support agorist markets, we take away all personal power of the government.

This thought occurred to me recently when watching the show Marco Polo on Netflix. It involves a lot of the day-to-day worries of running the silk road. You hear of tax evaders being killed as well as smugglers of illegal goods. Those people were agorists, they just didn’t have a term for it.

And I’ve written about this before, but Mexico has a long history with agorism too. For example, just about every property in Mexico, especially in the places with more freedom, has houses with steel rebar sticking out of the top of them. That’s a tax loophole right there. If your property is unfinished you don’t have to pay taxes on it. So in Acapulco you’d even see hotels with the rebar out the top to avoid taxes.

Also it’s incredibly common to get things cheaper here if you pay in cash and don’t ask for a receipt. You essentially get the tax free transaction and they get to pocket the money and act like it never happened. If you ask any Mexican entrepreneurs they will tell you that avoiding taxes and other regulations is just part of the job.

Looking at that list of historical tax protests it’s actually one of the longest, most in-depth pages I’ve seen on Wikipedia. Even I am a little surprised. Another thing I notice is that there is virtually no place untouched by tax resistance. Tax resistance is cited as a huge factor in the end of many empires including the Egyptian, Roman, Spanish and Aztec empires.

Rothbard criticised agorism as essentially ignoring the problem of the state. The truth is agorists do not ignore the presence of the state, we watch it closely so we can figure out how best to get around the bullshit that comes with it. And historically speaking, active tax resistance has done more to change the world for the better than engaging in already existing political systems. While it’s true we live our lives as if the state didn’t exist, we aren’t ignorant of it. True agorists have to take the time and energy to discern what is worth the risk and what isn’t, for themselves alone.

So for me it’s kind of crazy to consider the first recorded mention of Agorism was in October 1974 at an event called CounterCon. In my opinion, Konkin was the one to articulate the specifics of the concept which really just mimics natural human behavior unfettered by the state. In some ways, I am surprised that these viewpoints were not articulated centuries before just based on the natural human reaction to taxes, which is to revolt.

As far as I’m concerned, agorism has existed as long as there have been governments trying to restrict the free trade of their people. In fact, for many the true mark of a tyrannical government is their ability to control the financial markets because for the people that is the life blood of resources. It pulses constantly in an ebb and flow to provide people with the things they need, all the while exchanging value for value.

Origins of Agorism and Counter Economics.

Agorist Primer Samuel Edward Konkin III