How to Exit the Empire (Without Burning Out of Going Offgrid) Pt. 2 - Resources
2026-01-22T22:56:09.000Z
Summary
We can't be upset at where the empire is taking us and still put gas in its tank.
Content
We can't be upset at where the empire is taking us and still put gas in its tank.͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ Subscribe here for more How to Exit the Empire (Without Burning Out of Going Offgrid) Pt. 2 - Resources Nicole Reese Jan 22 READ IN APP We can't be upset at where the empire is taking us and still put gas in its tank. Last week we talked about couldn't do without a FernGully reference Want to topple the empire by building modern villages where we can live meaningful lives? Follow Terrenity to join the rebellion Upgrade to paid Exit 2: Resources We are used to the narrative that we depend on these large systems to survive. When you depend on systems that are built to extract from you, eventually you'll feel yourself on the very sharp edge of survival, as many of us do now. But the empire also survives on our consumer choices. Our labor, our attention, our spending, our subscriptions, our time. Withdrawing these significantly weakens the empire. This is where some village builders assume the solution is "grow all your food and weave your own underwear". A charming fantasy, but ultimately another trap. We can do much better than just returning to subsistence living. In this article I lay out three concrete levels of resource exit: sharing, distributing, and divesting, to evolve from consumer to collaborator to co-owner. I like to have something to run towards, rather than away from. This 4-part series on how to exit isn't only about starving the empire — it's about feeding the village. Level 1: Sharing Requirement: Trust The systems I advocate for are built on community and circles of trust. When you organize resources together, you don't just save money. You save time. You reduce stress. You reclaim capacity. You build resilience. This is where your energy actually comes back to you. This looks like 3 people planting a microgarden, 5 neighbors bulk-buying food staples, or 10 families sharing a solar array. Think of a community tool library, instead of thirty identical weed whackers rusting in thirty lone garages. My own move nights at Why Sharing Doesn't Come Naturally Many people already share resources out of necessity, but many others — including people who need to — don't. Not because they're selfish, but because sharing requires trust, and trust has been systematically eroded through scarcity conditioning. We've been trained to fear dependency, and equate independence with safety. So we default to control instead. For example, at my same community, quite a few of us have personal Amazon prime accounts ( yes, I know we shouldn't have anyone using this service, but it's just one of those things we haven't been able to replace yet ). Even though we adore each other, we don't really trust each other to not accidentally charge the wrong card, and we don't really feel like monitoring if that happens to begin with. Most mutual aid advice that I read feels tone-deaf when it doesn't acknowledge that it can be very challenging to overcome this conditioning. You don't need to start big. You just need to start together . first principle of potluck economics: you have more together than apart Start here Pick one essential resource (food, water, tools, transportation) and ask: " How could this be handled better together than alone?". Start building the trust it takes to collectively manage resources with others, and slowly add people to your circle of trust. You'll find that every resource you share multiplies. And for everything you save money together on, you're weakening the engine of the machine. Level 2: Distributing Requirement: Coordination The next level is distribution: reorganizing labor, responsibility, and ownership so that more of your needs are met without money changing hands at all. This is where communities begin to feel like villages again. Distribution looks like: Shared care Community childcare and eldercare pools free up working hours, reduce burnout, and create real interdependence. Care stops being a private crisis and becomes a shared effort. Distributed education Homeschool co-ops, skill-sharing circles, and intergenerational learning replace outsourced, expensive systems with knowledge that lives inside the community. Holistic care pots Instead of relying solely on insurance systems that profit from denial, communities can create shared funds for preventative, mental, and holistic care. Distributed infrastructure Solar microgrids. Shared water catchment. LoRa internet networks that you own. When infrastructure is co-owned, no one is held hostage by monopolies or outages. We'll be diving more into sovereign tech choices as ways to unplug from the empire in the next issue. Follow along Upgrade to paid This level is harder because it requires more than money or belongings. Besides time, which many of us are already short on, they require higher levels of coordination, clear roles, and organized systems. And crucially, the willingness to be in each other's lives. Start here Map the people already around you using the social circles diagram. Not who you wish you had — who you actually have. Then ask where life feels tightest. Time, care, transport, food, money, energy. That's your entry point. With a bit of coordination, that pressure can become shared. Invite one or two people slowly inward and experiment. Needs get met faster when they're held together, and often, relationships deepen in the process. Level 3: Divesting Requirement: Skill This is the tier most people never reach. Level 3 is when communities stop acting like consumers and start acting like financial ecosystems. When your money sleeps inside institutions aligned with your values, or institutions that YOU own, it wakes up working for your future, not against it. Cooperative business ventures Instead of working for extractive companies, communities build enterprises that they own to circulate wealth internally and serve real needs. Community real estate investment & regenerative funds Small amounts pooled together become meaningful capital for land, housing, food systems, and local sustainable infrastructure. Rotating lending circles & co-investing Friends and neighbors fund each other's projects instead of begging banks for permission. Local credit unions and community development banks Savings are used to strengthen your region instead of financing destruction elsewhere. Shared emergency funds Because relying on FEMA or insurance alone is a gamble most of us can't afford. my community training to take down the empire If these feel rather complicated to pull off, honestly, I get it. My hands get clammy thinking about "building a fund". Because I haven't yet learned the skills of how to do this. We can totally pull these off, though. Start here They didn't teach us these things in school on purpose, but the resources to learn how to build these things are available online for free. Pick 1 thing you want to learn more about in the next week — cooperatives, green banking, or community real estate — and find time for mirco-learnings. Just understanding what's out there helps you peel your eyes away from the train wreck of the empire. Full Exit My most important thesis: The real goal is not just weaken the empire, but build alternative solutions that outcompete capitalism and become the new standard. The economic dependency created in our lives — and the sense of inevitability when it comes to witnessing the system's corruption — is very real and not easy to simply leave behind. We begin to build parallel institutions when we invest each other to collectively to buy land to create a regenerative offgrid community, or purchase a broken down building to turn it into a mutual aid center and affordable housing for artists. Exiting the empire only works when we combine all 3 levels and build new systems. Start learning how to pull each of these levels off by building these strengths: Sharing takes high trust Distributing takes high coordination Divesting takes high skill We start as consumers. Next we become collaborators. Eventually we become investors in each other. Then the empire loses its grip on us. The Real Checkmate Whether you're sharing a ladder or withdrawing billions in collective spending power, these principles remain consistent. I live in the United States. Currently, US citizens are actively planning a tax strike against the federal government for violating civil rights, and coordinating to withdraw money from big corporations supporting the violent, racist secret police. I used to be bewildered that we weren't rioting in the streets every day. While I'm outraged on a daily basis, I now understand something else. Violent rebellion gives the system exactly what it wants: justification for more force, more surveillance, more control. Building alternatives starves it instead. Whether it's the Target boycott or the tax strike, withdrawing money from these systems is how it begins. As we peacefully allocate resources to nurture thriving communities we can actually live in, we're building a world we don't have escape from. My mantras: Focus on what we can build. Focus on the positive choice. Focus on building the better alternative. That's the moment the empire has no leverage left. Invite your friends and earn rewards If you enjoy Terrenity, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe. Invite Friends Like Comment Restack © 2026 Nicole Reese 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104