Just because there are people willing to risk more doesn't change the fact that you can do almost the same thing today and risk less. All most westerners would need is a few thousand dollars, a passport, and a few weeks time and they can make it to almost any land in the world. There might not be any free land to claim and start your own country, but even in the US there are still large swaths of ungoverned land that an off the grid type could set up to live their life in peace with little interference from civilization.