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New Centre for Old Strategy
by Jim Davidson
[email protected]

Special to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise

Since the writings of Laozi, about 2,400 years ago, many have advocated the strategy of withdrawal. Some of the more prominent doing so were Etienne de la Boetie, Murray Rothbard, and Sam Konkin.

What does it mean, "withdrawal." I've written a number of essays going over these issues, such as "Smashing Fail, Withdrawing Epic Win," and "Half Measures Are Full of Fail" which you can find by searching easily enough. The point Laozi made was that some people are always going to gravitate toward the centres of power, seek to have the good things that can be had by becoming a crony to the powerful, and seek to gain more power. So those who want to follow a moral life should withdraw, get away from the cities and the centres of power, he wrote.

Etienne de la Boetie wrote about withdrawing support from the tyrant. The tyrant cannot torture everyone, without supporters. He cannot tax everyone without tax collectors, spy on everyone without spies, listen in on every conversation without lots of eavesdroppers. You don't have to lay your hands on the tyrant to topple him, he wrote, but simply withdraw support. As everyone withdraws their support, the tyrant will fall, inevitably.

Today we have new technologies, such as email encryption, encrypted voice over IP, and digital money that makes it possible for two people anywhere in the world to have private economic transactions, transactions that cannot be detected. What cannot be detected cannot be regulated, cannot be prohibited, and cannot be taxed.

This fact is the end of the state. Without regulations and prohibitions, there can be no special deals for cronies. Without taxation, there can be no interest payments on the government's debts. The end of the state is the end of slavery, it is the end of war, and it is the dawn of a new era.Educating people is the key to spreading the idea of agorism. I've been working on education since 2009 with the Individual Sovereign University.

The New Education Centre for the Emerald City artists collective and the Mannheim Neighbourhood in Kansas City is the focus of my current efforts.

We are currently raising $25,000 for roof repairs and a documentary film about Emerald City, the Mannheim neighborhood, and our new education center.

Our work in education includes

• an adult literacy center,

• an after school program for at-risk youth that we are bringing from a successful program in Lawrence, Kansas,

• a tool library for residents in the area so they don't have to buy all new tools for every project,

• a home repair classroom with examples of framing problems, siding problems, roofing problems, flooring problems, plumbing problems, electrical problems, and other how-to-do-it,

• a group of volunteers to accompany our tools to help with the repair projects,

• a computer center to research the abandoned buildings and vacant lots in the area,

• a wireless hotspot

• telescopes for astronomy classes

• a roof-top garden for sustainability.

Please help us with our work here. You may donate at our building at 4337 Troost, or on the web at IndSovU.com using ChipIn, Google checkout, or bitCoin.

Donations are tax deductible through our 501c3 Houston Space Society, Inc.

www.IndSovU.com If you cannot donate, at this time, please share this essay with your friends, or comment on it, or like it. Thank you!

Jim Davidson is an anti-war and pro-freedom activist. Recently, a 501c3 group with which he is affiliated was given a building in Kansas City. Jim continues to respond to requests for help with the Sovereign Mutual Aid Response Team, the university association of Individual Sovereign University. He can be contacted at IndSovU.com and Indomitus.net. His books Being Sovereign (2009) and Being Libertarian (2011) are available from major book retailers.

Link for Being Sovereign

Link for Being Libertarian

Link for a KickStarter Campaign

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