Member-only story
Have You Ever Wanted to Just Disappear?
Leave, without a trace.
A few years ago, I wanted to disappear. Blinded by the glare of a white screen, I scoured forums and downloaded books and read accounts from former federal agents who prattled on about how hard it was to truly disappear in a society where your every waking moment is recorded, filmed, tracked, and listened to.
But it is possible. To disappear. To witness protection yourself. Dare to step away from your life as you know it.
First, they said, you had to get rid of your phone. You could get a flip phone, but even that’s dangerous, a Reddit user wrote. Because they can still find you. In the 80s you could’ve done it. Hell, you could’ve went on a murder rampage and drive around with the bodies in the back of your pick-up. You think Ted Bundy was smart? No, there were no phones, no DNA, no surveillance state. Also, police were plain stupid.
The deeper you dive into these forums, you find paranoia and bizarre sequiturs in the crevices. People who’ve taken a kernel of truth and made a bomb of it. And the thing that once arrested them, spooked them, becomes unrecognizable. Google on your phone becomes the eye that watches you while you sleep.
There’s a woman who works at a Goodwill where I shop. We’ve become friendly and she calls me Gina…
