Life off the grid

I grew up a very "socially engaged" kid. That means I was always in the company of people. I partied seriously in school. I hung out with two very different crowds in college. One as a normal frat-boy and the other as something probably shaped me into what I am today - a hybrid of Eastern and Western personalities. I learned to feel equally at home in the suburbs of New York as I do in the suburbs of Beijing. I learned to look beyond buildings and faces.

One thing I noticed wherever I am, whether in Singapore or London, is how we're all tied together to one system. How our passport is cleared at immigration and how our credit cards are cleared at the hotel, regardless of where we are, would suggest that we also live in a seperate but interlocking system. We are part of the global network.

In the same manner we are also plugged into the most notoriously transient of bubbles - the global economy. Some of us who parked serious money in speculative ventures are learning that a bad day on Wall Street can wipe us out in Kuala Lumpur. The best part is in how it is all imaginary. We've never seen the company we've bought stock in. We've never held a dime in our hands of the currency we speculate in. We hope to profit from imaginary transience, caused by imaginary rumors and imaginary money. Everything is imaginary.

Some say this is the price to pay for modern life. We can't help but be part of the global grid, either through what we produce at work or what we consume. Our tools of survival are forecasting, predicting and timing. All we do is watch for signs.

I have another idea of life that's no less fulfilling. How about life off the grid.

Not that its a totally radical idea. It was explored in depth in the trilogy of The Matrix, my favorite movie.

Life on the grid (or some say la-la land) has its material advantages. You speak everybody's language and you value what everyone else values. Notice how money opens just about any door. We are conditioned to live in a collective. There's no bigger comfort than being "one of us," no bigger fear than NOT being "one of us." We all love the same things - Disneyland, McDonald's, fashion and money. We're only a phone call or an email away from each other. The grid binds us together. It defines our whole life.

Drawbacks? There are plenty. One week without the internet or one month without swiping that credit card can throw us into a state of serious discomfort. An unpaid bill in London can render us unable to buy anything in Sydney. A drop in the US dollar can make our savings go poof. When a contagion hits the grid, we go down with it, even if we personally did nothing to spark off that contagion.

Of course we are not totally blameless in all this. There is no free ride. If we tie ourself to an anchor, why be surprised when we get dragged underneath when it drops overboard. If we are willing to pay the price, well and good. If we are not willing, then what the hell are we doing there?

So this is what I tell my friends who are losing their shirts in this financial crisis. Forget about the rogues in the global financial system. They're not the cause of your problems. I mean, even when the economy was doing well, my friends were already struggling with debt or not having what they want anyway. The problem is the choice they made. And that is to latch their well-being onto something that is inherently unstable. My friends, inspired by tales of success of Wall Street icons, are trying their luck on the big game and their luck, as it turns out, is not too good. Even their Wall Street role models have been falling one after another.

Its the classic red pill - blue pill situation. Once you've gone down the rabbit hole, its not that hard to figure out what's really going on up there.

I had mentioned about living off the grid as part of re-engineering happiness. I am not advocating putting everything down and living in a treehouse in the forest. Despite all that's been said in The Matrix, a solution of extremes has never worked for anyone, not while we're still bound by the laws of gravity and a few other laws. But if happiness is a state of mind, then the best defense against the lunacy of financial and social bubbles, I think, is to redefine happiness in our minds. (*Nonconformity alert ^_^*) Once we realize the illogic of putting our happiness at the mercy of unstable phenomena, our system may be dislodged just enough to automatically scan for an alternative. That's the beauty of the human mind.

I cannot say where your mind will land or where it should land. That's a journey you have to take on your own. What I do know is there is life outside the grid. I had a taste of it while tunneling through the rabbit hole and you know what? Its not as bad as we think.