Seems living off the grid is now illegal in some towns in Florida and a few other states.  People who collect their own rain water, grow their own food and don’t use the electrical grid are being ‘shut down’ by civic authorities. They are being called criminals.

Maybe Sal and I are living on the dark side of the force now, Luke?

Mind you, being on the wrong side of the law is pretty easy if you are poor.  Our judicial system comes down pretty hard on little people who steal a loaf of bread or sleep under a bridge.  Hang ’em high!  Rip-offs on a grand scale get nothing.  Interesting system, don’t you think?

The world is going high-security on shopping centres, office buildings, airports and God-knows-what all (schools, even!) and it has had the effect of making life harder and not in the least bit safer. The people are herded and the advantages accrue only to the 1%. What a system!

Never mind.  It is best to duck under the radar, keep mum on everything wrong and try not to step on the cracks or the cops will break your back screaming ‘Get down!  Get down NOW!’  They might even taser you for good measure.  Bernie Maddof didn’t get tasered.  Hedge fund guys don’t get tasered.  Our Gestapo reserves tasering for mental patients and bums.  So, be careful out there.  Wearing a suit and a tie is now a pro-active defensive manoeuver.  Be safe.  Shine your Florsheims.  Wear a tie.  Think about it.

Fear of authority is now rampant in our society and, what with the taser-thing and the ability to incarcerate, impound and the imposition of soul-breaking fines the average person has been cowed into mousehood.  We are still somewhat short of a ‘locked down’ society (by far) but listen to the hue and cry over gas prices!  Well, there isn’t any, is there?

When oil was $147.00 a barrel the price at the pump was lower than it is today and the price of oil-by-the-barrel is hovering around $100 today.  It is gouging – plain and simple.  So, the country that produces oil charges their citizenry more than the one that does not and that lower-priced country buys from us.  Listen to the outrage!

(squeak)

And Enbridge is going to do that with Natural gas!  Hear the protest!

(half a squeak)

Occupy stood up.  Then sat down.  Idle No More stood up.  Then sat down.  The Port of Vancouver truck drivers are standing up and they will be made to sit down.  The teachers stood up, won in court and are still not gaining traction!  We don’t seem to have much in the way of staying power when it comes to standing up and making our voices heard and, to be frank, I don’t blame anyone for that.  To fight the system means to impose on yourself even more hardship than it is doing to you.  Fighting them makes it worse for you – not better.  And fighting seems to make it better for them!  Ergo, surrender and try to accept what is.  Lie back and enjoy it.

Or, alternatively, you could join the dark side, Luke.  Live off the grid.  Grow your own food.  Catch a fish.  Walk on the wild side.  Literally.  Live where the bears are.

‘Course, you’d be a criminal.  Who woulda thunk it?