The five excerpts below all focus on ways to think and behave free in daily life. Other parts of the book deal with disaster preparedness, monkeywrenching and appropriate ways of dealing (or better yet, not dealing) with politicians and their noisome spawn.

Just click on a topic to go to that excerpt. Happy reading...

Go ahead. Take your television out to the shooting range or the nearest plinking site and have yourself a ball blasting its big old Cyclops eye and blowing out its little silicon brains.

What, you say you like TV? You can use it in moderation? You're careful to distinguish between good entertainment and blatant propaganda and other trash?

Not likely. When we're watching TV, our brain waves are nearly identical to what they are when we're hypnotized. Think about it-the way a TV set draws your eyes even when you're not particularly interested in what's on the set...the way your eyes seem to glaze over and feel as if they're rolling back in your head as soon as they focus on the screen. That's hypnosis, people.

That means information, impressions and assumptions get fed directly into your unconscious without your conscious mind being fully able to edit and sort them. The effect is the same whether you're watching Masterpiece Theatre or Married, with Children. No matter how aware you are in general, and no matter how alert you believe yourself to be while watching TV, no matter how critical you think you are of the material you're watching, at some level, someone else is controlling your mind. Is that how you want to live? While TV contains many poisonous messages, those specific messages aren't the worst problem. Marshall McLuhan was right. With TV, the medium is the message...and its message is that you are nothing but a passive blob, fit only for sucking up what someone else wants you to see, hear, believe and know.

I often hear politically aware people saying they need to watch TV to keep an eye on what the mainstream media are saying and doing. Not true. You can get more accurate news from non-mainstream sources, and you can get a full shot of mainstream information from the Sunday paper-a medium which leaves you in control of your faculties even when its content is as bullshit-filled as that of the TV.

I'm tempted to call TV a drug. But the vast majority of drug users can control their drug use. Millions of people use drugs without screwing up their brains. And drugs don't come with pre-programmed messages; you take 'em, then you choose, though your own actions and inclinations, what messages to let in. TV's effects are more insidious than any drug ever known to mankind.

An independent mind is critical to living free. So drop that electronic seducer off a cliff. Try that new box of cartridges out on it. Run over it with your lawn tractor. Bury it in your backyard. Free yourself from mind control and time control.

Then use all that newly free time and consciousness to LIVE.

P.S. If you absolutely can't tear yourself away from that cathode ray tube, watch some good videos. Braveheart is a terrific one for starters.

Picture this. Your favorite vice is taken away from you. Bang! It's gone! No more booze, cigarettes, coke, cola or whatever. Now what do you do?

There's nothing wrong with drugs, cigarettes or anything else you like to do and can do without harming others. But there's everything wrong with being dependent.

You could lose access to your favorite vices in an economic collapse, a natural disaster, a guerrilla war, or if you end up in jail. If you're a slave to your habits you can easily become a slave to anyone who can control your habits-anyone who dangles the desired thing in front of you and tells you you can have it if you just cooperate. Even if you don't end up in that dire circumstance, you could still spend a lot of time in pain and struggle over the loss of something that really should never have been so important.

Free yourself. Now. Don't get caught unawares. Enjoy the things you enjoy-fine! But be absolutely certain that you're in charge of them, not vice versa.

And don't forget-media blather to the contrary, chemicals and unhealthy habits aren't the only thing people let themselves become dependent on. You could be just as "hooked" on books, computer games, model ship building, work-or a whole bunch of other things-as some people are with alcohol or heroin. Examine your heart. If you find any "can't live withouts" there (other than the basic human needs for food, water, warmth, etc.), start practicing doing without them right away.

Freeing yourself from petty dependencies can also be good training for freeing yourself from big dependencies-like dependence on government.

Here's some advice found on the back of the business card of attorney William Curley of Gillette, Wyoming:

	If the police officer says...
	"Please open the trunk."
	"May I come in the house?"
	"I'd like you to do some tests."
	"Do you understand your rights?"
	"Would you like to give a statement?"
	Then politely, on the advice of counsel....
	Just say NO.

(This business card copy is © William Curley, Gillette, Wyoming and is used with permission. All rights reserved.)

Your belongings can imprison you in a lot of ways.

One, buying nice cars, stereos, spas, boats, houses & such can keep you in permanent debt bondage, so you never have the freedom to quit your job, take more time for yourself, relax and tell society to go to hell.

Two, you can get hung up on owning things for the sake of things. I mean, on the day you die, is it going to make any difference whether you owned a Lexus or a Geo? Whether your CD player had a sixty disk changer or a six disk changer?

Three, you can get so attached to them that, if they're stolen or destroyed in a fire, you suffer more than you should.

Four, they can literally imprison you if a crooked police agency, drooling with desire for property seizure, covets what you own enough to trump up evidence of a crime.

At the very least, keep your expensive goodies hidden from the world. Never brag and strut 'em.

Better yet consider dumping them. Or pay off the ones you have and don't tempt yourself with more. There are better things in life than owning a jet boat or a three-carat diamond ring. Not just more important things-but literally things you'll like better once you get in the habit.

You hold back from doing what you really want because the ghost voices of parents and past teachers nag in your head, "It's foolish, boy," "It's impractical, girl."

You "know" you couldn't make a living as an artist, hitchhike around the world, build a better mousetrap, live off the land, build a cabin in the woods, invent cold fusion, write the Great American Novel, raise sheep for a living, move to a mountaintop, be self-employed, live in a hamlet in Vermont, join a monastery, lead an insurgency movement or build wooden clocks for a living.

But you only "know" because other people told you so.

Whose life is it, anyway? Does it belong to you, or to the ghost of your third-grade teacher?

What's the worst that can happen to you if you follow your inner voice on what someone else believes is an impractical course? You could die? So what? You're going to die anyway. You could fail, be laughed at and have to listen to "I told you so"?

Well, I agree that's worse than dying. But the proper answer is a steady gaze right in the eye and a firm, proud, "At least I tried."

More important, what's the best thing that can happen? Freedom? Fun? Wealth? Happiness? Fame? Satisfaction? A sense of contentment at the end of the day?

Isn't it worth going for?

Now, having said that, prepare yourself as best you can before you take the leap. Do your best to make sure you've built the necessary skills, have the needed resources, and are going at it with the right attitude.

Follow your bliss-but don't leave your brain behind.

101 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution by Claire Wolfe is available from: Loompanics Unlimited, P.O. Box 1197, Port Townsend, WA 98368, 1-800-380-2230, $20.90 postpaid. Discounts: 5-9 copies, 20 percent off; 10-49 copies, 40 percent off; larger quantity discounts also available.

Also available from Amazon.com and many libertarian or alternative book catalogs.

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