I found agorism and anarchism at the same time in my life, nearly 10 years ago at this point.  At the time I considered them to mean nearly the same thing. Over the years as I became heavily involved with the modern day anarchist community, I started to note a distinct difference between the two. Perhaps in the past agorism and anarchism were more one and the same but as it stands now, the two are very different. The difference isn’t even so much in concept but it seems deeply rooted in the personalities of those who become involved, heavily influenced with things like technology.

Let’s get into definitions because as we all know people often have different definitions for the same term. For the sake of this article when I refer to anarchism, I refer specifically to anarcho-capitalism. Anyone who’s dipped their toes into the anarchist world knows there’s a flavor of anarchism for everyone, even the communists. The definition of anarcho-capitalism I use is from the Wikipedia page and states:

“Anarchocapitalism is a political philosophy and economic theory that advocates the elimination of centralized states in favor of self-ownership, private property and free markets.”

Agorism (also from Wikipedia): “is a social philosophy that advocates creating a society in which all relations between people are voluntary exchanges by means of counter-economics, engaging with aspects of peaceful revolution plan.”  Right off the bat one of these seems like a plan of action and the other idealistic theory, but we’ll get into that later.

Now, I used to say there are two types of anarchists: those who live in anarchy and those who just talk about it. Now I see that anarchists are simply those who talk and discuss problems caused by the state but generally still live in obedience. This means they continue working jobs in the “rat race”, paying taxes all the while generally complaining about it. Many of these people even live off the government directly for things like disability and medical care. Sometimes they even go as far as to suggest solutions, but as far as actively trying those same solutions, they often stop short.

These people are aware of the problems of the presence of government but are often not at a point to really put the principles to reality. Generally they agree with basic anarchist principles but are “held back” from pursuing liberty in their own life for some reason or another. Like the guys who talk about Bitcoin, gold and silver yet don’t own any. Or those who talk about leaving the United States but never do.

This is more common than you’d think, sadly, especially on social media. It often occurs when people discover anarchism later in life after they’ve already built a life, so to speak. When you have things to lose, you often don’t ever consider risking them for things like more freedom. When you have a family depending on you, quitting that corporate job to become an entrepreneur just isn’t an option (Or so they think. There are always ways to increase personal freedom, even small ways).

But then you have agorists, who oftentimes don’t even realize agorism is what they do (let’s say 70% of my family…). These are the people out there just doing the damn thing, thriving on the hustle and the ability to add value to their world with as little government interaction as possible. These are your homesteaders who sell their produce directly and don’t pay taxes for what they make. These are the farmers selling raw milk even though it’s illegal to do so.  Sometimes it’s the agorist freelancer, someone like myself only willing to work on worthwhile projects paid in cryptocurrency. Think of the jacks and jills of all trades who support themselves by making things and selling them, often for crypto, precious metals or barter. Do you stockpile crypto, gold or silver? Then you’re likely an agorist.

Some fall into this lifestyle accidentally by being poor and working under the table jobs for uncertified skills to support their families. For them it’s not about principles but their actions are inherently agorist whether they realize it or not. Others come with intent to pay as little taxes as possible while maximizing profit for their goods and services, fully intending to circumvent the state and its often ridiculous requirements. Some want to dismantle the current tyrannical system by resisting it actively, in every way. All of these people are agorists to some extent.

The way I see it, the agorist is really just an anarchist who has taken the steps to determine what risks they are willing to take to ensure more personal freedom. The first step to personal freedom is always risk assessment. The more you resist the status quo the bigger target you become, especially from the state — just look at Ross Ulbricht. It’s up to the individual to determine how much they are willing to risk because the government has been known to target agorist people, generally putting them in jail for not paying taxes.

If you go as far as, say, growing cannabis in an illegal area to fulfill a market demand, you could face being thrown in a cage. Even worse as it stands in the United States, resisting arrest can get you killed by the government, so it’s worth mentioning that you could actually be risking your life should you try and stand up for yourself against the police. Illegal markets are also dangerous markets. Due to the commodification of drugs in our culture, they’re literally a substance people die for all over the planet every day. Most people don’t consider that a possibility until it happens to them, myself included. These are all things to consider when embarking on this lifestyle. And for many all the risks are too great. It’s worth acknowledging when that is the case as well.

Some choose to only dip their toes in by, for example, starting to accept cryptocurrency. Some buy cryptocurrency with cash and don’t tell the government of their earnings from the rising price. Some start biking instead of driving to avoid paying gas tax, a low-risk agorist option (other than the fact that biking is dangerous in a culture where texting and driving is the norm). But the fact is every anarchist at some point needs to determine what they are willing to risk for their principles. How far are you willing to go to be free, now?

Now, there are purists out there of course who say you cannot call yourself an agorist if you don’t do absolutely everything possible and take every risk possible to live up to your principles. Putting it simply, there are no perfect agorists. Everyone has their point where they say “no thanks”. There is value in risk assessment because being frank: what good are we as agorists if we’re dead or in jail? This is a reality that any anarchist needs to take to really start living by the principles they say they follow. It’s easy to think of just bucking the system in every way, but the chances of that going well in reality are actually very small.

The step after recognizing the risk involved is to learn to protect yourself and try to live in a way to where you can live this lifestyle with minimal surveillance. Learn what it takes to become a gray man if you should ever need to. Learn how to obscure bitcoin and bitcoin cash transactions to keep yourself out of the eyes of the tax man. Download and use private encrypted messenger apps to keep any communication out of the eyes of big brother.  Determine what it takes to keep your lifestyle going with minimal state interference and make that top priority. After all, what point is the lifestyle if you don’t get to continue it?

And finally, it’s important to see that agorism is a lifestyle choice; it’s more than just a philosophical standpoint. It’s an action plan towards individual personal freedom for right now, not some time in the future when “anarchy” happens. Agorists aren’t waiting on the world to change, we are changing our lives now to reflect what we want to see in the world. It’s about self responsibility in terms of our freedom, the drive to live free in an unfree world. Living in anarchy despite the resistance of the state. It’s not without struggles or risks but in life truly good things are rarely risk-free or easy.

Also, agorists are those who see the only true way to dismantle the state is to replace it with something better. Theory is incredibly important for building a framework of ideals, but for building a lifestyle we need application as well, something much of the anarchist community is lacking as it stands. It’s worth noting I have a long list of “anarchist” friends who are actually agorists without any idea. And perhaps an even longer list of “normies” who fit the bill, as well.