Author: Wendy McElroy

Anarchists Who Vote Are Like Atheists Who Pray

Anarchists Who Vote Are Like Atheists Who Pray

The similarity lies in the inconsistency displayed between stated belief and actions. In reality, however, the consequences of an anarchist who votes are far worse than mere inconsistency. An atheist who sinks to his knees is engaging in a personal act that has no necessary impact on the right of others to remain standing. By
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State Heretics and State Infidels

The term statolatry refers to worshiping the state as the source of goodness to which all else should be subordinated. In statolatry, instead of having a separation of church and state, the state replaces the church and becomes its own religion. In his book Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War,
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The Enemy: Unjust Authority

Tucker understood unjust authority as any coercive force not developed spontaneously and naturally out of the constitution of the individual himself or herself. (1)(2)(3) For Tucker, the dual buttresses of society by force were the authority of the Church and the authority of the State, a union he referred to as a double-headed monster. (4)
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SEK3, Left Libertarianism, and Anarcho-capitalism Part 3

Anarcho-capitalism is sometimes called market anarchism because it seeks to replace the state with a free market and a system of private property that is based on every person’s right to self-ownership. Whatever market services the State has usurped—the adjudication of disputes, for example—would be addressed by contracts and private agencies.   The origin of
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SEK3, Left Libertarianism and Anarcho-Capitalism, Part Two

Whether or not SEK3 is a founder of Left Libertarianism rests upon how intimately connected his core principles are to those of the movement.    What are the Basic Principles of Left Libertarianism?   A great deal of confusion surrounds the meaning of “Left Libertarianism.” The term is difficult to define with specificity because little
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SEK3, Left Libertarianism and Anarcho-Capitalism, Part One.

Samuel E. Konkin III (SEK3, 1947-2004) is the father of Agorism—a free-market anarchism that envisions a peaceful revolution through counter-economics. Counter-economics consists of every non-violent human action that occurs without the State and within the private sphere. The actions that receive the most attention are those defying the State. SEK3 wrote, “The Counter-Economy includes the
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Review: An Agorist Primer by SEK3

Samuel E. Konkin III (SEK3) died alone on February 23, 2004 of natural causes at the age of 56 in his apartment in West Los Angeles, California. SEK3’s life was dedicated to one ideal: Agorism which is the movement he founded. Agorism seeks to achieve an anarchist society through a peaceful revolution called counter-economics—that is,
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Anthony L. Hargis And The Trusted Third Party Trap

The anarchists who congregated around Samuel E. Konkin III (SEK3) and formed AnarchoVillage had innovative ways of making their money less visible to the state. They evolved systems of black-market money—that is, money that could be earned and spent under the table. Their activities undoubtedly brought them financial benefits but the primary motivations were political
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An Agorist Revolution through Fiction

An Agorist Revolution through Fiction

Suppose you are writing a Science Fiction story set in the future. You want one or more model societies to use as background and possibly contrast. One you consider is libertarian. What should it look like; more importantly, that should it not resemble. Libertarian-like societies have been presented by Heinlein, LeGuin, Russell, Kornbluth, Anderson and
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Anarchovillage: Ground Zero of Agorism

Between 1975-1991, a remarkable 16-year-long event occurred just west of Cherry Avenue at 1838 East 7th Street in Long Beach, California: anarchovillage. The village was an apartment complex, along with an adjacent house, which were serially occupied by agorists, anarcho-capitalists, libertarians, frefans, and various other dissidents; they lived alongside the handful of “normal” renters who
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The Konkin-Rothbard Divide

TAGLINE. A significant event in the history of libertarianism has received virtually no attention: the ideological schism between iconic figures Samuel E. Konkin III and Murray N. Rothbard.   Samuel E. Konkin III (SEK3) founded Agorism—a social philosophy that seeks to create a voluntary society through the peaceful revolution of counter-economics. He defined “counter-economics” as
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Agorism and Intellectual Property Abolitionism

In the early ‘80s, the Los Angeles area was an intellectual feast for libertarians of every stripe because it exploded with supper clubs, student groups, debates, conferences, small magazines, and larger-than-life personalities. The interaction was so politically intimate that a resident wit described libertarians as people “who make a living by selling newsletters to each
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Toward a Vision of Agorist Justice

The simplest way of understanding justice is giving people what they deserve. This idea goes back to Aristotle. The real difficulty begins with figuring out who deserves what and why.—Michael Sandel [Emphasis added] Anarchist justice confronts two broad categories of crime: statism and wrongs done by individuals to each other. Each requires a different approach.
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