True Rebellion and Rural Living

I’m sitting here in my basement office, thanks to Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet network. I could be in New York, Wyoming, Seattle, or just about anywhere else. With the new portable Starlink, I could literally be writing this from a rest stop in the middle of Texas or New Mexico, or deep in the Rocky Mountains at a national park.

Now, I know this concept isn’t new. We’ve had the capability since smartphones started offering hotspots, and phone providers rolled out portable data boxes. But now, with Starlink’s speed and seamless connectivity, the possibilities are expanding exponentially.

Here in rural Indiana in 2024, my options have never been greater. I can travel across the country, visit friends and partners from coast to coast, and it doesn’t matter where I call home. I can work locally, from my basement, or at One More Cup, a coffee shop in nearby Burlington (population: 603). Discussing a cutting-edge app from the hardwood floors of what used to be a general store in the early 1900s is both surreal and, frankly, awesome.

All of this highlights a powerful reality: it has never been easier to live locally—in a small town, away from the hyperactive fog of city life.

If you’re intentional, you can pretty much live anywhere you want. You can find your “power place” and build a life around it. You don’t have to settle for what the system prescribes.

As we head toward a monumental election, I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of local elections. The closer you are to the decision-makers, the more their choices reflect your concerns. Someone running for mayor in New York or Indianapolis, or governor or any federal office—who are they really more concerned with? You? Or lobbyists, big corporations, the media, or anyone who can “anoint” or destroy them? But in a small town or rural county, those leaders work for you—or at least they should, provided you’re active and make your voice heard.

Returning more power to the local level is essential. Technology now allows people to live wherever they want. If we embrace it, this shift could spark one of the most effective political movements since the 1960s. Power to the people, power to small towns, power to rural communities.

So run wild—embrace a big house, wide-open land, freedom, and a small town where you know the people you pass at the local grocery or gas station. Maybe it’s a small cabin in the woods you make into your own oasis. Maybe you start going to a small church, meet new friends for coffee at the crack of dawn, or just smile and wave as you walk through a local park.

Some might even call it revolutionary. Real rebels, after all, push back against the status quo. And when that status quo is bigger, shinier, and more controlled, what better way to rebel than from a basement in the middle of cornfields, streams, trees, and small towns?