(NaturalNews) For this July 4th -- Independence Day -- you're going to see a lot of articles reminding us about the real history of Independence Day and how America fought for freedom against a tyrannical empire. Those articles are valuable and useful, but this year, I've decided to take a different approach: Let's celebrate all the ways you can achieve independence right NOW, today, in 2013.

So I've listed eleven ways to move yourself toward independence, which also happens to mean self-sustainability, self-reliance and self-worth. You may not be able to achieve full independence for each of these, but you can always increase your degree of independence so that you rely less and less on the system. This makes you a stronger, more resourceful and even a more dignified individual while honoring those same qualities in America's founding fathers.

So here are the eleven along with advice on how to achieve each of them:

#1) Independence from the lying mainstream media

Turn off the TV and stop watching CNN which is nothing more than pure political theater designed to distract you from what's really going on. Cancel your subscription to cable or satellite television. Stop watching sitcoms and stop reading mainstream newspapers.

If there's anything really important going on, it will be covered in the independent, alternative media such as Natural News, Infowars and StoryLeak. And if you really want to know what's happening in the world, read Wikileaks or try some non-U.S. newspapers like The Guardian (which broke the Ed Snowden NSA spy story).

#2) Independence from the for-profit sick-care system

Want real freedom? Stay out of the hospitals and cancer clinics. Eat a diet that you know is good for you: fresh fruits and vegetables, organic produce, superfoods and food-based nutritional supplements. Get lots of vitamin D from sensible sunshine exposure. Boost your trace minerals intake to avoid mineral deficiencies. Engage in regular exercise of some sort, even if it's just walking.

This will keep you out of the cancer clinics and their chemo poison centers, out of the kidney dialysis centers and away from pharmacies and doctors. There is no real freedom if you're dependent on a chemical pill, so work to wean yourself off those pills with the help of a qualified naturopathic doctor.

#3) Independence from the corporate-monopolized global food system

The globalists know that food is a weapon. When they control the food, they control the population. Real independence requires not just storing extra food as an emergency backup supply, but producing food on your own property so that your food supply is at least partially self-sustaining.

It's easy to get started doing this: you can begin by sprouting your own fresh sprouts right on your kitchen counter. Expanding from there, you can run a small aquaponic system in your own home or apartment, or even grow some culinary herbs in small pots on a window sill.

Better yet, build a small greenhouse and run an aquaponic system in there, producing both fish and plants at the same time. (I'm building an aquaponic system and will be sharing videos online soon).

You could also go the traditional, simple route and till a garden in your back yard. Plant seeds in dirt and let nature generate the food. Whatever way you like to approach it, make this the year you take action and make it happen.

#4) Independence from the government-run public school indoctrination of your children

If you have children in public schools, I can't urge you strongly enough to pull them out of those schools and either get them to a private school or homeschool them. The U.S. public education system has no intention to "educate" your children. It's nothing more than a system of indoctrination and obedience training designed to churn out "obedient workers" for the globalist corporations and deceptive politicians.

A real education requires homeschooling or private schooling at an alternative education institution. These two things, of course, require an extraordinary amount of time and money investment, so it may not be practical for everyone, but at the very least you can get engaged with your child's schooling and find out what they're learning at school so you can discuss it with them.

Today, public schools are teaching children that the government is their savior; that individualism is bad; that the family is evil, and so on. School peer pressure teaches children to experiment with deviant sexual behavior and dangerous street drugs. Either one of these can ruin a child for life.

#5) Independence from Facebook, social media and internet addiction

It has become increasingly obvious to me that Facebook and other social media are destroying our brains. David Rainoshek penned a brilliant article on this subject that you may want to read. (And heck, even post it on Facebook!)

The upshot of the story is that Facebook quite literally functions like "social crack" for your brain. Habitually using online social networks alters your brain function and attention span. It makes us stupid and unable to do things we used to do like read lengthy books or have a real conversation with someone without being constantly interrupted.

If you're an internet junky (like me), try to live one day internet-free. Tune out of the 'net and tune in to your own mind and soul. Take a walk in nature. Do some gardening. Meditate or engage in a spiritual practice. Turn off your spy phone and mobile devices. Try to remember the relative peace we all felt before social media came along and invaded our brains.

#6) Independence from the global banking cartel and fiat currency

This one is relatively easy: achieving independence from the global banking cartel is no more complicated than trading in your dollars for something tangible: gold, silver, land, etc.

Land is especially valuable if it has water. If you can buy a piece of land with a natural spring on it, that's worth more than gold. Land with good, tillable dirt is also highly valuable, as it can be used to produce food.

The global financial system is headed for a catastrophic debt collapse. Banks will be shuttered and deposits will be confiscated across the board. People who held their savings in U.S. dollars will be wiped out. Only those who diversified with other assets will be able to weather the storm. Don't put all your eggs in one currency basket.

#7) Independence from city infrastructure services: water, power and sewer

Make this the year that you begin building a rainwater collection system... or an off-grid solar system... or just move out to the country and get off the grid completely.

Mark my words on this one: The grid will get you killed because the grid will go down sooner or later. The grid is also full of poison as we see with fluoridated, chlorinated tap water. Depending on the grid is a suicide pact. It's all fine until the day it isn't, and then you find yourself stuck in a mob of millions of other desperate people who all face the same problem you do: The grid is down! There's no power! No water! No heat!

By the way, most solar systems being installed today are "grid-tie" systems that are intentionally designed to turn themselves off when the grid goes down. They do not provide you with any power when the grid is down. Almost no one knows this. When I first wrote about this, trolls on Facebook accused me of making it up. But it is 100% true: when the grid goes down, virtually ALL grid-tie solar systems shut off, too, and they are hard-wired to stay down until the grid comes back up.

So if you install a solar system, make sure it has something called an "off-grid mode" that continues to function even when the grid is down.

#8) Independence from social oppression and political correctness

We live in a society today that has become infected with a covert form of social oppression: political correctness. As we recently discovered in an online content experiment, the racial divide in America is so extreme that no rational discussion of any person from a racial minority group is tolerated.

Similarly, social pressures are used to suppress any discussion of true, legitimate conspiracies that genuinely exist (such as the government's long-running conspiracy to spy on the American people and listen to all our phone calls).

I encourage you to celebrate independence from social oppression by refusing to bow down to the shackles of political correctness. Your friends and coworkers try to use words as a prison, silencing free speech and important dialogue on subjects that merit consideration. Stand up for truth by being willing to state it regardless of what your peers say or think.

As Gandhi famously said:

Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time.

#9) Independence from the myth of police protection

If you do not yet own a gun, consider making this the year to shore up your personal safety and defense with a handgun or shotgun (only if legal to own in your area, of course).

Note that this does not mean to embrace violence in any shape or form. In fact, the primary purpose of owning a gun is to stop violence that is about to be committed against your person, your family or your property. The appearance of a gun in your hands can do wonders to make aggressors immediately reconsider their options.

It is factually true that most guns are used in the prevention of crime rather than the commission of crime. Many people who own guns and who have forced themselves to learn how to use them are, themselves, horrified by the idea of ever needing to use one. (I put myself in that category, too.)

And yet reality forces us to consider the facts: police forces are being slashed across the nation as cities run out of money. The average response time of police to a violent crime continues to increase -- and it's now as long as 12 minutes in many cities. Calling 911 is useless for personal defense: it only allows the police to show up and document the crime that already took place, not to stop the crime before it happens. Most police do paperwork, not crime prevention.

Do not allow yourself to be victimized like this young woman who was viciously attacked and beaten by a home invader (warning, graphic video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU0EJS3cJIc

Had this woman had a gun within reach, she could have shot the attacker dead and thereby defended herself and her family from a violent criminal.

People who refuse to own guns for self defense often have legitimate philosophical reasons for doing so: "I could never shoot somebody" may seem reasonable... until you are being beaten to death in front of your own children. At that point, I think even the most ardent anti-gun soccer mom would be willing to pull the trigger (and would desperately wish she had a gun).

The bottom line? Don't depend on police to save you. They usually can't, even if they want to. There are simply too many criminals and not enough cops. Don't blame the cops for this: they're (usually) doing the best they can but are wildly outnumbered.

#10) Independence from credit card companies and predatory banks

Do you owe big bucks on your credit cards? If so, you're participating in a form of bank debt slavery that can quickly become a spiral of financial servitude where the laws of compounding interest work against you, crushing your economic freedom and turning you into a debt slave.

The way out is to radically reduce your spending and pay off your debts. Being debt-free is one of the most important forms of freedom and independence, and it can only be achieved through a long-term commitment to reduce consumption (spending) and pay off debts.

When is it okay to go into debt? To pay for an education, because that's an investment which will increase your earnings potential and allow you to more easily pay off the debt in the near future.

#11) Independence from economic slavery as a wage slave

Here's a fact that many people are reluctant to admit: You will never escape the rat race as long as you are working for someone else (unless you happen to be one of those few super-wealthy executives who commands a multi-million dollar annual income).

Being a W-2 income earner is a sure strategy for lifelong economic enslavement. The tax structure is set up precisely for the purpose of keeping you trapped in a system where the government can extract the maximum resources from you (you are a "human resource") while making sure you never have the ability to stop working and retire (and therefore stop paying more taxes).

The only way out of this system is to find a way to work for yourself. This usually means starting a small business, an online business, or becoming really, really good at investment strategies (most people fail at this, however).

Once you launch your own business, you have all the advantages of theoretically unlimited income, legitimate tax reduction strategies for business expenses (computers, travel, etc.), and the ability to work from almost any location you wish (depending on the nature of your business, of course).

Make no mistake: owning your own business is a huge burden in terms of tax and regulatory compliance. If you hire employees, you'll need to handle their payroll and Obamacare health insurance mandates as well. There's also significant risk involved: unless your product or service is desired by consumers, there's no guarantee you're going to experience the kind of revenue you think you deserve.

But there are also low-risk ways of working for yourself, too: you can become an expert contractor who performs services for others, including editing, article writing, computer programming, preparedness consulting and much more. You can even grow your own food and have a go at the local farmer's market. You won't get rich doing that, but you will vastly improve your health and your sense of personal freedom.

Conclusion: Celebrate your independence by practicing it!

Whining about the police state doesn't stop the police state. If you want your freedom and independence, you've got to seize it back from the system!

No government, no corporation and no institution is going to hand you a piece of your freedom and say, "Here, be free!" Instead, they are all actively working against your freedom, funneling you into a system of lifetime enslavement and servitude from which most people never escape.

If you wish to escape that system, you will need to make a serious commitment to expanding and celebrating your independence at every level.

I hope this list has give you some valuable ideas on that front. Enjoy your July 4th Independence Day celebration, and hopefully use at least part of the day to lay out some of your own plans for actually seizing independence in your own life.

Decide to be free!

- Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

http://www.naturalnews.com/z041061_July_4th_independence_day_personal_freedom.html