If you read The Sailboat Diaries, you’ll find that I’ve fixated on this idea for the last decade or more. Building an off-grid village is the best idea I’ve come up with for achieving the lifestyle I’m looking for in my lifetime. I understand different folks have different preferences, so this probably won’t sound appealing to lots of you, but I think it would be fun to live in a small village of 20-200 open-minded people and work together to move towards self-sufficiency.
At first (when I was 16), I thought building the off-grid village on an uninhabited island was the best idea. At the time, I still had faith in the court cartel’s property paradigm. I thought all the land in America was owned, so we couldn’t do it here. But the idea of an uninhabited island being owned didn’t make sense to me. That was like claiming to own the moon, or Jupiter. It’s easy to claim something, but it doesn’t mean anything if you can’t prevent someone else from using it.
Over time, I opened my eyes a little wider, and I realized the same principle applies to all land. A land claim is just a claim, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything. I started to look around and see just how much unused land is still available. There are billions of places just waiting to be inhabited, the only thing stopping us is fear.
To be sure, it’s a risky undertaking, and there are some things we need to be prepared for. But I believe it’s a worthwhile endeavor for a number of reasons:
First and foremost, I think it’s gonna be tons of fun. I love the thrill of adventure, the pleasure of discovery, even the hard physical labor involved. It’s incredibly rewarding to find an unused spot on the Earth and interact with it to form a home.
Second, it’s a way to stand up for the principles I believe in. Taxation is theft, and that includes property tax. I believe we should defend ourselves, and the best way to do that is by living off-the-grid. It’s a lot harder for the government to steal your money if they don’t know where you live.
Third, it’s a way to undermine the legitimacy of the courts. It’s a way of pointing at the Emperor and yelling, “You’re naked!” We can show everyone that we don’t buy into the court cartel’s bullshit, and we won’t pretend like their title system is real. The list of who-owns-what kept at the courthouse is a tool of oppression; we need to let everyone know we’re not falling for the trick.
Fourth, it’s a way to practice healthy, sustainable living. By cutting ourselves off from centralized water and power, we’ll be forced to deal with our problems head-on. We’ll be forced to collect rainwater, because it’s a pain-in-the-ass to carry in gallons. We’ll be forced to install solar panels and wind turbines, because it’s annoying to go to McDonald’s every time you need a charge. Eventually we’ll cut ourselves off from buying food, too, and only eat what we produce locally.
Fifth, the sanity! Not having to pretend like the system is legitimate every day. Not having to walk around zombies who are still plugged into the Matrix. Being able to chill on land that we discovered, eating food we grew, taking hot showers with water we collected and heated, knowing that we are free. I can’t think of a better way to live.
I’m writing this to put the idea out there, so we can start discussing it seriously, so we can start searching for locations and finding like minded people. This isn’t fantasy, I believe it’s achievable within the next year.
Edit: Maybe we should shoot for 64: 8 interlocking freedom cells.
