Embrace counter-economics fully, completely, and without reservation – and you are at once freed!

Only YOU, the individual can determine the moment of your liberation, since after all, your liberty is exclusively yours and yours alone. No other man can give it to you, but if they could – the last to do it would be the politician or slave master. Thus, it’s bewildering why so many of us make our appeals directly to this particular class of predators. Even more inexplicable is why libertarians would do this – a group with a knowledge base supposedly grounded in self-ownership, natural law, & property rights (alas, I repeat myself).

Only the agorist truly recognizes that no grant of authority was ever given. He, and not the sheriff, determine the extent to which the State intrudes on his life. If he finds such intrusion to be tolerable, he tolerates it. If not, he disregards their imposition. The agorist confidently answers to a higher, natural law – one that empowers the self, and not the parasite.

So yes, agorism is a civilly disobedient strategy, but one that’s hyper-focused on entrepreneurship within the black & grey markets. There’s a reason for this, a method to the madness, so to speak.

The black & grey markets are the only actual free markets in existence, so for one, it makes sense for agorists to spend their time here. But equally important, the black & grey markets, by definition, represent a pool of resources which lies out of reach of the State. To shift or reallocate resources from the state-controlled, white, & pink markets, to the free, black & grey markets, agorists utilize entrepreneurship, drawing on their keen grasp of Austrian economics.

Surely, this puts the agorist at odds with the law man. Unlike sovereign citizens though, who martyr themselves in open defiance of the political class, agorists prefer to be the grey man, and blend into the shadows. This is done through operational security, or OPSEC. OPSEC is a risk reduction process that prevents sensitive information from getting into the wrong hands. Without going into too much detail here, the three keys to OPSEC that are generally recognized by agorists are privacy, secure computing, and encrypted communications.

Is agorism risky? Yes, all revolution is.

Isn’t it more risky to do nothing? Riskier still, to do the wrong thing?

“If I am going to take my licks,” the agorist reasons, “better to take them while being free than being enslaved!”

The risk each agorist incurs is relative to his lifestyle. The 17-year old agorist, a juvenile by the State’s definition but more mature than any voter twice his age, will likely be shielded from state prosecution as an adult, and thus will have a higher risk tolerance. As he ages, starts a family, & takes on additional responsibilities & obligations, his risk tolerance will decrease. Yet he will never be compliant, nor bend a knee in subservience.

Even when the State does manage to uncover an underground operation, the agorist doesn’t sacrifice himself in some pointless, soon-to-be-forgotten, shootout with the State. Rather, like all good civil disobedients, he forces the State to expose their brutality to the masses. For some, it’s the only time they’ll ever face it.

Thus, the agorist cannot be defeated, his effect can only be magnified. Such is the case with the great hero Ross Ulbricht, whose plight has brought millions of Americans face-to-face with the brutality of their masters.

High-risk entrepreneurial opportunities include gun running, drug dealing, immigrant smuggling, underground gambling, & more. Low-risk entrepreneurial opportunities can be found in growing & selling untaxed & unregulated food, crafts, & other homemade items. It can also mean working off the books, for cryptocurrency, or as a contractor supporting other agorists – or all of the above.

The opportunities for modern agorists are virtually endless. As the State becomes increasingly tyrannical, more & more aspects of everyday life will fall into our domain, until eventually, the black and grey markets overshadow the smaller, regulated markets.

It looks something like this…

First, only basic goods and services are provided by agorists. These were the old days, Phase 1 of the Revolution; of pot-selling and bookmaking.

In Phase 2, essential goods & services begin to leak into the counter-economy. Smugglers bring essential items into natural disaster zones, in defiance of price controls. There’s a noticeable shift away from state courts & legal services to private arbiters & mediators.

In phase 3, the State begins to lose control of infrastructure. Microsoft’s Airband, for example, promises free Wi-Fi; NASA shutters the Shuttle program & SpaceX opens anew; cryptocurrency threatens the central bank’s monopoly. Although many continue to see the state as timeless & immoveable, they are now in fact weak, and find it increasingly difficult to maintain their illusion of legitimacy.

This point marks our current location in the agorist revolution.

Finally, when enough resources are relegated to the counter-economy, private defense agencies (PDAs) will arise from the market like a phoenix. These PDAs will not only quickly outcompete the State’s “police,” but will be tasked with defending private property from the State. In time, they will do exactly that, thus defenestrating the political class & liberating man from the tyranny of government.

The key to this story is understanding that liberation from the State only comes after and through individual, self-liberation. Freedom is something inherent within all of us. It’s not something one can “take” or “be given’,’ rather it must be recognized, claimed, nourished, & guarded with fervent jealousy.

For if not, future generations may be reading revolutionary manuscripts like this one…