Star Wars Troopers - David Mark flickr

HAN: What is it? Some kind of local trouble?

BEN: Let’s just say we’d like to avoid any Imperial entanglements.

HAN: Well, that’s the trick, isn’t it? And it’s going to cost you something extra. Ten thousand in advance.

LUKE: Ten thousand? We could almost buy our own ship for that!

HAN: But who’s going to fly it, kid! You?

Crane Station and Masoninblue are living mostly outside the system. Not an easy task considering that the system is so pervasive, especially these days.   Even more so if you have have any kind of continuing illness. And if you become terminal, hang it up unless you live on a deserted island or some place populated only by tribal societies.

I did a few diaries at another site on death and the situation is that unless you drop dead of a heart attack or stroke, you will wind up in a hospital or hospice or some other such facility. Drugged up and attached to million dollar high tech machines to keep your rotting flesh alive for as long as possible.

This was what happened to a friend of mine who just passed away from a lengthy bout with cancer.  A disease that is likely brought on directly or indirectly from our life style. A life style that a lot of people would like to leave but find very difficult to.  All part of how the system has been taking control of our lives and removing the humanity from them.  You no longer see anyone being born and rarely see them die. Truly a Huxleyist society.

And if you are anything but white, you have it coming and going as you cannot be fully part of the system either.

A new book that has just come out called Unlearn, Rewild gives some good information on how to leave the system and not get caught. Dmitry Orlov gives a good synopsis of it.  But unlike previous Live off the Land books and articles the author, Miles Olson, pulls no punches and is living it. And one thing he makes clear according to Orlov is that when you do decide to live outside the system, you are likely breaking the law:

How can you get out of this trap? Miles does not mince words: escape is illegal. If you want to escape, you have to break the law. “As soon as you begin to act outside the system, you are breaking its rules… Red handcuffs or blue handcuffs. Anything too far outside this culture’s mandate is not accepted; non-participation is not a legitimate option… Really, if we are all forced to work as part of a death machine, with no other viable alternative, where is the possibility for a sustainable future? The answer is obvious: in breaking the rules. Or, to put it more accurately, breaking the ridiculously insane rules.” [p. 48] Need an example of “ridiculously insane rules”? “It is illegal to salvage roadkill in many places, so learn your local laws and act appropriately. Whether that means following them is up to you.” [p. 107]

According Miles – and by what I have seen and read – the system really hates when people do this. But increasingly this is necessary. As Orlov quotes:

I think the most strategic place to be is on the fringes of this culture, in rural areas and at the edges of cities and towns. There one can interact with both civilization and wildness, dancing back and forth between both, feeding off the mass human energy and non-human energy. For those who feel called, there is important work to be done in the cities and in the wild blue yonder.

What we need is to build autonomous spaces, to create havens where the tools and skills we are going to need can be developed, and this can happen anywhere. Actually, it needs to be happening everywhere.

The book is according to Orlov,  an honest down to earth approach to living outside the system. Be it in the country or just outside the city or even in the city. Giving information on how to eat and find food and when in the process of doing something that the authorities might find strange, to “Act White”.   To look like maybe a tourist or something. To blend in even if you are out.

I think will be a good book and reference for our times.