A Note on This Online Edition of
Konkin’s New Libertarian Manifesto

Alexander S. Peak

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It became painfully obvious to me, upon purchasing a copy of New Libertarian Manifesto (Samuel E. Konkin III’s manifesto for an agorist revolution), that the other online editions of this book are woefully inadequate.

The copy I purchased was the fourth edition, published in August of 2006 by KoPubCo.  This edition cleaned up a lot of the errors and typos made in previous editions, and is ultimately easier to read than any other edition online.

There is no website currently (21 November 2008) available, other than this one, with the correct text.

Take for example this .pdf available on agorism.info.  Ignoring the æsthetically unpleasing format of the text, this edition makes huge errors that are sure to confuse the reader.  Take for instance the third paragraph of chapter one, as seen on the .pdf:

Diffuse coercion is optimally handled by local, immediate self-defense. Though the market may develop larger-scale businesses for protection and restoration, random threats of violence can only be dealt with roots of mysticism and delusions planted deep in the victims' thinking, requires a grand strategy and a cataclysmic point of historical singularity: Revolution.

The first sentence makes enough sense, but what of the second?  Can anyone make heads or tails of it?

If you think you can makes heads or tails of it, you’re deceiving yourself.  In actuality, this is supposed to be two separate paragraphs, which read as follows:

Diffuse coercion is optimally handled by local, immediate self-defense.  Though the market may develop larger-scale businesses for protection and restoration, random threats of violence can only be dealt with on the spot ad hoc.

Organized coercion requires organized opposition.  (An excellent case has been made many times by many thinkers that such organization should remain skeletal at best, fleshing out only for actual confrontation, in order to prevent perversion of the defenders into an agency of aggression.)  Institutional coercion, developed over the millennia with roots of mysticism and delusion planted deep in the victims’ thinking, requires a grand strategy and a cataclysmic point of historical singularity: Revolution.

Unfortunately, this error is everywhere on the Internet.  Agorism.info is not the only one to blame.

Other Flawed Versions

To reiterate, this is the only site where you can currently (21 November 2008) read the correct edition.

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