RER Bonus Edition – What is Agorism?

Purpose

To explain the concepts of Agorists, Counter-Economics, and Agorism and their roots in the
Non-Aggression Principle. Additionally, to explain the differences between SEK3 agorism and
Second Realm activities.

Background

While there may be valid objections to agorism, many of the objections are rooted in a
straw man version of agorism. The straw man version probably exists because it is difficult
(or, at least, not common) to distill agorism into a coherent elevator speech. Unfortunately,
many people who consider themselves agorists or are proponents of agorism lend credence to
the straw man version and/or actively propagate it.

The straw man version of agorism is basically, “the purpose of agorism is to destroy the state
by only doing business on the black market and not voting.”

Non-Aggression Principle

• The non-aggression principle is the axiomatic statement that aggression is inherently illegitimate.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-aggression_principle

  The non-aggression principle (also called the non-aggression axiom, the anti-coercion
  principle, the zero aggression principle, the non-initiation of force, ZAP, or NAP)
  is a moral stance which asserts that aggression is inherently illegitimate. Aggression,
  for the purposes of the NAP, is defined as the initiation or threatening of violence
  against a person or legitimately owned property of another. Specifically, any unsolicited
  actions of others that physically affect an individual’s property or person (which may
  also be considered that person’s property), no matter if the result of those actions
  is damaging, beneficial, or neutral to the owner, are considered violent or aggressive
  when they are against the owner’s free will and interfere with his right to
  self-determination or the principle of self-ownership. Supporters of NAP often use it
  to demonstrate the immorality of theft, vandalism, assault, and fraud. In contrast to
  pacifism, the non-aggression principle does not preclude violence used in self-defense
  or defense of others (not sure if pacifism should be mentioned here; pacifism refers to
  such a wide range of principles – many of which do support self-defense).

• NAP is an individual statement

  • “_I_ will not initiate force or fraud against persons or property.
  • No one can be forced to accept the NAP.

Agorists

• Agorists are individuals who structure their personal relationships, to the extent
  possible, to interact with other individuals who adhere to the NAP by word and deed.
  (does the NAP cover “word” outside of contract (which would be deed)?)
  • In addition to the normal benefits of personal relationships, agorist relationships
    have an additional positive value – a mutual appreciation of the NAP.
  • While not deterministic, someone who has a demonstrated history of non-aggression is
    more likely not to be an aggressor in the future.

Counter-Economics

• Counter-Economics is a method of structuring contracts and business transactions to
  specifically exclude the state as a third party.
  • Reduce or eliminate dead weight loss or parasite drag due to the state.
  • Introduces a separate risk premium.
  • A transaction demonstrates that, ex ante, both parties judged the value of the
    transaction, including the parasite drag reduction and risk premium, to be beneficial.

Agorism

• Agorism is a theory outlined by Samuel E. Konkin III in “The New Libertarian Manifesto”
  about a possible outcome of widespread adoption of counter-economic methods.
  • Agorism: the goal
  • Counter-Economics: the means
  • Revolution: the strategy
  • Action!: the tactics

Inaccuracies and misbeliefs

• “Agorism is a strategy to smash the state.”
• “Agorists can be subjected to an agorist purity test.”
• “Agorism ideologically binds agorists to non-voting.”
• “Counter-Economics means doing business on the black market.”
  (depends on the definition of ‘black market’…)
• “Agorism is a subset/strategy for/practical application of anarcho-capitalism”
• “Counter-Economics is a tax-free flea market.”
• “Agorism is going ‘off-the-grid.’”

The Second Realm

• Autonomy and Temporary Autonomous Zones
• Whereas the NAP is the individual granting liberty to all others, the Second Realm
  is the individual simultaneously grasping liberty for themselves
• Second Realm is also about inviting others into a non-coercive lifestyle by building
  and maintaining areas in which non-coercive institutions/cultural-systems exist.

Reality Exploit Roundtable
Episode 008 Show Notes
Moderator: Plato

Recording Time: 1900 UTC 2012-09-10
Show notes and episode download link: TBD
Intro music by Sun Araw – “Deep Cover”

Panelists

• Voodoo: Black and Yellow Pages, Beer Can Engines
• Smugggler: http://anarplex.net, http://shadowlife.cc
• Plato: Twitter, Reddit
• Hiro: Agorist Radio

Topics

INTRO:

plato introduces panelists

(roll rapnews15.mp3)

Man I love those guys. Let’s start with our first topic, covering the latest in
surveillance – microchipping the kids.

TOPIC 1 – VOODOO

Kansas news station KSN reports that two schools in San Antonio, TX are
mandating RFID badges to track their students. As usual, they say it’s for the
kids’ own safety.

(Clip: intro.rfid.wav)

Voodoo, if we didn’t forcibly indoctrinate kids in our Prussian-style public
school system, they wouldn’t respect authority. I was homeschooled and look at
me, now I’m an anarchist. Tracking kids like cattle is the obvious move for the
control freaks in charge of education who like the status quo. What should these
kids do to beat the system?

Students rebel against tracking
chips – KSN

Wired coverage

How to block RFID signals with
tinfoil

TOPIC 2 – SMUGGLER

Our next topic is on hacking the human brain. Yossarian from #agora has more…

(roll yossarian.eeg.wav)

Hey Plato! Wired reports, quote,

A team of security researchers from Oxford, UC Berkeley, and the University of
Geneva say that they were able to deduce digits of PIN numbers, birth months,
areas of residence and other personal information by presenting 30
headset-wearing subjects with images of ATM machines, debit cards, maps, people,
and random numbers in a series of experiments.

For the study, the researchers used the Emotiv Epoc Neuroheadset, which
retails for $299.

End quote. The researchers flashed brief images of debit cards, pin numbers and
faces, and watched the output of the EEG headset for P300 peaks. Those are
spikes in neural activity that occurs when the brain recognizes a stimulus. With
this information, the researchers were able to guess the secrets about 20% more
reliably than randomly guessing.

Back to Plato in the RER bunker.

Thanks Yossarian. This attack has some scary implications. You may think that
you’re just controlling your world of warcraft character with your mind, but
actually that malware you downloaded is in ur brainz, guessing your passwordz.

Smuggler, the CIA takes the brute force approach and uses MKULTRA techniques to
wipe out the minds of those with sensitive information. For us peaceful folk,
how can we defend against attacks on our minds?

Hackers backdoor the human brain, successfully extract sensitive data

Wired coverage

Original study
pdf

INTERLUDE

Earlier this week I headed out onto the streets of Goldman, USA, to speak to RER
correspondent Ivana Anarchy.

(roll taco3.mp3)

TOPIC 3 – hiro? voodoo?

The Honduran government has OK’d the construction of three privately run
cities
in the hope that they can bring much-needed jobs and profit to the country.

[The private cities] are the brainchild of Paul Romer, [a] New York University
economist… Romer believes that importing sound laws and policies into small
corners of badly run countries will help leaders reform their governments from
the inside-out. source
fastcoexist.com

Paul Romer runs chartercities.org, and was part of a
5-man ‘Transparency Committee’ charged by the Honduran governmant with building
the governments of these upcoming charter cities. Due to political bullshit, this
committee published an open
letter relinquishing their
role in the project.

[So the Honduran] government has instead signed a deal with the MKG
Group, a consortium of investors led by [Michael] Strong that intends to spend
$15 million to begin building basic infrastructure on a city near Trujillo on
the Caribbean coast.

Strong, a libertarian, is on the board of directors of the Seasteading group. He
says:

“In general, free zones have been a spectacular success in terms of economic
development… I’m very optimistic.”

Here’s some clips from Michael Strong’s 2011 TED talk at TEDxUFM:

(roll michael.strong.clips.wav)

Guys, this sounds absolutely awesome. Strong sounds like an anti-authoritarian
who wants to make society more profitable. This is really going to be the first
real-life test of a society operating outside the umbrella of traditional
states.

Hiro: Does Strong actually have a chance to compete against all the
crazy dictators with nukes who currently rule the world?

Honduras allowing private interests to build three private
cities
(hat tip
news.com.au)
Economist coverage

Proposed Topics – Please Update List During the Week

Intro Clip: TBD

• Plato – TBD
• wise-guy – TBD
• smuggler – TBD
• voodoo – TBD
• Hiro – TBD

Topics Rolled Over from Previous Weeks

• Working class lives not improved by automation
• Why Bitcoin lives in a “legal gray area”
• Microsoft Secure Boot
• Gritty N.J. city of Camden to scrap police department amid budget woes
• Robin Cook, the Database and Secrets
• Preschooler with the Forbidden Name
• Dead Men don’t (usually) Vote
• NYPD Mass Shooting
• Digitally Fabricated Homes
• Sioux Sacred Center for Sale

• Woman Jailed for 4.5 Months for Having a Hispanic Name

• Brazil Central Bank Employees Strike

• jeremy6d Requests => tent.io

• jeremy6d requests => Reciprocity Journal, new mutualist / left-dissident journalish zine

• Mexican anti-drug-war peace protest touring America

  • Reason.tv coverage

• ‘Sovereign’ citizens arrested after SWAT team standoff

• Washington’s Wall St Sugar Daddies

• Model Airplanes as Weapons

• Internet Crackdown via Executive Order

• Dr. Waterboards his 12-year-old as punishment

• Kim Dotcom raid

  • Raid footage
  • Unidentified Government Organization

• Army tests spy blimp over NJ

• Referring to pols as psychopaths

• 12-year-old tased in Victoria’s Secret

• Teaching algebra is a waste

• Gumming up institutions

• Mass plea deal rejection

• DEA uses truck without owner’s permission

• Brazilian drug lords Halt Crack Sales their People

Reality Exploit Roundtable
Episode 005 Show Notes
Moderator: Voodoo

Recording Time: Aug 17th 2012, 18 UTC
Show notes and episode download link: TBD
Intro music by Sun Araw – “Deep Cover”

Panelists

• Voodoo: Black and Yellow Pages, Beer Can Engines
• Ernest Hancock: Freedom’s Phoenix, Declare Your Independence
• Smugggler: http://anarplex.net, http://shadowlife.cc
• Plato: Twitter, Reddit
• Hiro: Agorist Radio

Topics

Topic #1 – A Gawker Ranter Proposes a Maximum Income Scheme

• Maximum Income Proposal
  • Intro clip

Hiro, walk us through the short and long-term effects of a 99% top marginal tax rate on earnings over 5 million.

Topic #2 – Trapwire Knows EVERYTHING!

• Trapwire
  • TrapWire investigation links transit systems and Anonymizer in global surveillance network
  • Previous discussion on Domain Awareness
  • Intro clip

Ernie, you’re not one to worry about people knowing where you are and what you’re up to. In fact, you make a point of calling your shots. John Q. Public doesn’t do that, but has a demonstrated lack of care about his personal privacy. So why is this such a big story?

“Over the past decade, Cubic has implemented more than 80 percent of the major smart card systems in the U.S. now active today,”

Topic #3 – When I was a kid, we spent time trying to disable school busses, not make them better

• Teen’s Invention for School Busses
  • Intro clip

Plato, this kid is pretty sure he’s going to get a better education now that he’s saved the bus company money. Are you?

Topic #4 – Maybe the BND is just jealous?

• Germany Decides Facebook must Destroy Facial Recognition Data
• Let’s Nationalize Facebook
  • Intro clip

Facebook seems to recognize that its current procedure to collect biometric data of its users conflicts with European and German data protection laws. This development is to be welcomed. Yet, Facebook is not entitled to stop their commitment halfway.

It is regrettable that Facebook has not used the chance for a consensual solution but is obviously playing for time. However, we will now resume administrative proceedings. Facebook has detailed knowledge of our legal opinion.

Smuggler, what exactly is the threat to Facebook from the German data protection authority and their legal opinions?

Reality Exploit Roundtable
Episode 003 Show Notes
Moderator: Hiro

Recording Time: Aug 3rd 2012, 18 UTC
Show notes and episode download link: TBD
Intro music by Sun Araw – “Deep Cover”
George Donnely clip from Bad Quaker Podcast
Thom Hartmann clip from RT

Panelists

• Voodoo: Black and Yellow Pages, Beer Can Engines
• Wise-Guy: THE MAN WITH NO NAME
• Smugggler: http://anarplex.net
• Plato: Twitter, Reddit
• Hiro: Agorist Radio

Planned Topics on Todays Show

• Agorist Insurance: SMART – the Sovereign Mutual Aid Response Team and Shield Mutual Agorist Insurance
• Super Cheap Nano Solar Panels?
• Failbook abstainers might be terrorists.
• Banana Republics Gone Wild

SEGMENT 1

Plato: Agorist Insurance: SMART – the Sovereign Mutual Aid Response Team and Shield Mutual Agorist Insurance

Intro:

In Mid 2011 Jim Davidson of Individual Sovereign University announced
“SMART: the Sovereign Mutual Aid Response Team”. At that time and
since he has posted updates and put up a site for joining. Mid
2012, George Donnely of Agora.io fame, announces another similar
company called “Shield Mutual Agorist Insurance”.

These are both companies offering many overlapping services such as
helping you if you are arrested, bond money, youtube/social network
publicity. Legal defense and offense. A contact/ping like service to
check up on you regularly. Helping you deal with aggressive and
unjust law enforcement officials.

In some ways this reminds me of a Mutual Aid Society mix with the
ACLU, the EFF and an Insurance Company with a business model all from
an agorist frame.

Plato: Is there a market for this? Is the business model for this
sustainable? What do you find interesting about these services and
what do you think the future may hold for them?

Links

• Smart Started in Mid 2011
• Jim Davidsons “SMART” – the Sovereign Mutual Aid Response Team
• SMART website
• SMART Order Page and Prices

What is SMART?

“SMART (AKA University Association) is a BRAND NEW member supported
subscription based service with the goal of defending your life,
liberty, and property from external invasion. Activists from across
the county are building networks and communities of safety that can
spring in to action at a moments notice, ready and willing to stand
up for you. When activated SMART will muster support, raise bail
money and get you out of jail, and assist you in finding legal help
should you need it. SMART is also equipped to help you deal with nosy
and intrusive bureaucrats and aggressive and unjust law enforcement
officials.

• Lodge Practice Medical Assistance
  “In U.S. history, many lodges and other fraternal groups hired a
  doctor for a fixed fee per mont h. When someone in the group became
  ill or was injured, the group’s doctor attended to him at no
  additional charge. This system was known as “lodge practice” and was
  in widespread use. After the AMA was formed and became aggressive in
  the early twentieth century in taking measures to raise the earnings
  of doctors, the association fought tooth and nail against lodge
  practice and eventually killed it.”

• SMART Update Newsletter: This Week for the University Association

• Shield Mutual Agorist Insurance

• George: “When I first founded Shield Mutual last year, the concept
  was more mutualistic in nature. But almost no one signed up. So I
  decided to tweak the concept into a pay service where I was
  personally responsible for providing a service. Lo and behold, this
  works better.”

• Shield Mutual coverage is just $50 FRNs or 7.6 bitcoins per year

• Shield Mutual Overview

SEGMENT 2

Wise Guy: Super Cheap Nano Solar Panels?

Intro:

From the Wired article titled: “Nano Breakthrough Paves Way for Super
Cheap Solar Panels”:

“One of the reasons solar panels are so expensive is that it’s
tricky to extract electric currents from semiconductors, the
materials used to convert solar radiation into electrical energy.

Up til now, this could only be done with a few materials — usually
silicon. But a new breakthrough will enable manufacturers to make
efficient photovoltaics using almost any semiconductor, including
cheap and abundant materials like metal oxides, sulfides, and
phosphides.”

Keypoints:

• Most Solar biz companies are based on getting rich with gov grants,
  gov direct subsidies and gov subsidised purchases.

• Nanosolar Corp with their thin film printing has burned through 450M
  USD over the past few years. Where is the beef in low production
  costs and legit sales?

• Are any of these nano solar techs something we as inidividuals will
  be able to purchase and use with prices driven: by markets and not
  corporatist/socialized driven government welfare?

• Is there anything to this tech that is breakthrough in cost in spite
  of patent monopolies on top of it all?

Links

• Super cheap solar panels?

SEGMENT 3

Smuggler: – Failbook abstainers suspicious

Intro:

Posted on slashdot by bs0d3: “According to an article printed in
tagesspiegel.de, not having a Facebook account could be the first
sign that you are a mass murderer.(German) As examples they use
Norwegian shooter Anders Breivik, who used MySpace instead of
Facebook and the newer Aurora shooter who used adultfriendfinder
instead of Facebook. They already consider those with Facebook
accounts, who lack friends to be suspicious, but now they are
suggesting that anyone who abstains from Facebook altogether may be
even more suspicious.”

Smuggler: I would assume that most national government databases are
already associating the citizen registry with internal or externally
linked databases of social network accounts and relationship graphs.
_It would make sense to me that they would start flagging people whom
are not so apparent on their radar. Is there a an equalibrium in
tradecraft that might be a best practice so as not to stand out or be
flagged and targetted… while attempting to just maintain personal
privacy?

SEGMENT 4

Voodoo: – Banana Republics Gone Wild

• Queue Intro clip: Nationalize US Oil, Thom Hartman, RT

Key points:

• Bolivia is kicking Coca Cola out of the country.
• Argentina gov is nationalizing a Spain based Oil company

Voodoo: Thom Harman seems to on the class war bandwagon, while South
America sounds like something out of Atlas Shrugged. Is this the end
of Big Capitalism in South America?

Links

• Agentina oil Corporatism

• “end of capitalism” in Bolivia

  • “I am a head of state, and not a hoodlum.”
  • The rocks have sex for us