Give in to the Dark Side, urged Darth Vader. I think I may already have. But the “dark side” is just Stuff – the material possessions that tie me to the system, make me behave.

Why don’t I tell the cop who has pulled me over for some manufactured offense to go inseminate himself? Because I know he’s got me over the proverbial barrel. I have Stuff he can take (like my car) and of course, my money.

And I dare not risk doing anything that might interfere with my ability to earn more money – in order to have money for cops (and other agents of the state) to take. It’s a clever trap that kind of sneaks up on you . . . and once it clamps down, you’re stuck. Unless you decide to gnaw off a leg.

I often wonder – from the standpoint of How Things Are Today (and where things are headed tomorrow) what I’d do if I had it to do all over again. If, rather than being a vested 40-something with lots of Stuff to lose – and having invested decades acquiring said Stuff – I were 20-something right now and sans the Stuff.

I think it would be liberating.

They can’t take what you don’t have, after all.

No house? No problem!

The worst they can do to a renter is toss him out. If The Man takes the place over . . . well, it’s not your place. No worries. Move on.

Maybe in an RV. Some of these are very nice – as nice as some fixed-in-situ homes. Only there’s no real estate tax to sweat. Just find a place to park and maybe pay for something you actually want and need, like water and electric hook-ups as opposed to the social-and-obedient-worker (per George Carlin) training of other people’s children.

If the neighborhood goes south – or you just want a change of scenery – all you’ve got to do is turn the key and drive. Not so easy with a house. And if you have a fixed address they know where you live, too. With an RV, who knows? Besides which, it’s a simpler life. Some of you may remember The Rockford Files, starring James Garner. Got himself a trailer and parked it by the sea. Not much investment – but a lot gained – and not much they can take, either.

You live a cash-only existence. Work as you need to. No more than you have to. Say good-bye to providing the government with minute and exacting details about your finances; April 15th is just another day. Throw their got-damned forms in the woods.

Obamacare means nothing to you because you’re not held hostage by the threat of losing your “refund” for failing to purchase the services -at-gunpoint of the health-care mafia. You need a doc, you go see the doc. Pay him directly. No dealing with the sour fraus who exist solely to midwife the insurance paperwork. Better yet, just stay healthy – easy enough to do when you’re not constantly stressed out by having to work like a railroad coolie so that they can take 30-40 percent off the top and then tell you what you may (and may not) do with whatever you buy using the remainder.

Being truly self-employed (working off-book, person to person) means not having to tithe 15 percent off the top, too. You might be poorer on paper, but a lot richer in actuality.

What price, after all, can one put on being free?

Free of being an indentured servant. Free of the daily galling ordeal of having to check your actions – and even your thoughts – in order to not offend the rules of the proverbial company town? Free to be able to do as you please, when you please.

Free – most of all – of them.

By not having Stuff, they have no power over you. Or a lot less power. You have far more freedom of action – far less to lose. When there’s not much they can do to you, there’s not much they can do to you. Remember your Solzenitsyn.

This is probably what it’s come down to – or coming down to.

Gen Xers like me are probably the last demographic cohort for whom the American Dream had any verisimilitude – and even that is fading fast. The next rung down – the Millennials – know full well how well and truly screwed they are. Which is why they Slack to a degree my “slacker” generation could only hope to aspire to. They live like college students in a group house, each paying a small amount of rent. They eschew cars – having done the math and realizing that there’s not much fun to be had there anymore, but a lot of hassle and expense. Get an easy job that pays the basic bills, but not enough to incur much tax liability.

Screw the cube farm – and the mortgage – because there’s no pay-off.

Ever.

Better to be free, if that’s all they’ll let us have.

Throw it in the Woods?

Twitter: LibertarianCarG

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