The idea of living "off the grid" has wide appeal in America,
where "rugged individualism" seems genetically implanted in "the
people." Who doesn't want to cut the umbilical cord to the oil,
gas and electric utility? Who doesn't want people to just leave
them alone? Ah, the joys of being off the grid: No cops, bill or
tax collectors, Mormons or Girl Scouts showing up at the door.
No neighbors to speak of, or to, and everyone in the general
vicinity armed to the teeth. A regular libertarian wet dream,
no?
A new book by Nick Rosen, Off the Grid, offers some anecdotal
proof that this idea is at least possible and arguably gaining
popularity now in America due to the damaged economy. Rosen even
offers a few persuasive reasons why, to quote his subtitle,
"more space, less government, and true independence" might be
worthwhile. A British filmmaker, he spent months traveling the
U.S. to places where people are living off the grid on urban
houseboats, communes, in tents, yurts and converted shipping
containers -- in short, places that generate their own power and
grow their own food and don't call the cops about every little
hassle.
His case-studies comprise everybody from self-proclaimed
"environmentalists" and pot farmers to right-wing survivalists
and "business travelers." Ah, but there's the rub. For every
Mennonite farmer he visits, there's a self-righteous
Unabomber-style crank just down the highway. For every middle
class "get out of the rat race" dreamer, there's an embittered
group of men just waiting for the FBI to make their day (and
martyrdom). To be fair, the people he meets are, because of
Rosen's engaging prose, interesting to visit on the page, but
you wouldn't want to live there, so to speak. Their allegiance
is to an idea of freedom that includes a small circle of
like-minded comrades ... and nobody else. It is the thinking of
end-timers, even if most of the people he meets don't hold to
any apocalyptic biblical beliefs.