Escape the System is a book of directives urging individuals to subvert and escape an undefined “system.”

The book consists of 12 chapters averaging about ten pages each, with each page containing around 50 words. Chapter titles announce the author’s stance, including: “Understand the System to Escape”; “Why Most People Go Back,” “How the System Punishes Escapees”; “Why the System Needs You More than You Need it.”

The same basic formula is employed throughout: Chapters generally begin with a “warning” (e.g. “This chapter will offend goal-setters … and anyone whose self-worth is tied to a title”; “This chapter will irritate productive-looking people”) and end with a “Final thought.” In between, the text offers very short sentences, random line breaks, and calls to shed conventional thinking: The author urges readers to live simply, without trying to impress; eschew commitments; forgo traditional ambition (as in the desire for “more money”); nurture calmness, etc.

In one typical passage, he writes: “You were told:/ ‘You need the system.’/ You need its jobs./ Its approvals/ Its credentials./ Its permission./ That’s backwards./ The system needs participants;/ No participation, no system.” In another: “Free people don’t rush to look busy./ They take pauses./ They think before acting./ They ignore urgency theater./ From the outside, this looks like laziness./ It isn’t./ It’s selectivity.”

Such arguments are initially thought-provoking. But as the directives wind on, the book begins to feel like a stern lecture, and the thoughts increasingly resemble the kind of ideas college students embrace during late night pot-smoking binges. Yes, “Food exists without corporations./ Shelter exists without banks./ Skill exists without credentials.” But short of the Unabomber, how many people can find a way to live entirely off the grid?

Ultimately the author rejects debate of any kind, telling readers to take his argument or leave it: “If this made sense to you, nothing needed to be sold./ If it didn’t, nothing would have worked anyway.” Alas, many readers will simply leave it.

Also available as an ebook.