By panarchy we mean pluralism in anarchist ideology, or the coexistence of different and perhaps conflicting non-authoritarian ways of life. More to the point, can anagorism succeed in a world that contains anarcho-capitalism? For this purpose I define success as independence. My optimism is generally so guarded that I assume the odds are against anarchy in any sense being achieved during my lifetime—but I think the less utopian forms such as propertarianism and agorism are more likely to become part of my reality, so it is important to me to keep the anagorist dream alive—do what I can to make sure the revolution doesn’t stop there.
Total independence, like utopia itself, may be a non-option, or as I prefer to say, an asymptotic goal. A good strategy to start may be closure seeking, or making a non-competitive “game” of seeing “how low can we go” with respect to minimizing interactions with decidedly propertarian sectors of society, be it the actually existing business sector, or for-profit entities existing in some future state of anarchy. But what other strategies are available? One is economic minimalism, or re-categorizing supposed necessities as luxuries, but reliance on that strategy alone would be a trap. My idea of the ultimate luxury is the luxury of not being in it for the money, whatever “it” is.
Independence from business entities, like independence from government, consists of ability to fend for oneself. The point behind anagorism is to minimize the need to fend for oneself, in both the martial and commercial spheres, at least to the extent that such strategy and one-upcrittership is a burden on individuals. This presents a strategic weakness for the anagorist community as a whole, as its capacity of collective self defense capabilities, or economic independence capabilities, at some level, draws on the competence of its members. Anagorism does not seek to hobble the individual! Anagorism has the competing goals of maximizing ability and minimizing non-elective challenge. It is not the only ideology with competing goals, but higher ideals do tend to make for harder tradeoffs. We should use our more exacting (or less realistic) ideals as an elective challenge to develop the skills necessary to fend for ourselves, and to produce at least some of the outcomes of business (in the form of products) without the methods of business.
Leave a Reply