Joel’s a perfect example<\/a>. But he’s also an example of the extreme sacrifice and creativity it requires. Joel’s existence is as precarious as it is gratifying, and can’t in any way be called even “semi-normal.”<\/p>\nMe? As I got older, I eventually found being numberless more than I wanted to live with.<\/p>\n
Several times a year I get messages from people who are trying to live numberless or, even more laudable, trying to keep their children unnumbered. They want my advice on how to overcome this problem or that. I got one of those messages the other day. This is my reply and will be the only<\/i> reply I ever again make to such requests.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
To wit:<\/p>\n
1. The world has changed. “Security” and people-tracking rule.<\/p>\n
2. While it’s an outrage that the government has turned so many rights into privileges requiring licensing, permissions, and tracking, as long as you are seeking privileges from government<\/i> (e.g. drivers licenses), you are going to have to bow to government conditions. Or find your own workaround. Or find grounds to sue. Even in the articles you cite from back then, I never<\/i> said you could get government privileges while remaining unnumbered. Why are you even asking me that?<\/p>\n
3. Nobody is going to make this easy for you. Nobody was ever<\/i> going to make this easy, but it’s much more difficult now. Only you can decide whether it’s worth it to you to evade, fight, refuse — or give in and live more normally. And having decided, you will need to use your own will, your own ingenuity, your own money, whatever it takes to live as you choose.<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
I have seriously mixed feelings about these pleas that come in. <\/p>\n
On one hand, I applaud people for trying. I also bear some responsibility for having ever encouraged them (though in my defense I’ve always said that nobody should ever do anything<\/i> just on the word of some writer). <\/p>\n
On the other, I can’t help but notice that not a single one of these pleas, over the years, has ever contained the words, “I’ve done extensive research on my own, but ….” Not one has ever said, “I know I’m asking for personal advice, so of course I’ll be glad to pay …” Not. Ever.<\/p>\n
It doesn’t really matter now because I have nothing useful to tell these people. A consult with me would be worth $0. Heck. Ask Joel how he does it. Offer him some payment. He could use the money and has much more relevant information. But you’re not going to like what he has to say. Not one bit. Because another thing I’ve noticed about these requests, over all the years I’ve been receiving them, is that everybody seems to want it to be easy<\/i>. They want to find ways for themselves and their kids to live exactly as their more compliant neighbors live<\/i>. No, they want other people<\/i> to find those ways for them.<\/p>\n
And who can blame them? <\/p>\n
I chose to step back within the system — a choice that has both benefits and a price. If you choose to remain outside, good for you. You are a better person than I. But if you make that choice and still expect to get everything you want from government and from the increasing number of institutions the government controls, then … well, good luck to you.<\/p>\n
Good luck to us all.<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
If anybody in the Commentariat has anything useful to offer people about how, in the year 2014, you can still get a drivers license, a bank account, or other services and privileges without a government ID number, by all means chime in. I truly hope it’s not impossible<\/i>. And these poor hopeful souls would love to hear some good news.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the 90s and into the early 2000s, I sometimes wrote about ways to avoid using social security numbers. Going without an ssn (as many of you know from having tried it, as I did for many years) was always challenging. It also put the un-numbered in the position of being an outsider in society. Still, back in the day, you could do quite a few common things without using a universal government ID number. Since 9-11 that challenge has become much harder, well-nigh impossible for anyone desiring to live a semi-normal 21st century life. Some succeed. Joel’s a perfect<\/p>\n
Continue readingI can’t help you with that.<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-and-spirit","category-privacy-and-self-ownership","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}