Agorism in the 21st Century Vol. 3

Knowledge base from 'Agorism in the 21st Century: A Philosophical Journal Vol. 3 — Network States' (2024) ed. Dylan-Ennis & O'Leary. Use when applying logic-of-violence forecasting, Promethean network states, Wilson's copyright critique, Rosenberg's cherishing-life ethics, Lujan's archaic revival, Dunkel's tradition/modernity war.

Agorism in the 21st Century — Volume 3: Network States (2024)

Authors: ed. Paul Dylan-Ennis, Rachel-Rose O'Leary + anonymous | Essays: 6 + introduction | Publisher: Agorism XXI | Generated: 2026-09-05

How to Use This Skill

• Without arguments — load core frameworks below
• With a topic — ask about logic of violence, network state, Star Athletica, archaic revival, eschaton, etc.
• With an essay — ask for Jorjani, Wilson, Rosenberg, Lujan, Dunkel, Katabasis, ch02
• Browse — ask "what chapters do you have?"

Core Frameworks & Mental Models

Logic of Violence (O'Leary's Introduction) — The Sovereign Individual as crypto's prophecy: forecasting via economic incentives plus a 500-year cycle; the nation-state tide receding because information tech makes wealth intangible and favors "light infantry" cyber-guerrillas. The prophecy lags because mass surveillance retains the state's advantage — hence "the war between surveillance and anonymity... the fundamental axis from which the order of violence flows." The volume's question: what lies beyond the end of the world? Answer-shape: new cycle, not terminus.

The Promethean Network State (Jorjani) — Prometheus as archetype-stack (freedom-fighter, forethought, techne-before-science, aesthetic inspirer, ethical excellence, rebel). Srinivasan's diplomatic-recognition network state fails on Schmittian grounds: no Security Council member recognizes a trans-territorial seceder; you'd be besieged as stateless terrorists. The head of the octopus belongs in the outlaw ocean: seasteads + undersea colonies at shelf-edge international waters; island-chain flag-states (Palau: 177 sq mi land → 230,000 sq mi waters); Atlas money + surveillance-proof DEX on the ARPANET stratum; nano-assembly production; spacecraft launched from the sea. De Profundis Excelsior.

Black Flag White Paper (Wilson) — Copyright is property (assignable) OR dignity (personal, unassignable) — The Gatalog claimed both. CC licenses are copyright licenses reproducing the commodity form; FOSS licenses invert the regime ("all rights reversed") — gun printing began FOSS as a hack against arms control. Federal registration of guncad files = gun control by other means. Star Athletica: functional 3D models are industrial design, NOT copyrightable; only separable art is — the Plastikov practicum (delete the embedded copyright statement → determinate negation → legally insignificant file + new sculptural copyright). Lacanian close: "The Gatalog didn't need copyrights when it had influence. When it lost influence, it required them."

Cherishing Life (Rosenberg) — Life = the only counter-entropic force; consciousness its apex; suppression is "a sin against the universe itself." Hierarchies permit cherishing life until it blocks a higher purpose — then crime. History of higher purposes: tribe → terror ("thugs with legends") → sympathetic magic (gods + sacrifice collectors) → Plato's magic society (perfect-society benefits for right opinions — "the secret sauce of politics and it's deeply fraudulent"). Atrocity requires abstraction above concrete persons. Elite capture: hierarchies assimilate individual breakthroughs and take the credit — the early Internet's containment structure. All progress: "the individual who can labor in freedom."

Eden at the End of History (Lujan) — Two network-state souls: Srinivasan's recognition-seeking community vs crypto-anarchist Cyber Libertaria (May 1992: arbitrarily many nations, self-selection, cheap exit). The archaic revival: return to pre-hierarchical communal form via technology — prehistory's 200-300k years were predation-threatened, not war-torn; Hobbes's equivocation (anarchy=chaos) poisons the well; McKenna's stoned-ape communal rearing as the lost form. The teleology stack: McKenna's eschaton (transcendental object at the end of time), Kurzweil's Singularity, Kelly's Technium — history as goal-directed; network states disperse complexity among many governance models, accelerating toward the end.

The Age of Monsters (Dunkel) — Gramsci's interregnum. Ideology rehabilitated: it's the unavoidable lens ("to have no ideology is just a euphemism for unconditionally adhering to the dominant system of truth"); Öcalan's systems of truth. Tech is 4th-dimension warfare — changing the arena's laws of physics (Vietcong/Taliban/PKK beat material superiority with ideology). The master contradiction: tradition vs modernity (not class/nation; left/right = factions WITHIN capitalist modernity). Modernity holds its democratic gains hostage to monopoly-assimilation; tradition's fabric enables resistance — reformers who smashed it broke their own base. Revolutions led by both-worlds people. WW3 began 9/11; a world-scale anti-modernity uprising is coming (likely Islamic or new-messianic; decentralized, authoritarian, disciplined). The third way: democratic civilization — neither hegemonic corruption nor reaction; build Democratic Technology affirmatively.

Katabasis Chronicles (McCarthy & Dávila) — Fiction as stress-test: ETHCC 2140, Neo-Brussels; Bitcoin's final inflation; AR glasses with birth-granted Ethereum accounts; NFT-locked sigils (perception itself token-gated); longevity metabolic tech; Eleusis cryo-resurrection. The descent (katabasis) begins the next cycle.

Chapter Index

#	Essay	Author	Key Frameworks
ch00	Introduction: Beyond the End of the World	R-R. O'Leary	logic of violence, Sovereign Individual, twin goddesses
ch01	The Promethean Network State: A New Atlantis	J.R. Jorjani	Prometheus archetype, Schmitt critique, octopus, Palau math
ch02	Black Flag White Paper	Cody Wilson	copyright theories, CC-vs-FOSS, Star Athletica, Lacanian ideology
ch03	When Did It Become A Crime To Cherish Life?	Paul Rosenberg	counter-entropy, higher purposes, elite capture
ch04	Eden at the End of History	Sterlin Lujan	two network-state readings, archaic revival, eschaton/Technium
ch05	The Age of Monsters	Aaron Dunkel	ideology rehab, 4th-dimension warfare, tradition/modernity war
ch06	Katabasis Chronicles (extract)	McCarthy & Dávila	fiction stress-test, NFT-gated perception, katabasis

Topic Index

• archaic revival / prehistory → ch04
• copyright / IP critique → ch02
• counter-entropy / Life → ch03
• elite capture → ch03
• eschaton / Singularity / Technium → ch04
• higher purpose / atrocity → ch03
• ideology → ch05
• logic of violence / mega-politics → ch00
• network state (Promethean) → ch01
• network state (Srinivasan/May) → ch04
• ocean exit / seasteading → ch01
• Plato critique → ch03
• Prometheus / Prometheism → ch01
• Star Athletica / separability → ch02
• surveillance vs anonymity → ch00
• tradition vs modernity → ch05
• 4th-dimension warfare → ch05
• Wilson / Gatalog / FEDCAD → ch02

Supporting Files

• glossary.md — all key terms with definitions and chapter refs
• patterns.md — 10 techniques with when/how/trade-offs
• cheatsheet.md — decision tables and tells

Scope & Limits

Vol. 3 (2024, "Network States") — companion skills: agorism-xxi-vol1 (2022 foundations), agorism-xxi-vol2 (2023 lunarpunk). The volume's disagreements are deliberate (Jorjani vs Lujan on Srinivasan; Wilson vs everyone on law's use) — preserve them. Jorjani's later-worldview controversies aren't addressed in this essay; the framework stands on its own terms here. For C's operational agorism, combine with project context — philosophy layer, not a runbook.