Survive- The Economic Collapse

by Piero San Giorgio

  Now, let’s get ready for our action plan!

  *

  Miguel thinks the whole thing sucks.

  After the big panic last week, which saw the supermarkets literally plundered, he noticed that the people in his apartment building were getting increasingly active. While the water was cut off this morning, practically all the residents came to complain—”yell” might be a better word—and now, outside, looting is occurring. He says to himself that now is the time to be off for his SAB in Portugal.

  He’s glad his wife is there already. She left two weeks ago by plane. He calls his two sons and tells them they must set off right away. His problem is that his car does not have enough gas—half a tank. He’ll barely get 200 miles. Luckily, one of his sons has a car full of gas. He decides to take the car that gets the best mileage, transfer as many things to it as possible and siphon gas from the car they are leaving behind into cans, which they will use as necessary. They leave, avoiding the highways. They must take numerous little byways, because everything is blocked up. It seems like everybody is trying to get out of town, and there are endless lines in front of gas stations. After a certain time, they get on a little faster. In the small villages they pass through, the situation seems better. The people seem preoccupied with the news, but bakeries are still baking bread, and they were even able to buy 10 liters of gas.

  They arrive, close to empty, at the Spanish border, which the army has closed in the mean time. So they must pass the Pyrenees on foot. Fortunately, it is September, and this is possible. Moreover, the weather is mild—a pleasant side effect of this new weird dry weather. Once in Spain, where the situation is just as bad as elsewhere (but the population seems to have remained calm), Miguel and his sons get lucky: they can get on a train going to Valladolid, then Salamanca. From there it takes them four days to reach their SAB. Fortunately, having traveled these roads for years, they know practically all the shortcuts.

  An Action Plan

  <
  chuck palahniuk

  _fight club

  /1996/

  Survival is not about things one accumulates but about competences one acquires. If you have time and a little money put aside, you will quickly be able to acquire a lot of knowledge and capability that can help you when the economic collapse plunges the world into chaos.

  Take out a notebook and a large sheet of paper.

  On the large sheet of paper, write down an action plan. It’s up to you to organize it. You might make a table with different columns for each type of action. You could also take the seven fundamental principles of an SAB as titles for the columns and add, say, a column for your physical or financial preparation and a column to list the necessary criteria for choosing a place for your SAB, etc.

  In the notebook, you can use the same column headings, but this time use one per page. Note everything that comes to mind: the list of equipment to buy, the list of food to stock, the educational courses you wish to follow, etc. Try to note everything, but do it loosely; this is a brainstorm, and you will prioritize the items later. For each principle, note where you can find it, how much it costs, how long the training lasts, etc.

  On the large sheet, draw a vertical axis defining the time you set for yourself, for example, two years, or five, or 10. Then, column by column, transcribe in chronological order (corresponding to the time scale you have chosen) the material, the training, etc., for which you have sought exact information. Be realistic: if you want to lose 20 pounds, do not plan on doing it in a month, but stretch it over six months to a year. If you wish to acquire a skill or know-how, give yourself a reasonable amount of time in which to do so. Go ahead and use colors and sketches, if you like, to represent the most appropriate way to reach your preparation goals.

  This action plan will serve you as a measure of how far you have advanced, or how far you are behind, in your preparations. Do not despair if you get behind on everything; do your best, as your means permit. You will probably have to revise the plan a number of times, but it will let you check the pace of your progress at a glance. Believe me, if it is frustrating at first to see how many things there are to do and prepare—especially when the economic or international news makes you wonder if the collapse is about to begin—once you have carried out half of the plan and struck off a great part of your action items, you will feel a lot of satisfaction. It will motivate you and give you the energy to persevere.

  Once your plan of action has been established, you must make lists for each category and sub-category. You will find examples of such lists in the appendix, but I encourage you not merely to copy them but improve and develop them according to your needs, your geographical location, and your idiosyncrasies. Remember that each SAB is different and that your set of needs is unique. So work intelligently when you establish these lists:

  First make a list of the courses available in schools, hospitals, universities, continuing-education centers, etc., for the domains that seem useful and interesting to you: first aid, metallurgy, mechanics, agriculture, electronics, woodworking, leatherworking, ceramics, pottery, cooking, gardening, soldering, making preserves, sewing, veterinary medicine, shooting, martial arts, amateur radio operation, etc.

  Then, list what you must buy: water filters, pumps, food, drinks, alcohol, surplus for barter, materials for first aid and minor surgery, disinfectants and medications, rechargeable batteries and chargers, fuel, books, manuals, reference guides, fire protection, cold weapons, guns, ammunition, clothing, communication material, radios, etc.

  Finally, make a list of friends, professionals, and companies that have the ability to help you right away: specialists in solar panels, water heaters, renewable energy, electricians, woodworkers, masons, etc. If necessary, plan a budget for working with these people.

  At the beginning, these lists may seem enormous and discouraging, but that does not matter: start small and divide certain tasks and purchases among your family members and the friends who will join you in your SAB. For example, you can train in the use of firearms and first aid; your wife can train in gardening and water purification; your children can learn how to care for animals; and your friends learn mechanics or solar-panel maintenance, etc.

  Then distinguish between what you absolutely need and what you would like, but which is dispensable. Buy chocolate after you get in all your rice, the garden swing set for the children after the seeds and after the garden terracing is finished. If you do not make this effort, you will waste time and money; and even if you have unlimited wealth, you do not have unlimited time. Prioritize!

  Do not spend your whole budget on purchases for your SAB before investing in a sufficient amount of quality training. You must balance knowledge and purchases. Read, learn, take courses, but above all, put what you have learned into practice. It is useless to try to become an expert on everything: a little education and a few tools in a useful domain is better than expert knowledge and a whole collection of tools in a domain that will not be useful to you.

  This is why the preparation of an SAB is divided into seven essential principles. You must have at least some knowledge of each of these principles. And you already have that by virtue of reading this book. Now it is up to you to delve into each project, and, thanks to your action plan and lists, you will know exactly what you still have to do and learn.

  Exercises

  <
  peter drucker

  consultant & writer

  /1909-2005/

  <
  bob dylan

  musician

  /1965
/

  To get you in shape, and help you prepare to survive, I propose 10 exercises.

  1. Media Detox

  Unplug your TV and don’t read any news—no newspapers, magazines, women’s interest or celebrity rags, nothing. Go at least one month without exposing yourself to the media. At first, it will be hard. You will want to know what’s happening and will deeply miss your favorite evening program or news website. But little by little, you will see that not knowing that some nasty fellow raped an old lady . . . that some college student has gone missing in South America . . . that some politician is sleeping with some prostitute . . . that some team won a championship . . . or that the stock-market went this way or that has no real effect on you. After a month, begin to inform yourself on the Internet, and for each piece of news, try to find different points of view. Then compare how the mainstream media treat the same information. Compare the facts and the arguments advanced.

  When you have done this, you will have acquired the capacity to choose your sources of information and perhaps you will come to view the media differently.

  Then sell or throw away your TV and never buy one again.

  2. A Weekend Without Electricity or Water

  Coordinate with your partner if necessary and, one Friday evening, cut off the electricity to your house as well as the water, heating, and telephone. Do this in the autumn or at the end of the winter when the days are still short. Your exercise will be to stay at home without electricity, water, or heating until Monday morning, when you can restart everything to prepare to return to work or get the children ready for school. You will have to have enough to eat and drink at home for two full days. This exercise should not be too difficult, but you will see that many things you are used to do not work. No more water to wash yourself, or for boiling pasta or rice, no electricity or gas for cooking your food, no electricity for managing things at night. What will you do? Do you even have enough water for drinking? How will you wash? Will you eat your food cold? Do you have enough food? Is it sufficiently varied? How will you do your business if the toilet doesn’t flush? Are you able to stand not going out?

  If you have children, tell them it is a game. After all, it is a game! A game to prepare you mentally for the day when what you take for granted is no longer there.

  The goal of this exercise is for you to take the measure of how important water and food are, but also to experience how it feels to be isolated. Note how you feel. Note what you miss the most. Note the evolution of your state of irritation. Did you succeed in holding out just 48 hours under the conditions that are considered normal by billions of people around the world? Over the course of this exercise, you may add many things to your preparation list.

  3. A Week Without Food

  The third exercise is much more difficult. You may do it individually or as a group. Do not eat anything, or fast, for a week: no nourishment of any kind. You may, however, drink as much water as necessary. Only do this exercise if you are in good health: certainly not if you are sick, in pain, in medical care, or in a state of health that does not allow it (e.g. if you are pregnant). If you are in doubt, consult your doctor and use common sense. Before starting, drink a half liter of prune juice in order to clean out your intestines. Do this at home, when you’re calm, and have three or four hours free time ahead of you. For a week, you will experience hunger probably as never before. The first three days will be difficult. If you get a headache, you may take aspirin or mild painkillers, or, better still, let it pass naturally without chemicals. Note how you feel and your state of irritation: it may well be considerable, and this is why it is best to begin this exercise on a Thursday or Friday morning so that you will not be exhausted or on edge at work. Say you are not hungry if you must accompany someone at a meal—you will notice the extent to which eating is a social activity! After three days, if you succeed in not eating anything, note the changes in your mentality and physique. What sort of changes are these? Are you still as hungry as ever? Is your mind clearer and your capacity for concentration greater? Do you, paradoxically, have more energy than normal? Do you feel better and have less need of sleep? If so, this is normal and your body is reacting correctly to being deprived of food: it finds the necessary resources to improve your faculties temporarily, letting you seek food more efficiently. You are experiencing the original state of our species, that of the hunter-gatherer 15,000 years ago! If you succeed in holding out a week, do not then go and gorge yourself on steak, chips, and cake: this will be bad for your digestive tract. Instead, begin eating again gradually with vegetable soup, steamed vegetables, rice, and not too much protein, which you may start adding after one or two days.

  4. A Week Without Money

  Another exercise with the object of getting you to reflect on our dependence on the modern system is to try to go a week without money and without making a payment of any kind, whether in cash or by check or by credit card. It’s up to you to get along. Say you have forgotten your wallet, or that all your credit cards are lost or at their limit, and that it will take a week to work it out. Then confront, one day after another, your inability to pay. What will you do for your transportation, your food, your indispensable expenses? Will you ask someone else to pay for you? Will you try barter? Note your impressions and what you dare do, or not do, with regards to the idiosyncratic relation we have with money.

  5. One Day and Night in the City

  Take advantage of a day of pleasant weather to walk about town with no particular aim. Block this day out in your schedule and do not agree to any meeting or any call, however important. Leave your phone and any other communication device at home and tell your colleagues and even friends and family that you will not be available for anything or anybody—not work, not household tasks, not children, not friends. Take public transportation. Be completely free. Walk in the town’s parks, take a siesta on the grass, look at the clouds and the trees, breath calmly and deeply. For the whole day, you will be alone with yourself with nothing to do. Do not read any newspaper or book. Do not go shopping or buy groceries. If hungry, eat some fresh fruit you took with you in the morning. Observe the town. Observe the people on public transportation and elsewhere: Are they stressed? Smiling? Happy? Where do they come from? How do they look at each other? Are they satisfied? This exercise will allow you to spend one day radically different from the others and have time to do nothing. This doesn’t happen often in life, and perhaps it has never happened to you at all. After a day like this, note your impressions and feelings. Were you bored? Did you feel panicked? Did you have a need for human contact? Do you have a need to talk? To spend money?

  In the evening, dress in the most innocuous manner possible. Do not wear any ring or watch. Only take petty cash in small denominations for a few small purchases and the taxi ride home at daybreak, if necessary. Try walking around the town on a weekend, in neighborhoods where you do not often go. Are you afraid? Do you feel insecure or disturbed? Is this feeling normal and bearable for you? What do you observe? Note your impressions. On public transportation, observe people and imagine you are an aggressor. Ask yourself what person you would attack and rob. Why that person rather than another? You don’t need to go to a bad neighborhood among cutthroats! Avoid all danger. If you do not feel safe or someone attacks you, give way, play for time and flee. Do not actually attack anyone verbally or physically, and don’t play smart-ass. Don’t go down blind alleys or where you don’t see anyone else. Stay safe on a busy street and use common sense. The goal of this exercise, which should not be dangerous if you prepare correctly, is simply to let you observe the human fauna of the town, especially at night: probably a population you do not commonly see. What do you notice? Ask yourself how this population will act in a crisis or in the scenarios described in this book. What conclusions do you draw?

  6. A Day as a Pick-up Artist

  This exercise may make you smile, but it is very difficult and could surprise you. The object is to get you out of your comfort zon
e, your possible introversion, and learn to approach someone about something. The idea is to approach someone of the opposite sex, chosen at random, but whom you find attractive; ask him/her for his/her telephone number so you can call him/her. That’s all—nothing more. (If this exercise has consequences for you, that’s your affair; I won’t ask for your first born!) Avoid obvious pickup spots (nightclubs, the Internet). Approach someone you do not know on the street and figure out how to ask him/her for his/her telephone number in order to see her/him again. You will see that it is not easy. (For a shy man like myself, this is the most difficult exercise of all.) Between getting up the courage to approach someone, finding the right words to strike up a conversation and not get rejected straight off, there is a whole art to be mastered. Then, try to convince him/her to give you his/her telephone number—the real one. (To check and make sure it is real, read it back to him/her with one deliberate mistake; if he/she doesn’t correct you, the number is not real.) Never be insistent. The aim is not to get laid, nor to bother the person. What is your level of success? Zero? 1 percent? 10 percent? If you are over 10 percent, you are quite talented!

  7. Sell Something

  This quick exercise consists in taking an object of small value from home and trying to sell it. How will you go about it? For what price will you sell it? Where will you go to make the attempt?

  8. Negotiate something

  Go into a store and buy something you might need, but don’t leave unless you have gotten a 20 percent discount. This is a little exercise to get you used to negotiating.

  9. Learn to Say No

  Say no to an innocent request that annoys you and learn to manage the consequences of your refusal. Try this exercise with your partner, your children, your colleagues, and your superiors. Use common sense: there’s no need to lose your job or undergo a divorce for the sake of this exercise!