Thankful For Agorism
If there’s one thing I’ve been thankful for this year, it’s been my choice to pursue agorism.
Being a modern day agorist who was raised by the internet, it’s only natural that my agorist lifestyle led me to a remote, at-home sort of lifestyle. I started that specific struggle years before the majority of the rest of the world.
I’ve tried everything: permaculture urban farming, freelance security work, starting and running an international anarchy/agorism conference in Acapulco, numerous restaurants, and so much more. At this point, I feel like I am reaching what for me is the best case scenario, and I’m doing what I can to share what I’ve learned with the world.
Because, the fact is, I haven’t suffered this 2020. I live in rural Mexico where mask culture never got too crazy. I never felt seriously oppressed beyond a few weeks at the start of the year when I got myself into a less than ideal working situation.
But the beauty of agorism taught me that I could leave that bad working situation for something better. I didn’t really have a plan beyond “rebuild my website” worked up for that though.
At the time, I was only writing for Agorist Nexus, none of the other stuff I do now like podcast editing, graphic design, and web administration. I was also doing a bit of freelance work with Rayo from Liberty Under Attack Publications.
Then, coronavirus hit and work basically dried up with LUA. At the same time I stepped up my role here at Agorist Nexus in a mutually exclusive arrangement over this past year. I also partnered with Cat Bonadin of The Homestead Guru to completely redo how we do things. We’ve managed to kick out Google ads and completely decentralize our income this year to literally make a whole new Homestead Guru.
Sometime in the spring, I started working as a virtual assistant for the podcast, A Beautiful Thought, the masterpiece brainchild of Kurt David Robinson. It’s hard to know where to start with this one honestly. Not only does it provide stable income for me, the workflow fits into my morning routine perfectly. Beyond that, the content is incredible; you can hear the love and effort that Kurt puts into these little messages that are really just intended to make us all a bit happier. Beyond that, Kurt is likely one of the most understanding humans I’ve worked with.
About once a month, I do transcription for a friend. It’s one of my favorite hustles, especially when it’s about interesting topics, and I learn new things in the process. Which is always, currently.
Then, sometime in these next few months without really even trying, I manage to start a thriving crochet business. I’ve figured out more or less a way to get my things across the border in a decentralized manner, so it’s just a matter of taking orders and making it happen at this point. And I’ve managed to do so to the point where I joke about getting paid to watch Netflix.
The interesting thing about crochet is it’s my true passion. It’s the one thing I do that feels like breathing to me. I can just do it all day long. I get frustrated with a project, make another one as a “break,” and then go back to deliver some pretty cool things to my customers. So, being able to get paid to sit there and do that all day on top of the other amazing things I do is INCREDIBLE.
So, to everyone in my family who ever told me that I wouldn’t make money watching TV and sitting on the internet, you obviously were not prepared for the modern day agorist. The Internet agorist, if you will. Realistically, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
And while we’re on this topic, sometime in the end of summer, I got the idea to write an ebook to compile the arts and crafts I’ve been doing over the last 2 years since that famous murder in Acapulco back in 2019 I had the displeasure of having my life ruined by. I realized there were a lot of my crafts I’d made exactly no money on, and in an effort to recoup the cost, I wrote this book. If you can’t capitalize on the items themselves, do so with the knowledge! The fact is, the majority of things I make for my customers are done without a pattern, totally freestyle.
I started writing down what I did, and it took me about 3 months between writing, compiling photos, and putting it all together to come up with the finish product, released last week on the Homestead Guru store, which I built myself, by the way. Also, the store accepts cryptocurrency for all our products, including Cat’s Whole Life Detox course. I’ve been busy, really busy.
The book is called “Stitching My Life Back Together: One Woman’s Crafty Journey After Losing Everything to a Murder”. I wrote the book, used hundreds of photos I took, and compiled it together to be a graphic design masterpiece. Then I published, did the self-promotion and sales all myself, too.
And the reality is, my situation is not that special. I’ve been noticing a lot of the true agorist types who have been struggling to put these lifestyles into place are now achieving some success. We’ve been trying to work from home for years. While we may have had to get creative this year (I certainly did), those who do the work are coming out on top.
Even my partner, the budding agorist who doesn’t call himself an agorist, has been experiencing success in the growth of his business teaching English/Spanish classes online. I see similar things with artists, making their living off their craft instead of the jobs they had grown too comfortable in pre-coronavirus; so many people this year started working from home and realizing the freedom the comes with that.
For this reason, the final two chapters of my book are about agorism and starting a business. I’ve had many people reach out to me in regards to learning to monetize themselves. Recently, I’ve even started doing Bitcoin consultations for money as yet another side hustle, and a lot of what people want to know is, “Okay, but how do I get paid in it?”
The interesting thing now is we don’t need to rant and rave the way we used to. Just subliminally insert our seeds of agorism here and there among those we care about. My goal with spreading agorism isn’t to make it more popular or make everyone start doing it. The goal here for me is to help those looking for an alternative way to live with the information they need to start changing their lives.
Life is quite nice here outside of the rat race. Who’s joining me?
Things referenced in this post:
https://thehomestead.guru/
Lily Forester
Lily Forester is a drug war refugee living in Mexico surviving on the agorist lifestyle with her dog, Renegade, and cat, Satoshi. She has been committed to the agorist lifestyle since learning about it in college, where she was being forced to specialize in one field. Agorism suited her multifacted interests and desire for a rich and diverse life. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency became an essential part of her agorist lifestyle in 2012 and she has lived off cryptocurrency since 2014. Currently she survives off the following: writing, audio editing for two podcasts, promotion, crochet, transcription, virtual assistance, and social media management.
