Building your own personal liberty in today's modern societies can be a daunting task. From an early age we are introduced to a consumerist model that relies on the status quo to prosper. We give up many personal freedoms to have the illusion of convenience, often at the expense of the environment and individuals that we may never see or meet. I am not convinced that this is the proper way to design a society, there is too much marginalization in this model, and though we can find value in the marginal, too much of anything is not in our best interest. I suppose we could call this model mono-marginalizing. Like an industrial agriculture system, one crop species is forced upon the landscape and expected to prosper. The problem is this requires intensive inputs from outside sources, and degrades the land until the land will no longer support it. When human beings are forced into a system that teaches them all the same ideas, follow all the same rules and eat all the same food it is no different. The system requires incredible inputs and controls in the form of taxation and government (fossil fuel fertizer and machinery). Innovation and diversity is slowed or even killed off by laws and class warfare (pesticide, herbicide, antibiotics and genetic engineering). This is a pattern of systemic dysfunction that goes against the laws of nature. It is unsustainable.
Many of us understand fully the implications of a continuation of the above mentioned model and have decided to do something about it. We are beginning a transition to a life of liberty. You still have many options to do this, it takes work, but it is the most rewarding work you can involve yourself in. By ditching the status quo you open up your life to diverse relationships and opportunities to excel in the modern world, all the while acting as a steward to the environment and community.
The first step is perhaps the most difficult. This is the moment of clarity, the time that you realize all is not as it seems and the system is not all you thought it was. You can come to this realization in different ways, for me it was a change in diet and research into the industrial food model paired with the new lease on life given to me through sobriety. I found that everything I was taught about diet and health was complete bullshit, this kind of pissed me off and I began to dig deeper into the crooked world of politics and the machine that we are all plugged in to. I was in tin foil hat beast mode. Do not let this phase detour you. It is a necessity in your path and it won't last forever. If you can just try to keep it to yourself, I had a hard time with that and had to tone down the rhetoric a few times. You have to keep your humility in this stage otherwise you could risk harming some relationships that could be important to you in the future.
Once you get over the shock of reality you must begin to act. Your path will be dependant on your particular situation but I am almost certain you will come to one common conclusion. You need to learn how to grow some of your own food. Let me suggest one thing, do it without chemicals. You create enough of your own waste, build a compost system. This should be your first action because compost takes a little time, and your plants will need it. Like I said before, creating your own freedom takes work.
If you are short on skills gardening is a terrific place to start building a solid skillset that you will be able to teach to others. There is no better place to learn about tools and the maintenance of tools and equipment. You will learn simple construction methods and ways to design effective and economical systems to increase your production in your given space. It's a hobby that provides you with so much more than food it is almost impossible to explain how important it is in a life of liberty.
