What “Off The Grid” Really Means

Maybe it ought to be obvious, but it just occurs to me, with startling force, that the best way to effect change in our government and its duplicitous, co-dependent relations with corrupt corporations and nations, would be for as many Americans as can willingly do so to begin the process of becoming as self-sufficient as possible, in as many ways as possible.

Currently, our dependency upon the daily augmented array of new must-have gadgetry from military-invested corporations like Sony, Microsoft, Apple, General Electric, and so many, many others (see Nick Turse’s book “The Complex”), or upon products of corporations exploiting cheap labor abroad, or upon companies exploiting South America and Africa (and the Middle East) for oil, is exactly what gives the incentive to our leadership to enter into dubious political and economic co-dependencies with the countries and companies involved. If we can find more ways to generate more of our own energy, avoid extra travel, buy fewer unnecessary products, maybe entertain ourselves by, for example, reading literature to each other, playing music for each other, or through enjoyable conversation, perhaps we can take some of the energy out of the machinery of exploitation currently in place globally.

Even Marvel comics is a Pentagon contractor! Also, Walt Disney and Columbia TriStar Films. GlaxoKleinSmith is a Pentagon contractor. If we can get more self-sufficient on our own health care, that might help steer our economic dependencies away from the military-industrial-congressional complex. Major processed food manufacturers (Sara Lee, Nestle, Kraft) have investments in the military industrial complex. If we can find more ways to eat whole foods, buy locally, even grow our own food, that might help.

I believe this concept is of inestimable power. In essence, it is the same principle used in walk-outs, civil disobedience, product boycotts, etc., to great effect. But what I’m talking about here is a more subtle, but much more powerful form of active change. There is no direct confrontation of police officers with wooden bullets and tasers, no direct challenge against insulated legislatures and corporations. Nevertheless, it directly impacts the machinery of the economy and directly steers that machinery to comply with the peoples’ will. Because of that, it’s more powerful than law. It’s our dependency upon the products of governments and companies that gives them authority and power in the first place — and as much as we are attached to those products, by precisely that amount are we controlled by them. This truly is, I feel certain, one of the most profound ways we individuals can quickly and positively impact the corrupt behavior of governments and companies.

While our country still has the affluence to exist in other than the survival state, we should use these means to effect change. Even though our American standard of living is in decline, and most of us must give most of our energy to paying for our needs, there are still actions we can take towards self-sufficiency. For other countries, like Burma, who are completely at the mercy of their elite governments and exploiters, it is too late. If Monsanto (and others) succeed in getting a “patent on life,” if water is privatized, if the “Bush Movement” succeeds in creating a truly, blatantly totalitarian state here in the US, then our options will be reduced to nil. Right now, we have the power because the Power Structure depends upon the energy we provide it through our money and faith.

Wheeler’s Love Theorem

“To hate is to study, to study is to understand, to understand is to appreciate, to appreciate is to love.”
– John A. Wheeler

The movement from hate to understanding may seem to take a long time sometimes, but it is inevitable. The issue is that there are always people making that transition, and so it seems like it’s not happening. But it is. It’s an individual matter, not necessarily a societal one.

Scooter, the Old Seasoned Warrior

The two male cats battled like a spinning ball of electrified fur.  The whirling fury of tooth and claw tore across the ground, scattering pine-needles and dust. But a brief second passed, and suddenly the two feline adversaries froze in a still-life battle pose. Beaner lay on his back, bewildered and looking up at Scooter; and Scooter stood over him in a majestic stance of Lordly command, his right paw calmly fixed in the center of Beaner’s pink belly.

I moved quickly from one window to another in an effort to reach the door and end the match. The two must have surprised each other in the yard, evoking primitive territorial instincts that had erupted into a physical contest as to leadership.  “Have to be more vigilant,” I breathed to myself.

By this time I was outside the house and the warring cyclone had resumed.  I shouted for peace.  My angry voice forced the old Master of the forest, Scooter, to high-tale it for the wooded fringe. Meanwhile, Beaner, the new-comer, unsure what had happened, attempted to regain his cool. He succeeded remarkably well, and soon strode about aloof, perhaps assuming himself to be the new territorial master.

For several months thereafter, Beaner and Scooter staged these rituals of dominance on a number of occasions. In time they grew less frequent and less dramatic, and Scooter, for whom we’d always had the deepest affection and respect, began to give our place a wide birth. Whether Beaner proved a quick study and truly learned to gain the upper paw on Scooter, or whether it became simply too much bother for Scooter to show up for his regular food and cleaning, we never knew. One night he was present, eating on top the wood box where my wife would feed him and lay out bedding upon which he, it seemed, gratefully slept. Next day, he was gone, and didn’t return.

It’s doubtful that he still lives. He lead a rough life as a wild, domestic-breed cat. But his legend persists and his regal dignity remains an unflagging example of the qualities admirable in the cat: calm strength, self-sufficiency, economy, and grace. I still see clearly in my mind his penetrating, lion’s eyes of yellow, his shaggy, steel-gray fur, and his tall and self-assured gait, as he would walk from the woods towards the house, and patiently await our attentions.