Yes, but the collapse of centralized systems through decentralized alternatives does not imply chaos or the perpetuation of the abuses associated with centralized structures. The aim is not to cause disorder but to replace coercive systems with voluntary, accountable, and distributed ones.
Yes yes, you don’t support when bad things happen, you only support good things happening. The problem is that you don’t get to control exactly what things are going to look like, the best you can hope for is to set things in motion and influence the direction in a very broad sense. This is true even in cases with a centralized authority directing things, but it is doubly true in decentralized systems.
G.K. Chesterton once quipped, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” Meaning, when we look at what kind of changes are needed in society, we must envision their worst form or implementation, because nothing ever works out as perfectly in reality as it does in our heads, and if we can still say that changing society in that direction is a good thing even when it is done messily and imperfectly, only then should we really try to push for that change. You do not get to control whether decentralization will look like communities banding together in support or roving bands of mercenaries seizing anything that’s not nailed down with no one to stop them, unless you have an actual means of ensuring that one happens and not the other. All you get to do is open the can of worm of decentralization (although, frankly, you don’t get to do that since you’re allergic to seizing the necessary power to do it) and what happens next is outside of your control.
Of course, so long as you’re content to keep your ideas in the realm of fantasy, you don’t have to worry about any of that. You can just imagine that things would work out perfectly and be satisfied with the thought of it. No need to confront any difficult practical questions. Everyone will simply choose to do good things so you never have to worry about it.
Centralisation persists mainly because it suppresses alternatives through monopolised power rather than due to inherent efficiency.
And how, exactly, is an inferior system able to suppress a superior one?
Decentralization does not promise a flawless outcome or the ability to micromanage every detail, yet it remains a powerful strategy for dispersing power and reducing coercion. Even if the transition to a voluntary, distributed system unfolds in an imperfect way, it still limits large-scale harm far better than centralized authority. It is puzzling why there is reluctance to engage with present-day, bottom-up solutions that people are already creating, such as community-based networks, alternative currencies, and mutual aid initiatives. Agorists are not simply dreaming; they actively put their principles into practice by constructing parallel structures that reduce reliance on the state here and now.
It is not us who stand in the way of any genuine transformation, whether proletarian or otherwise. If you truly believe in a revolution of the proletariat, you will find no direct opposition from agorists, as the shift away from centralised, coercive structures is inevitable anyway.
The anti-market commune defies the only enforceable law – the law of nature. The basic organizational structure of society (above the family) is not the commune (or tribe or extended tribe or State) but the agora. No matter how many wish communism to work and devote themselves to it, it will fail. They can hold back agorism indefinitely by great effort, but when they let go, the ‘flow’ or ‘Invisible Hand’ or ‘tides of history’ or ‘profit incentive’ or ‘doing what comes naturally’ or ‘spontaneity’ will carry society inexorably closer to the pure agora.
And how, exactly, is an inferior system able to suppress a superior one?
Over time, as these parallel systems become more efficient and trustworthy, people naturally migrate toward them and the state’s influence begins to erode. It is not about confronting the state’s monopoly on force in a single decisive battle, but rather outmaneuvering it day by day, demonstrating in tangible ways that voluntary alternatives are more durable and harder to suppress than top-down structures. This shift has accelerated with recent technological breakthroughs which empower individuals and communities to coordinate on their own terms, further loosening the state’s grip.
Yes yes, you don’t support when bad things happen, you only support good things happening. The problem is that you don’t get to control exactly what things are going to look like, the best you can hope for is to set things in motion and influence the direction in a very broad sense. This is true even in cases with a centralized authority directing things, but it is doubly true in decentralized systems.
G.K. Chesterton once quipped, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” Meaning, when we look at what kind of changes are needed in society, we must envision their worst form or implementation, because nothing ever works out as perfectly in reality as it does in our heads, and if we can still say that changing society in that direction is a good thing even when it is done messily and imperfectly, only then should we really try to push for that change. You do not get to control whether decentralization will look like communities banding together in support or roving bands of mercenaries seizing anything that’s not nailed down with no one to stop them, unless you have an actual means of ensuring that one happens and not the other. All you get to do is open the can of worm of decentralization (although, frankly, you don’t get to do that since you’re allergic to seizing the necessary power to do it) and what happens next is outside of your control.
Of course, so long as you’re content to keep your ideas in the realm of fantasy, you don’t have to worry about any of that. You can just imagine that things would work out perfectly and be satisfied with the thought of it. No need to confront any difficult practical questions. Everyone will simply choose to do good things so you never have to worry about it.
And how, exactly, is an inferior system able to suppress a superior one?
Decentralization does not promise a flawless outcome or the ability to micromanage every detail, yet it remains a powerful strategy for dispersing power and reducing coercion. Even if the transition to a voluntary, distributed system unfolds in an imperfect way, it still limits large-scale harm far better than centralized authority. It is puzzling why there is reluctance to engage with present-day, bottom-up solutions that people are already creating, such as community-based networks, alternative currencies, and mutual aid initiatives. Agorists are not simply dreaming; they actively put their principles into practice by constructing parallel structures that reduce reliance on the state here and now.
It is not us who stand in the way of any genuine transformation, whether proletarian or otherwise. If you truly believe in a revolution of the proletariat, you will find no direct opposition from agorists, as the shift away from centralised, coercive structures is inevitable anyway.
Over time, as these parallel systems become more efficient and trustworthy, people naturally migrate toward them and the state’s influence begins to erode. It is not about confronting the state’s monopoly on force in a single decisive battle, but rather outmaneuvering it day by day, demonstrating in tangible ways that voluntary alternatives are more durable and harder to suppress than top-down structures. This shift has accelerated with recent technological breakthroughs which empower individuals and communities to coordinate on their own terms, further loosening the state’s grip.