I have a friend who’s lived offshore for … I don’t know how long. Long time. Decades, maybe. He believes that any USSA freedomista who doesn’t quickly move off to furrin parts is doooooooomed<\/i> and he plans to be shouting, “I told you so!” as various vast edifi of a collapsing state crush us into pulp.<\/p>\n
Could be, could be. <\/p>\n
Freedomistas who stay in the U.S. could be in as much denial as those German Jews who are cited so often today. Part of being in denial is not knowing that you are.<\/p>\n
That’s one reason I went to Panama four years ago and Nicaragua this month. Perspective. Checking things out. (Getting to be warm in winter didn’t hurt, either.)<\/p>\n
But I’m probably not going back. Unless something big comes along (e.g. a millionaire sweeping me off my feet and urging me to live with him forever in his seaside villa in Costa Rica — an event as likely as winning the lottery then being abducted by aliens on the way home with my multi-million dollar check) — it just ain’t happening. Reasons? Many and various.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
Let me count (some of) the ways.<\/p>\n
I don’t like being where I don’t speak the language. As a writer, the knowledge that I’ll never<\/i> be able to communicate fluently especially bothers me. <\/p>\n
At the same time, I hate the idea of going to another country and huddling in some insular expat community. Seriously, what’s the point of that?<\/p>\n
Those expat communities bring up another point: money. Expats are always going on about how much less expensive it is to live in places like Panama or Nicaragua (or further afield, e.g. Thailand or Cambodia). But that’s an urban or suburban perspective. It’s not true for me. I already<\/i> live in a backwater where everything is cheap. <\/p>\n
In fact, in virtually every country I’ve studied, my personal cost of living would go way up (and most of all in English-speaking countries like New Zealand — which would be my first choice of haven if I had bux).<\/p>\n
Expats talk about how much more free they feel. They point out (no doubt rightly) that the U.S. has been enveloped by a poisonous cloud of suspicion, paranoia, and surveillance. But again — here in my beloved backwater I experience that mostly only by reading about it on the Internet. None<\/i> of that is part of the local, small-town climate.<\/p>\n
OTOH, in both Panama and Nicaragua, I was in cars that were stopped in random police dragnets. In Nicaragua, it happened 15 minutes from the airport, before I even got to my B&B. Granted, the officers were polite. The most recent one greeted me with a friendly “Good morning!” (at 2:00 in the afternoon) as soon as I told him, “No hablo espanol.” Still … that’s freedom?<\/p>\n
Gun rights. Gun rights. Gun rights. It doesn’t matter one whit to me that I can easily get a permit to buy and carry in Panama. I don’t ask permission<\/i> to own or use weapons. It doesn’t matter one whit to me that I can covertly get a weapon anywhere in the world. Here, right where I am, I have it better than that. For others, it may be fine. But not for me.<\/p>\n