Paul Brian
Government.
Just the word makes you want to shudder.
In our high-tech, high-power 21st century, the government seems to be invading every corner of our lives. But there’s still hope to build your own future without becoming a state-run robot.
Here’s how to get as far away as possible from the stinking bureaucratic beast.
How to be free from the government in the 21st century
1) Understand government power for what it really is
The ultimate tool of government control is simple: physical force.
Many democracies have all sorts of protections of rights and privacies, but they still ultimately rely on force once you cross too many red lines.
The way governments maintain loyal individuals who will enforce their power is money, or more specifically control of the validation and issuance of money.
Following this, governments rely on tracking and taxation of that money to fund services, wage wars, run public schools and enable various actions that their executive leader, councils or parliaments decide upon.
People agree to it for the same reason that warring European states signed onto Westphalian democracy centuries ago: a loss of freedom in return for a modicum of protection and stability.
But when government control starts to invade many areas of your life, tax you to death and pursue policies you consider unjust and immoral, it’s time to rethink things.
And when this time comes, the first thing you need to think about is the rat race.
2) Get out of the 9 to 5 rat race
As I said, the government needs you using its money, or third-party money such as Federal Reserve notes, in order to track and tax you.
This sustains it, like the activity of bed bugs who glow red after sucking your blood silently at night while you sleep.
Your first and primary step for how to be free of the government in the 21st century is to beat them at their own game.
In simple terms:
Do everything you can to get some savings and escape the 9 to 5 rat race that has you so stressed you can’t focus on the future and pursuing your dreams.
This isn’t foolproof obviously: as we now see in Russia and saw in the last century with pre-Nazi Weimar Germany, citizens can wake up and find out their money is now worth less than garbage and their years of hard work have disappeared.
But earn money while you can and find out how to do what you truly love without just feeding straight back into the government machine.
Use the money to fund your dreams. Use it to start companies. Use it to help others who inspire you and build up parallel ventures that question and provide alternatives to government-run narratives, government-approved media and government-supported political paths.
3) Find your purpose and follow it
If you want to know how to be free from the government in the 21st century, you need to find your purpose and follow it.
Before you can experience a real change, you need to really know your purpose.
And before heading out on a new mission solo or with a partner or friends, you want to firmly know why you’re doing it and what your purpose is in life.
I learned about the power of finding your purpose from watching Ideapod co-founder Justin Brown’s video on the hidden trap of improving yourself.
Justin used to be addicted to the self-help industry and New Age gurus just like I did. They sold him on ineffective visualization and positive thinking techniques.
Four years ago, he traveled to Brazil to meet the renowned shaman Rudá Iandê, for a different perspective.
Rudá taught him a life-changing new way to find your purpose and use it to transform your life.
After watching the video, I also discovered and understood my purpose in life and it’s no exaggeration to say it was a turning point in my life.
I can honestly say that this new way of finding success by finding your purpose actually helped me to appreciate each day instead of being stuck in the past or daydreaming about the future.
4) Dodge the sovereign citizen trap
Sovereign citizens in the United States and other countries believe they have come up with legal and ethical arguments why government laws don’t apply to them.
They believe they are truly free because they say they are and try to live that way apart from society, driving without government license plates or licenses, and so on.
They often try to argue in a court of law or during police apprehensions that they are not subject to the laws of a system they don’t consent to.
They generally get tased, beaten, imprisoned, mocked or stripped of their property.
I haven’t thoroughly researched every sovereign citizen argument. Maybe some of them have some juice.
But never make the mistake of thinking that a theory protects you from physical reality. It doesn’t.
Want proof?
That’s the irony.
Even if sovereign citizens were correct that they’ve debunked fraudulent legal constructions made by federal governments or found the ultimate breakthrough loophole in Admiralty law, police officers and judges don’t care.
I’ve seen it firsthand while covering court as a journalist.
Be careful.
5) Become sure of your moral code
The separation of church and state only really became a widely-believed concept in Western nations following the scientific Enlightenment and start of liberalism and ideas of individual liberty in the 17th century.
Prior to this time most social services, collection of money and political power required officially-sanctioned religious approval to be considered valid. Many countries still continue this practice today.
The point is that even secular countries with governments separate from religion still have many moral beliefs inherent in their laws – and lack of laws.
This is why it’s vital that you be sure of your own moral code if you want to be free of government.
If you try to build your own life solely apart from the government in practical ways, you will be likely to flounder.
But if you build your own life apart from the government with a solid idea of why you’re doing it and the moral code you want to live by, you stand a much greater chance of success.
As 19th century libertarian thinker Frédéric Bastiat put it:
“When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law.”
6) Develop alternative ideas
As I said earlier, we must never make the mistake of thinking our theories overrule the physical reality around us.
Nonetheless, ideas are important.
If you don’t want to live under the government that’s over you, come up with alternatives and then try to put them in practice.
As R.J. Rummel writes for the University of Hawaii, his ideal global system would be one in which groups are free to form and leave communities as per their own decision.
“People have a right to form their own communities. And second, the free exit right: people have a right to leave any community.
Together, these rights would give you and all others the right to organize with each other a community governed by your own principles and with whatever rights you all want, as long as you do not force this community on others and anyone is free to leave it.”
Of course, there is an ongoing debate across the political spectrum among alternative-thinkers about whether it is better to seek reform and revolution within the system or outside of it.
That is a question everyone must ponder for themselves. But the idea that purely opposing or escaping the government is sufficient to building a new and better system is, frankly, naive.
You must have your own proactive ideas about what you want to build instead, and why.
You also are well-advised to consider all the alternatives, from agricultural communes to housing coops that are still possible within the existing laws made by various governments.
7) Build your own foundation
Many of us look for an existing movement to join or a guru to follow when we first begin to notice deep issues with government systems and their actions.
We may also seek out spiritual and religious paths only to find them often all too accommodating to the issues and injustices which bother us most about government.
The solution is right at home. It’s in you.
You need to become powerful.
And that energy needs to radiate outward and become the foundation of the new world that’s being built.
As 19th century anarcho-communist philosopher Peter Kropotkin says:
“Be strong.
Overflow with emotional and intellectual energy, and you will spread your intelligence, your love, your energy of action broadcast among others!
This is what all moral teaching comes to.”
8) Free your mind
You can’t escape the government if you can’t escape the government inside your mind.
Think about it, man…
Even if you’re aiming for pure anarchy, you’re going to need to free your mind before you can free your body.
When it comes to your personal spiritual journey, which toxic habits have you unknowingly picked up? Is it the need to be positive all the time? Is it a sense of superiority over those who lack spiritual awareness?
Even well-meaning gurus and experts can get it wrong.
The result is that you end up achieving the opposite of what you’re searching for. You do more to harm yourself than to heal.
You may even hurt those around you.
In this eye-opening video, the shaman Rudá Iandé explains how so many of us fall into the toxic spirituality trap. He himself went through a similar experience at the start of his journey.
As he mentions in the video, spirituality should be about empowering yourself. Not suppressing emotions, not judging others, but forming a pure connection with who you are at your core.
If this is what you’d like to achieve, click here to watch the free video.
Even if you’re well into your spiritual journey, it’s never too late to unlearn the myths you’ve bought for truth!
9) Get self-sufficient
Being self-sufficient is a great skill even for those living under the incompetence and malice of various governments.
But it’s especially useful if you’re looking to get away from the clutches of the big bad wolf.
Getting out of paying taxes or converting everything into cryptocurrency may be harder to do, and can involve some real wrangling.
But getting to live more in nature, generating your own power and food and using trade and barter instead of money is definitely possible.
As for building yourself a nice shelter for much less than you think? It’s well within reach for less than you think…
There are some amazing ideas out there, so look into it!
10) Team up
Find some companions who share your vision of living differently and under less government control.
This may include homeschooling your kids, growing your own food, generating your own power and instilling yourself and others with different philosophies than those pumped into you by the corporate denizens of the halls of power.
Getting free of government in the 21st century is not only about physical freedom, it’s about learning to free your mind from the clutches of the government-influenced and government-controlled media.
You don’t need to believe everything you hear, and you don’t need to follow the script.
Follow your own path.
Forge your own way forward.
Free at last?
Chinese dictator Mao Zedong famously said that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
The brutal truth is that even the outwardly nicest governments ultimately rely on use of force to ensure that citizens comply.
Anyone within the reaches of a government system and its laws must comply with the basics or ultimately face prison or death.
Some governments are much harsher, some much more lenient and rights-based. But all governments eventually have various red lines you simply can’t cross as long as you are inside them without serious consequences.
This includes everything as basic as traffic laws all the way to laws regarding crime.
There are ways to live off-grid and remotely from central government control, but there’s also a price to be paid.
Those who break out of society and away from most forms of government control can gain a measure of true freedom, but they must also be willing to trade many of the benefits of a centralized government and its services, including advanced healthcare, law enforcement services and access to the power grid.
The decision, ultimately, is up to you.
