There is another basic premise that I have not much mentioned about this living off the grid lifestyle. It’s fear. And, of course, the associated loathing that goes with that. I understand completely how irrational is this fear and loathing but I feel it anyway. I am definitely fearful of what is to come. And I hate it.

I remember distinctly the incident that started this visceral reaction in me and, in itself, it means almost nothing. Almost too trivial to even remember. But, at the time, it was enough to nudge me into a way of seeing things that I have not altered and, to be fair, may have accelerated a bit. It was around 1990.

Near our old cul de sac was the elementary school we had moved to in Tsawwassen to be nearer for our kids access. I wanted my kids to be able to walk to school. I was sickened by the over reaction of parents all over the lower mainland to the fear that their child was going to be snatched and by the subsequent and dangerous collection of cars that swarmed the school areas every morning and late afternoon. Heaven forbid the little darlings should walk!

But despite the madness of it, I could understand it. I, too, felt that I should take every measure possible to ‘keep them safe’ and so we did that by moving closer to a school. Same difference, really. We were all reacting to an improbability that could not be stopped by the actions we were taking. It was stupid but understandable.

But that was not it. It was not the parents. It was not the kids. And it was not even the irrational fear of the one-in-a-million child snatcher in the lower mainland. Instead, it was the school and its actions that somehow catalyzed the feelings of fear of institutional thinking, responses and draconian measures that I still feel deeply.

The school didn’t dispatch teachers to corners a few blocks away to monitor kids as they approached. The school did not even get out and direct traffic out front. The school just sat and there did nothing. Except on one bright morning, they decided that they had a responsibility (to themselves!) and so they had signs posted around the school grounds declaring the area a no-ride zone!

The school decided in their sense of self interest to minimize their own liability by ensuring kids walk their bikes the last 100 yards or so to the school grounds! In that way, when the inevitable kid got run over, they would be seen to have ‘done something’.

To the irrational fear of a kidnapper, our institutions forbade bike riding!?

This, by the way, happened long before 9/11. The stupid, selfish and totally inappropriate tin-pot dictum of the no-ride zone was just a portent of things to come.

And, of course, it went on and on and on from there to the point that one cannot take shampoo on an airplane, a Muslim is guilty til proven innocent and the rest of us are getting ‘policed’ ever more closely as well (did you hear of the old, retired grandmother arrested by Canada Customs and held in a Winnipeg jail for 13 days because she had a jar of used motor oil in the truck that might have been heroin?!).

Yes, I am afraid. And I hate it. And that is partly why I am out here. I think group-think (govt., institutions and corporations) has gone mad. But make no mistake, it is not paranoia. Incidents cited (there are thousands of them) may be just small incursions here and there right now. Inconveniences most of the time. But the government is NOT acting in your or even anyone’s best interests on many (if not all) things (want a list?).

But that is not the issue itself, it is the trend. The trend is toward more inhuman institutions and corporations and governments. The trend is to more control of the people. The trend is toward more exploitation by taxation and the trend is toward an unhealthier life for the common man.

When I was younger, I ranted and raved and picked a few windmills to tilt at. Now, I just leave the battlefield to the megalomaniacs and, fortunately, they all prefer to do their work in the city. I’ll try to do some good albeit small stuff from out here. Please don’t tell anybody where we live.