How does one live outside the system?

what about living in a trailer?

there is a famous concept in germany(/europe), the so-called "wagenplatz" - half-legal or illegal areas, mostly in cities, where people who don't want to live in a house - like everyone - just live in trailers. (the best english translation for this would be "trailer park", i guess)

you can always build a small and easy shelter out of wood, a log house or something alike, with a few skills and little experience in working with wood.

you can search for active members of the ecological movement or organic farms in your area, i suppose, they know more about the commune-movement most of the time. it's all about getting in contact with those alternative people, at least thats my experience and what brought me into all this stuff and knowledge (german/european only, and still at the beginning, though)

also, get like-minded people around you! a community can do much more than just a single person! and good luck!

 

Das kenn' ich auch unter Wagenburg - "wagon castle".

I'm not sure how it is in the u.s. but I think you better choose your "trailer park" very carefully. And I may be ignorant on this but as far as I'm aware of, trailer parks in north america generally seem to consist of rednecks. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

the only thing i know about trailers is from watching trailer park boys, but something tells me thats not a very realistic show. a friend suggested getting a trailer, but i guess you`d have to pay rent there anyways and it probably sucks in winter. everything sucks in winter.

 

I had a little coal oven in mine, it was a wooden trailer and for insulation I put styrofoam plates between the planks. It was nice 'n cozy in the winter. I bought it for DM100,- and paid no rent.

 

oh thats really cheap! damn, i wish i could drive.

 

I was quite lucky cos one of the guys already living in the "trailer park" owned a tractor so he asked me to fill up a large open trailer with rubble in exchange for towing my trailer from another trailer park. And the cool thing was that everybody from the squatt next to the wagenburg helped me load up the trailer, so it only took like 10 minutes haha.

 

Why not ask your mom to tow your trailer for you? "Hey, mom, I've decided to go live in a trailer. Will you tow it for me to this illegal squatter camp?"

 

Are you involved in the anarchist community in New England or know any anarcho punks or just anarchists that move from town to town or from state to state? Ask them first, they should know cuz they are probably trying to or are living that life know, in the hood in which you live or surrounding hoods. And if you don't know one or are not involved in the "community" when you see one on the street start up a conversation with them and talk to them and ask them and pick their brains on the questions you have...

There are trailer parks all over the USA and it just depends on the city where the trailer par is in, where i live there are at least 10 trailer parks within 10 miles of where i live and they are mostly mixed working class people. But theire are more white-nationalists in other parts of the city and well you can spot those areas pretty easily...

thats rad, do you have some awesome gratify mural painted on the outside of you trailer? maybe something like this pic below from a bus from Occupy oakland?

 

No, nothing like that. It was just green and not nearly as long as the one above.

 

HAHA where i live like 250 miles from me east in the desert there is an illegal squatter camp on Federal Land, an abandoned Air Force Base where all the buildings walls were torn down and all that is left are the slabs of concrete where the building were erected in the first place... People park their trailers on these slabs, and have built a city there...

They call the place Slab City

 

hahaha i saw a documentary about that place a while ago. A tweakers paradise apparently haha!

 

Haha, Slab city, sounds like the kind of place you'd find in Fallout 3!
No, the place I stayed in looked something like this:

Also, there was a double-decker bus with no engine there.

 

yeah tweekers and all sorts of other peeps too, the last time i was there a Bike Collective from Los Angeles was there, and they were having a 2-3 day all day and night party with their bikes, hallucinogens and bumping music all day and into the night, we crashed that party

 

I also saw a documentary about a place next to a military testing ground. The inhabitants would risk going into this military area and strip the aluminium off the tank wheels and even salvage cluster bombs and shit. There were even 2 or 3 casualties.

 

Eh, truth be told living "outside" the system ain't all what they tell yah. Not to dissuade you from making the decision, but as a friend of those who have tried... and failed.... I don't know. I'd say that as long as you know yer objective then you'll know what to do but if you don't? Well, there's plenty who are all "I need a safe place to drink myself to death more or less quietly" and alcohol is a very fucking big part of the system. no? I don't know if it's possible, I mean communes ad infoshops gotta BUY LAND to exist, or pay rent, or whatever... and squatting well you still pay (or don't pay as lots do) for utilities and trash and shit, and if you're squats in the city you kinda fucking live in the city! And the city sucks man. You travel, you have fun but you still need gas and food and shit too right? So I don't now that it's really possible or even if people should 'cause the fire's gonna burn burn burn whether you're there to experience the flames or not. The heat still touches your bare ass no matter what! ..... but by all means good luck, squatting's an adventure I think every "radical" person should try at least once.

 

its better to do anything you can to not be part of it than completely give in.

 

@spike: where's that picture taken? it strangely reminds me of one i've seen recently... in göttingen? just curious...

 

I would suggest finding a commune, although iv never been in one i have tried squatting it and unless you are strong willed or good at spinging/busking (im neither ) it can be tough especially in the cold not to mention food, sleeping location and other things. To me communes just seem like the best option to be as self sustainable as possible depending on the people living in the commune of course and their beliefs and whatnot.
Hope you find what your looking for

 

Darmstadt.