More Fog Predicted for 2018

There’s an old saying in politics…

Perception is 90% of reality.

I looked back on 2017, not just my personal life, but everything I experienced in the places I visited, the people I met, even the articles I read and the videos I watched. I came away with two things…

1. I really love being back on the road, and
2. I question the authenticity of things a lot more.

Suffice it to say, I’ve become less naive the older I’ve become, and I don’t think it’s unique of me to do so. That is, I think everyone learns to listen with doubt as they grow older.

I sit here right now in the middle of the desert, inside of an RV, completely off the grid. I think part of the reason why I’ve done so is because I felt this need to symbolically run away from external forces. Perhaps there’s this alter ego in me trying to protect a naive little boy from being lured into a stranger’s car, and sitting out in the middle of the desert is the safest place I can get to.

Meanwhile, the anger on social media is ruining me.

I cannot remember a time when people in general were so pissed off at each other. But then again, has there ever been a time when people could safely vent their ire from behind the safety of a computer keyboard?

Now that Sash and I have become full time RVers, we’ve met other people who have taken up abode within mobile confines. And there’s this common denominator of self-reliance and distrust in government oversight.

I remember when “big brother” was a scary idea. Today, it seems like that’s what millennials want. Do they fully understand the implications of what that brings?

It has caused me to take a more proactive approach in securing my independence. I don’t want to become a cog in some greater monkey-works that switches hands from one political party to the next. I want to remain free from government oversight. I want to remain that small, one-tenth of one-percent that’s allowed to run around unaccounted for. I don’t want to be that hamster in an exercise wheel who runs itself to death creating power for the bureaucracy.

That stuff’s for the stupid.

I reminds me of Hurricane Katrina, when FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) came in and took over as the local law enforcement, creating refugee camps, and preventing people from going back home. I do not want to be corralled like cattle.

Yes, maybe I’m eccentric. But I think you have to take responsibility if you want to remain free. No one is just going to hand you freedom.

So, moving into 2018, there’s this fog, unclear picture, or sense of uncertainty of where totally free, untethered living will take us. Democrats want to make it more illegal to live off-grid. Republicans want to control morality even more. Will I be able to move further and further away from from this control?

Now that I’m 51 years old, I see myself as wanting only 30 years of living, and then I think I’m OK with just dying. Well OK, I really am not OK with just dying. But what I’m trying to say is that once I’m in my 80s, I won’t feel cheated if I died. If I can make it to my 80s, I think I got as much life as I could realistically expect as an American.

I just want to spend the next 30 years without having to “contribute to society” because trust me, I’ve already given more than my fair share to state and federal government in the form of self-employment and corporate taxes. I did what I was supposed to do, create a business, employ people, and pay taxes. Now, all I want to do is be left alone and live on my own terms.

I think I’ve earned that.