Samuel Edward Konkin III

Samuel Edward Konkin III

Full name	Samuel Edward Konkin III
Other names	SEK3
Born	July 8, 1947(1947-07-08) Saskatchewan, Canada
Died	February 23, 2004(2004-02-23) (aged 56) West Los Angeles, California
Main interests	Economics, Political economy, Anarchism, Natural law
Notable ideas	Founder of Agorism
Influenced by Mises, LeFevre, Rothbard

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Samuel Edward Konkin III (aka SEK3) (8 July 1947 – 23 February 2004) was the author of the New Libertarian Manifesto and a proponent of the political philosophy which he called agorism. Agorism is a leftward evolution of anarcho-capitalism, and subset of market anarchism. In the introduction to New Libertarian Manifesto he credited Murray Rothbard, Robert LeFevre, and Ludwig von Mises as influences.

Personal life

Konkin was born in Saskatchewan, Canada to Samuel Edward Konkin II and Helen. He had one brother, Alan. He married Sheila Wymer in 1990 and had one son, Samuel Evans-Konkin IV. The marriage ended shortly thereafter. Konkin was also notable for his style of dress: "To show his anarchist beliefs, he dressed completely in black, a color associated with that movement since the late nineteenth century."

Political views

Like Rothbard in the late 1960s and early 70s, Konkin saw libertarianism as a movement of the radical left. He was a founder of the Agorist Institute and the Movement of the Libertarian Left.

Konkin rejected voting, believing it to be inconsistent with libertarian ethics. He likewise opposed involvement in the Libertarian Party, which he regarded as a statist co-option of libertarianism. He was an opponent of influential minarchist philosopher Robert Nozick, and referred to Nozick's followers as "Nozis."

Konkin presents his strategy for achieving a libertarian society in his aforementioned manifesto. Since he rejected voting and other means by which people typically aim to change, reform, or "fight the system from the inside," his approach necessarily aimed at fighting "the system" from without. Specifically, he encouraged people to withdraw their consent from the state by moving their economic activities into the black market and grey market where they would be untaxed and unregulated. "Konkin called transactions on these markets, as well as other activities that bypassed the State, 'counter-economics.' Peaceful transactions take place in a free market, or agora: hence his term 'agorism' for the society he sought to achieve." He also strongly opposed intellectual property.

Konkin was interested in TSR's role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, and contributed a newsletter to the role-playing fanzine 'Alarums and Excursions' for many years, starting in the late 1970's. He described the ongoing adventures of his group of characters in a D&D universe. One copy of the newsletter's cover featured them hanging D&D co-author and president of TSR Gary Gygax from a tree limb over a rule dispute.^{[citation needed]}

Konkin was editor and publisher of the irregularly produced New Libertarian Notes (1971-1975), the New Libertarian Weekly (1975-1978), and finally New Libertarian magazine (1978-1990), the last issue of which was a special science fiction tribute featuring a Robert A. Heinlein cover (issue 187, 1990).

Criticism

Ulrike Heider criticized Konkin in his book Anarchism: Left, Right, and Green for supporting historical revisionism. Konkin personally rejected Holocaust denial, but supported the Institute for Historical Review on the grounds that their freedom of speech was under attack.

Death

On 23 February 2004, Konkin died in his apartment in West Los Angeles, California of "natural causes". He was buried alongside his father in Edmonton, Alberta. A memorial held a month later in Torrance, California was attended by friends and family, including Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher, authors Victor Koman and Brad Linaweaver, and libertarian Jeff Riggenbach.

See also

• counter-economics
• economic secession
• J. Neil Schulman

External links

• Agorism.info has archived Konkin writings and pamphlets in PDF format
• Interview with Konkin
• SEK3's history of the libertarian movement
• Konkin on Libertarian Strategy, by Murray Rothbard
• Sam Konkin and Libertarian Theory, by David Gordon
• J. Neil Schulman's tribute to SEK3
• KoPubCo back issues of New Libertarian
• Murray Rothbard, "Konkin on Libertarian Strategy" followed by Samuel E. Konkin, "Reply to Rothbard" at AnthonyFlood.com
• Obituary for SEK3 by Jeff Riggenbach
• Obituary for Sam Konkin by Phil Osborn