If the collapse occurs, however, we have two considerably different situations:
In this case, if you are not prepared, you are at risk of being hit by all the consequences. You risk losing everything suddenly: your way of life, your fortune, and perhaps your life itself. Moreover, the day there is no more food on supermarket shelves, when you have no more clean clothes, when you smell bad, when your house is too cold or too hot to live in, when the garbage and the excrement are starting to stink, and you are in the dark as soon as night falls—it will be a bit late to take action. On the other hand, if the collapse occurs and you are prepared, things will still be tough, but you will have a chance at survival.
The decision is yours.
*
François-Xavier was a high-level employee in a multinational based in the U.S.
He has done a lot of traveling over the course of a brilliant career: Africa, the Middle East, Europe, North America. . . He feels he ought to live apart from the swarming multitude. He has convinced his wife to buy a house, not in the suburbs like everyone else, but out in the mountains—a pretty, wooden house, chalet style, on a fairly large lot on the bank of a river. The choice was not made according to survivalist criteria, but above all because of the price (half that of the suburbs) and because of the fresh air. Gradually, the house has been refurbished, the garden improved so the children can play in it, the grounds surrounded by a fence, etc. Then, seeing signs of imminent crisis, François-Xavier bought chickens and, after a fox had made his dinner on them, built a sturdy coop. He has added a garden and a greenhouse for vegetables that don’t naturally grow at high altitudes. He expects to buy some hogs. He’s become friends with his farmer neighbors, especially through his children and the local school, but also because he participates in the life of the village. He has even become president of the local shooting club.
Part III: Survival
<
survival principle
<
chris martenson
biochemist and writer
/2010/
<
frédéric beigbeder
writer
/1997/
<
rainer maria rilke
poet
/1875-1926/
<
ernst jünger
warrior & writer
_storm of steel
/1920/
Survival Attitudes
<
albert bachman
swiss spy
_civil defense
/1969/
<
laurence gonzales
journalist
/2005/
What impact does danger have on a human being? What mental preparation is necessary in order to acquire an attitude that will increase your chances of survival?
The Structure of the Human Brain and Its Consequences
About 500,000 years ago, our ancestors’ brains went from a volume of 400 to about 1,000 cubic centimeters, finally reaching its current volume of 1,300 cubic centimeters about 150,000 years ago, at the time when Homo sapiens walked the African plains. Despite technological progress, the human brain has retained a structure bound to that remote age. It is important to understand that, under stress, we act as our Stone Age ancestors did. Faced with an unfamiliar or dangerous situation, the brain and body apply a simple program. It is a mechanism that has accompanied us for millennia and allowed us to survive rather effectively, considering that man is not a particularly powerful, swift, or agile animal. This ancient programming prepares us either to flee or to defend ourselves. Through an effect that scientists call the law of similarity, our behavior is a function of a situation’s appearance rather than the reality. For example, faced with a free-roaming lion, any normal person would either flee or try to hide. No one would waste time on conjectures! For our brain, if what is in front of us looks like a lion, it’s because that’s what it is!
To simplify matters, the brain responds to danger by giving the body orders—the heart rate increases and hormones such as adrenaline are secreted by the endocrine system. Their effect is to reduce the transmission time of nervous reflexes. These reactions allow us to concentrate on the immediate danger. Sometimes such concentration is excessive and causes tunnel vision, which can make us forget the rest of the environment and the other dangers it contains. But since lions do not roam the streets in our comfortable existence, and we are hardly ever exposed to such dangers, we are led to believe that the danger is no longer there. This causes us to react quite irrationally when a real danger arises.
An especially bizarre example was told to me in Zimbabwe, where I lived for a short while in 1996, about two Japanese tourists traveling in Africa. They apparently were so used to seeing cuddly, innocuous animals at the zoo and on television that they did not hesitate to get out of their cars in the African bush in order to photograph themselves right next to a group of lions devouring a carcass. No need to complete the picture . . . the lions were particularly well-fed that day.
Things like happen because, though our brains have developed a good reactive system for responding to dangerous situations, evolution has not yet allowed us to adapt to the sensation-saturated environment of modern societies. This is why security specialists have noted that modern man’s typical reactions to danger are either panic or paralysis.
With training, man can recover his reflexes and learn once again how to respond to danger, with neither panic nor paralysis, with quick reflexes and without inducing tunnel vision. This essentially mental preparation is one of the three key elements for survival represented in the following drawing:
Luck
Luck is a series of probabilities favorable to us. It is important to know how to seize opportunities when they are offered to us. But we must be aware that it is a chance factor, not very important in a survival scenario. Luck is estimated to account for only about five percent of survival. This is why it is important not to bet too heavily on this element; rather, one should take its opposite into account—bad luck. Remember the Persian proverb: “When luck is against you, you can break your teeth even on jelly.”
Technical Ability
Technical ability is all of one’s know-how, competence, and acquired aptitudes relating to a domain of activity. In the case of survival, it concerns survival techniques: observation, shooting, certain types of handiwork, etc. Technical ability can be acquired by training and repetition—the more you repeat a movement, the more sure you become of how to execute it. After several thousand repetitions, the movement comes almost automatically. Survival experts estimate that 40 percent of survival is a matter of mastering techniques.
Mental preparation
Mental preparation, along with attitude and outlook, is the most important element, accounting for 55 percent of the factors of survival; it largely determines the success or failure of actions or techniques. Mental preparation allows you to seize opportunities that luck offers you. Mental preparation allows you to overcome more rapidly the effects of losing your bearings, remaining calm and clear-headed, using your adrenaline rush to think and act quickly and correctly. It would be illusory to think preparation could overcome 100 percent of the effects of intense stress, but it can attenuate them; and above all, you will not be left without a r
esponse when you are faced with an unknown situation. During the 2011 tsunami in Japan and the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, as revealed in films, some people reacted to the first signs of danger and sought refuge in high places, while others did nothing, as if hypnotized, or else tried to hide in unsuitable spots.
To prepare yourself mentally, follow these three phases:
Phase One: realization. To be able to confront a situation, obviously, it must exist and be perceived as real. We can prepare by imagining what would be our reaction in the face of a direct danger such as a lion, a natural disaster, physical aggression, etc., and thus improve the effectiveness and speed of our reflexes. On the other hand, in view of indirect or long-term dangers such as economic crises or ecological collapse, our reflexes only take hold too late, when the situation is already too far advanced. So we should first confront the problem globally, with serious personal reflection on the subject. You see why it has taken so long to get to this point in the demonstration; if you have reached this stage of the book, it is because you are in the midst of this phase of reflection and realization. Now you can begin to familiarize yourself with possible scenarios and imagine your own. Decide which seem the most probable to you and, once you have made a selection, you will begin to perceive these as challenges to overcome.
Phase Two: accepting the problem. This phase will allow you to accept and validate your reflection, to feel the problems in your guts. This is very important, because you are going to consolidate your reasoning and develop your arguments while continuing to question them and, if the case warrants, revise your scenarios. You must allow yourself enough time in this phase, because you will probably go through (as I did before you) Kübler-Ross’s five stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. This means that you will start by denying the problem—No, collapse will never happen; humanity will know how to react, and there are always solutions! Then you will get angry at those who have put us in this situation: politicians, industrialists, Baby Boomers, et al.—They’re all a bunch of bastards! Then you will start bargaining—Maybe we could influence the system, take part in politics, change everything from the inside, or buy more efficient light bulbs? After this comes depression—In the face of such immense, insurmountable problems, we count for so little; it’s too late; we are doomed; those efficient light bulbs are a joke. . . Finally, you will accept that you can react, find solutions, put them in place, and that you only need a little organization and outside help to get there. Bravo, you are on the right track! A good tip for speeding up and documenting this process is to keep a logbook in which to enter your thoughts, reflections, and feelings. Do not hesitate to deepen your knowledge on subjects that interest you by reading books and articles, talking with your friends, or asking advice from experts. In order to manage all this information, take notes, make lists and start to sort out your priorities. Little by little, you will have a large part of your solutions.
Phase Three: putting solutions in place. Once you have a list of ideas and solutions, you must put them in place concretely to enable you to face the problems connected to the scenarios you believe probable and possible.
A Few Basic Rules of Survival
I want to share with you the rules of survival I have collected from much reading and sharing of personal experience with a number of survivalists, explorers, and adventurers. These rules are general enough to apply to any situation or environment. Take note of them, reflect on each of them, discuss them with your friends, consider them a challenge, try them out, and keep those that seem relevant to you (if not all of them).
These rules are:
On all occasions, be here now.
Look—and believe what you see. If it looks like something is dangerous, that’s because it most likely is dangerous.
Avoid impulsive behavior. Think—do it quickly, but think.
Remain calm and concentrated. Learn to control your breathing.
Stay hydrated.
Avoid or learn to control the four poisons of the mind: fear, confusion, hesitation, and surprise. Do not succumb to depression or defeatism. Have no fear of fear: fear is your friend, if you know how to master it.
Set yourself small goals that you can achieve one by one. This will give you confidence. Believe in your chances of success, however small they may be.
Learn to know yourself, your heart, and body. Learn to be realistic about your strengths and weaknesses.
Learn to know your environment and the natural world around you. Learn to respect the laws of physics, the forces in nature: energy, speed, distance, mass.
If you have doubts, listen to them.
Learn from your mistakes and those of others.
Have backbone, but be flexible, be firm but pragmatic, humble but determined. Do not let anyone or anything tame or break your spirit.
Reflect, analyze, plan, be decisive, and make correct decisions.
Do not put more energy in a task than the benefits you will gain from it.
Celebrate your successes; learn to appreciate life and to be grateful for every little thing.
Know how to see the beauty in each situation, in nature and those around you.
If you believe in God(s), pray.
As with anything, survival depends above all on the experience acquired by practice. Train yourself to go beyond your comfort zone, where you will learn endurance, strength, agility and the ability to withstand heat, cold, thirst, hunger, and pain. The more you exercise in a safe and controlled environment, the fewer surprises and suffering you will have the day you are confronted with a real survival situation.
*
Henry is in deep shit.
He knows he has to get out of town before the riots degenerate into complete chaos and carnage. He knows he stayed too long, in hopes of finishing his medical exams.
Bad luck: he lives in one of the wealthy neighborhoods, and it’s clear that the police are no longer present anywhere. The bands of looters are getting together. Shots and cries can already be heard in the streets. He’s got to think quickly. He mustn’t panic. What resources are available? What is the best way to flee the neighborhood and rejoin his parents in their country home?
He puts on his walking shoes and jacket, takes a Swiss Army knife from his room, and grabs a well-sharpened kitchen knife. Oh, yes! Grandfather’s M-1 Garand rifle; he thinks he knows where to find a few .30-06 cartridges. There they are, in the bottom drawer of a cabinet. A backpack—quick, fill it up—two water bottles, cereal bars. If only he had foreseen this when the bad news started. . . STOP! No time for useless reflections. Quick, a plan. Grab the equipment; done. Shall I try to negotiate with the looters. No, that won’t work. Defend the apartment? Bad idea. Flight is the only sensible thing. Leave the apartment by the outside fire-escape, follow an alleyway west . . . How do I do that? Compass! In the big desk. Quick, quick.
Henry hears cries and fighting from the stairwell. Time to get out. Henry thinks of his late grandfather who was in the Marine Corps; he survived the assault on Iwo Jima, for heaven’s sake! What he’s going through now ain’t nothing compared to Iwo!
Let’s roll!
Sustainable Autonomous Base
<
rené char
poet
//1907-1988//
johann wolfgang von goethe
writer, poet, & politician
//1749-1832//
If you have read to this point, you have a precise idea of the dangers that await us over the coming years. You have also begun to understand the attitude necessary for survival, no matter what situation you find yourself in.
This is good, but it is not enough.
Our goal must be to create a way of life that will allow you to survive, but that is also pleasant, full of meaning—that might even allow you to live more fully than you do now. This will not mean opulence and material co
mfort as we know them today, but it will mean a more authentic world, closer to natural human needs. Such a world cannot come about ex nihilo; we must create it.
While I was reflecting on what had to be done to survive the upcoming years, I read the various survival manuals available and had lengthy conversations with American survivalists and “preppers” on Internet forums. Among these people, some have, for decades, been preparing for catastrophic events—including the biblical Armageddon or the invasion of the United States by the Communist hordes! (Hey, I admit that in my teen years I was a big fan of John Milius’s Red Dawn!) Most preppers are more down-to-earth, however; they anticipate that a convergence of factors will provoke the economic collapse of their countries. Thanks to these conversations, and to interviews with a few autonomous communities in France, Britain, Germany, and South Africa, as well as reading books like How to Survive the End of the World As We Know It and Patriots by James W. Rawles, I arrived at the conclusion that the only way to make it through the collapse is to settle in a place distant from potential trouble spots and acquire as much sustainable autonomy as one can with regards to water, food, and energy—and all the while integrating oneself into the local community. Rawles calls this concept the American Redoubt.
And thus I began my project to prepare for the economic collapse. I documented my thoughts and actions and, seeking a formula that could summarize and provide a framework for my work and advice, I came upon the book G5G: Déclaration de Guerre by Michel Drac, Serge Ayoub, and Michel Thibaud, which defines the concept of a Sustainable Autonomous Base, or SAB. I quote the authors:
A Sustainable Autonomous Base is a secure space—this is what will be most scarce in the near future. . . . We must construct a sound economy, rather than a maximally productive one. It should be an economy of physical production geared toward stable and solid solutions, in contrast to our over-financialized, virtual economy solely preoccupied with profit. We want stability; we want the long term; we thus want rootedness. . . . We want to reconstruct autonomy, but also permanence. We want to see a future for ourselves and our children. We want a foundation, a ground, a base, a land. We want a true Sustainable Autonomous Base. A permanent base. Our motto: rootedness, autonomy, permanence. . . The political gesture is a foundation for mental and territorial rigidity. We demand this rigidity: it means that we will not bend, we will not bow.
Survive- The Economic Collapse Page 21
