Off the Grid Goes to the Movies
Oct 26th, 2011 | By Mike | Category: Movies, Reviews, Top Headline | Print This Article
There is a popular aphorism that says, “Be careful what you wish for.” This could apply quite well to the relationship between the off-the-grid lifestyle and how it has been portrayed by big media and popular culture. On the one hand, it is our duty to try and warn everyone who is capable of listening about the storms that are coming, and any kind of publicity that preppers or off-the-grid projects can get would seem to have the potential to help us do that. But on the other hand, mainstream culture is notorious for the way they caricature any movements or groups that challenge the fundamental consensus that powerful interests always try to enforce.
Off the gridders and survivalists have been attacked frequently by the arbiters of all that is considered proper and respectable. Preppers have generally been portrayed as paranoid, violent, misanthropic, and more than a little bit crazy. Of course, none of this is necessarily false, since all movements for change attract fringe elements that do not represent what is best about those movements. But popular culture and the mainstream media have clearly had an agenda when it comes to their portrayals of off the gridders, and that agenda has been designed to make all survivalists look as if they are cut from the same whacked-out cloth.
But there may be one exception to this disturbing pattern— a film called Off-the-Grid: Life on the Mesa, which has created a positive buzz that centers around survivalism and those who are working to make its goals into reality.
Popular Culture Goes Off the Grid
Produced by documentary filmmakers Randy and Jeremy Stulberg, Off-the-Grid: Life on the Mesa is a 2007 documentary about an intentional community of escapees from the insanity and cruelty of modern American society that has coalesced spontaneously on a desert mesa in the New Mexico desert, twenty-five miles from the nearest town. Despite sometimes extreme shortages of food and water and no electricity, this ragtag collection of misfits including former hippies, disillusioned vets, recovering addicts, political anarchists, second amendment advocates, and runaway teenagers have somehow made it all work, and this community has held it together against seemingly insurmountable odds. Despite various conflicts and stresses, this group has found a way to police itself and preserve the peace without any help from the outside world.
The positive and hopeful tone of this film separates it from most popular culture and media presentations about off-the-grid lifestyles and the people who love them. The filmmakers allow the characters in the film to tell their stories without slant or judgment, and the film is anxious to show these people finding salvation and workable solutions to their problems. The plucky individuals making this experiment in prepper cooperation work are portrayed in a sympathetic light, and critics have responded to the efforts of the Stulberg brothers by praising the film for its evocative and involving approach to the subject of intentional survivalist communities.
Sympathy from the Devil?
But as we have already discussed, popular media has a nasty habit of turning off the gridders into cartoon characters, and some have claimed that this movie is actually a continuation of that trend. The sympathetic nature of the presentation has been called patronizing and condescending by some, while others have pointed out that the film represents off the griddism strictly as a refuge for misfits who want to drop out of society and not as a sensible, organized attempt to build an alternative to mainstream lunacy and dysfunction.
While it is certainly true that this movie does not attempt to ground its subject matter in a greater political context, this is not usually seen as the job of documentary filmmakers. When artists set out to tell a story, they are looking for something that will entertain their audience first and foremost, and if there is a greater context worth exploring, they rely on their readers or viewers to figure that out and investigate it for themselves. And while this film may not be overtly political, just the fact that the filmmakers show an experiment in radical democracy succeeding is a powerful testament in and of itself.
As for the charge that the movie is patronizing, those who make such claims are revealing more about their own biases than anything else. Those who want survivalists, preppers, or off the gridders to only be portrayed in certain ways are guilty of a kind of snobbery that does not belong in the off-the-grid movement. Any and all should be welcome and their successes celebrated, no matter their past histories, and welcoming the unwashed and the downtrodden into the prepper fold is actually in keeping with the most honorable traditions of American history.
The Final Review
Off-the-Grid: Life on the Mesa shows that even those who have been labeled “losers” by a society that seeks to marginalize everyone who does not go along with the program are capable of improving their lives and managing their own affairs when they are given a real chance to do so. The off-the-grid lifestyle is all about second chances and about discovering the hidden abilities we all have that are suppressed by a social order that is neither intelligent nor sustainable in the long run.
There is certainly much about survivalism and preppers that is not presented in this movie. But if the film is successful in making people think, they may go looking for more information about this lifestyle, and once they discover what off the griddism is really all about, they may be ready to take that final leap of faith and join in with those who are trying to create something new and better for all of mankind.
©2013 Off The Grid News
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good article ive told alot of people about whats coming including my wife and they dont wont to hear it they beleive the goverment and fema will take of them its not just the media that as attacked us even the churches have they done it very slow and easy
Become independent in your way of thinking and living. Think outside the box. While a modern lifestyle is necessarily technology driven, How much do we actually need beyond convenient applications. Yes a phone call is more convenient than writing a letter, but time not being a factor, what can we truly do without? And what price are we willing to continue to pay for the privilege this is the greatest country in the world, our achievements are the greatest in the course of human development if we don’t get on our “GAME” soon. Our civilization will go the way of the Greeks, Romans ,etc. a few chapters in a history book. Then What?
What if you picked 10 to 20 like miednd people like us. buy a 20 to 40 ac plot. Small earth homes for each that blend in to the terrain spaced nicely apart for plenty of breathing room. One in each family still keeps a simple job and pays into a fund to take care of propane, land tax and the other small things that will pop up! _______________________________________________________________Uh that’s already been invented. They are often referred to as subdivisions with a working family provider and a stay-at-home mom. Your version is just more a more primitive version and is also known as a Commune or Communal Village – loosely based on Communism . Not saying its good or bad, I’m just saying the idea isn’t new and the way you pitch it is actually a cliche9 in a lot of jokes. Also, you didn’t address one of the first basic needs, a steady reliable source of clean water and then sanitation. So, let’s say you start out with 20 people on 40 acres . Well, typically over time populations always grow at least in strong heterosexual communities anyway. Families will grow over time. Younger humans will reproduce new humans. That yields less than two acres per person to live on for ALL their needs, water, food, shelter and sanitation. And that doesn’t even cover energy needs.If you are buying propane as you propose, especially in large quantities for 40 people you are not going to be fully off the grid or under the radar. The government tracks these things. The sellers will have records of sales / deliveries as required by law.Remember, you will need to make allowance for some kind of street or streets. So that subtracts from your useable square feet. In the end, a lot of things will come down to being measured in square feet the denser the population gets.Even early settlements still had streets even if not paved. They were muddy, manure and waste filled and when the weather was dry, they were a source of constant dust filled with irritants and potential pathogens.Then, if you are going to run water lines, say from a communal well, you will need easement space for those. They have to be accessible in case of a break. Wells are highly regulated and MUST be done a certain way and in almost all areas must be done by licensed contractors now. They must be tested, certified and approved.Next what’s your plan to handle sanitation? Is less than two acres going to be allowed by law for a septic system – per dirt hovel? How much of the soil passes perk tests? Authorities who will approve or deny a permit for septic will examine the site and they will grant permission, or they’ll say “h e l l NO!” And the regulations are getting tighter and tighter. Same thing with an “outhouse”. Then there are typically grading permits that are required and strict environmental regulations that must be followed such as erosion control, silt fencing and runoff prevention. If you cause a nearby stream to get silted – the environmental fines can be steep. Always plan for the worst case scenario, the most heavy, 100 year event rains that can come at the worst possible time.Will local building codes allow dirt hovels to live in? It is doubtful and building codes are getting stricter and stricter. Then can condemn your hovel and evict you.What will you use for fuel? Propane brought in for 40+ people? Again, you will need at least a minimally acceptable road for a gas truck to operate on. Without paved street or at least a well formed and graded road with a sufficient crusher run (ABC stone) base, dirt roads and trails quickly become mud holes of misery for everyone. Then when they dry up, they become airborne dust sources of misery. Grading and even minimal road building is expensive. Anytime you have to move dirt it costs $$$$$.In the end, you will find yourself in the middle of developer planning type of situation where you have to submit things to the county for approval and if you do things without approval they can make life hell and even shut you down. You will find that the small things morph into big problems and in the end money, or lack thereof, is always going to be the biggest problem in a community. There will always be slackers who talk a good line and get all excited but then when it comes down to steadily producing their end of the labor bargain and/or producing the agreed upon amount of money to contribute (we already have that it’s called taxes ) you will find many who want to live off the fruits of labor of others (again, we already have those in society). The slackers will ALWAYS have some sort of excuses. I had to take care of my sick child . I had to go run an errand. I’m not feeling well today . I have a dental appointment . “I’m depressed”. Whatever the excuse is – they are experts at coming up with a sob story.What about crime? What about someone who you let join and they buy a plot in your community only to find out they are running drugs, or have a dangerous mental issues, or are just plain insane? Or a child molester? You going to murder them and then face charges yourself? What about domestic violence? Are you going to insert yourself into the middle of a dangerous situation like that? Even cops fear getting in the middle of one. What about adultery? I assume then, you don’t plan on actually living away from Law Enforcement.When times get hard and people are not holding up their end of the bargain, all that “Kum-By-Yah” stuff seems to go right out the window remarkably fast.In other words, the more people you bring into the mix, especially strangers, the more “control” and “government” you have to impose. Well, we already have that in just about every nation on earth to one extent or the other.In essence, you display the well intentioned but naive excitement and vision of primitive utopians everywhere.Not saying it can’t be done, but the history of dirt hovel communes in this nation or any nation is not good, and not long-lived.I’m a cynic and a realist. Airborne! (Been there, done that).