10. Preparation Exercise
Here is a six-day exercise that will give you some concrete experience preparing. You can do this exercise alone, as a family, or with friends.
First day—Establish the scenarios that seem most probable to you (slow decline, civil war, revolution, etc.) and familiarize yourselves with their consequences. Make a list of dangers for each of these scenarios. As you reflect, note the basic materials you will need in each scenario. Once you have finished your reflection, prepare the important documents (property titles, identification documents, etc.) you will need to have with you if you must leave quickly.
Second day—On the basis of the work you did the first day, you will begin to establish a list for a two-week food and water reserve. Start by taking the quantities of food indicated in the appendix, adapt it for a period of two weeks and multiply it by the number of persons in your family or on your team. Then you will know the amount of food required for two weeks. For example, the amount of flour for an adult corresponds to nine pounds per month, or about four and a half pounds for two weeks, multiplied by six (2 adults in your family + 2 adults on your team + their 2 spouses), which makes 13.5 pounds for two weeks. After having established the list of foodstuffs to buy, do the same for water. Plan on an individual needing 13 gallons of water per week for drinking, cooking, and bathing. This represents 25 two-liter bottles of mineral water. Multiply by six, and you have 300 liters, or 79.3 gallons, which will be over 650 lbs! The usefulness of 20- and 200-liter (5- and 50-gallon) tanks soon becomes clear, doesn’t it? End the day by making an inventory of articles for bodily hygiene and medicines available at home now. Is it enough for two weeks?
Third day—This is shopping day. Buy the products on the list you have drawn up. Try to negotiate a bulk price in view of the quantities involved. Write the purchase date on the products with an indelible magic marker or pen. Stock these purchases in boxes or metal cans in a dry place. Congratulations! You now have a minimum stock for two weeks. Managing this stock will take a little discipline, for each item you take from the stock must be replaced. Always use the oldest item first. Finish your day by copying the documents you drew up the first day.
Fourth day—This day is consecrated to energy. How do you keep warm or cook without electricity? How to you light up the house? For cooking, the simplest solution is a barbecue grill (which can also be used as an oven) and a camping stove. Plan on buying enough fuel (coal, gas cartridges, etc.). For lighting, plan on choosing flashlights that work with a dynamo. The absence of heating will be more difficult to compensate for, but a good sleeping bag will let you keep warm. Plan on stocking newspaper and cardboard to insulate your windows in the winter. Energy is also the basis of long-distance communication. Buy a radio with a dynamo. It will keep you from getting cut off from the rest of the world. Finally, if you have the means, buy a solar charger as well as accumulators for things that run on rechargeable batteries.
Fifth day—Devote this day to securing your home, or secondary residence if you have one. Set up a plan. Which doors should you secure? What additional security (especially of windows) could be added? Always plan an emergency exit. Contact the police to find out if they offer a free advice service. Do not forget to buy curtains and a black tarpaulin. If you have light when no one else does, you will be a prime target! End your day by drawing up a plan of action concerning security measures. It should contain a schedule indicating where and when you will have any work done.
Sixth day—Prepare your 72-hour Survival Kit/Bug Out Bag. It should contain all the elements you have familiarized yourself with over the preceding days and permit you to make the journey from your house to your SAB. Do not try to carry more than 20 kilograms / 45 pound per adult, otherwise you will not get far, unless you are in very good shape. Prefer foods with strong nutritive power and that don’t require much preparation. In the bag that contains your survival kit, put photocopies of your title deeds and identification papers.
Once you have carried out these 10 exercises, you will already be much further advanced in your ability to survive than the vast majority of people around you. Good going! You have a long journey ahead, but you have already taken the crucial first steps.
Conclusion
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Apart from the usual, but sincere, acknowledgments I must make to all those who helped me make this book a reality (they who know who they are), I would like to conclude on a note of hope. In spite of what you have read in this book, I am not a pessimist. I am a realist . . . with an imagination.
My aim is not to frighten you, but I believe the convergence of the immense problems facing humanity, combined with a decadent and failing culture and leadership, makes the catastrophe inevitable. If new information shows that I am wrong, I will be happy and revise my predictions. But I believe that all the big figures and tendencies show that it is too late.
It is too late.
The speed and form of the collapse could vary, but life as we know it is going to be shaken from top to bottom. There will be no deus ex machina—a god, politician, or magical new technology—to save us miraculously at the last minute.
I do not believe we are in the “End Times” as told in the Bible, but at the end of a cycle and the end of a world—that of progressivism, of the dominance of finance, of the bourgeoisie and the notion that its standard of living could be universal. A 400-year era is coming to a close.
I know that many readers will reflexively reject facts that do not correspond to the model of thought they have acquired, or because they cannot imagine the consequences. I can only encourage them to do their own research, verify the information on their own, and make up their own minds on the basis of these facts.
My describing an unpleasant world does not mean that I wish for its arrival, or that I rejoice at what is going to happen—far from it. It is my duty to maintain confidence in man’s capacity to recover, to be resilient, to use his courage, his inventiveness, his sense of justice to pull through. But this attitude of mine is more an act of faith than an objective analysis (for I fear that modern man is in very bad shape).
My goal is neither to convince you nor to sell you anything. Although I offer a consulting service for installing SABs on my website www.Piero.com, my principle goal is to help raise people’s awareness, to get you thinking about how you will survive and how to start taking action in order to do so. If enough people change their attitudes, if a sufficiently numerous group of people prepare, perhaps we will influence affairs and mitigate the effects of the collapse by our example. Take a good look at your children. Do you have confidence in the ability and moral fiber of your political and economic leaders? If the answer is yes, sleep easily, pal: your destiny and that of your family is in the hands of those I heartily hope regard you benevolently. Bu
t if the answer is no, you find yourself as a man or woman confronted with a choice—do nothing, or assume your responsibilities and act.
The choice is yours.
And it won’t be easy. It’s hard to change the world. Let us rather start by changing ourselves. Let us get rid of a lot of notions with which we have been conditioned and which we accepted without really questioning: infinite growth, happiness through consumption, freedom reduced to desire, wage labor, rush-hour traffic jams, the inversion of all values, and the manipulation of news and media.
We must learn to see the world differently, acquire new abilities, learn new trades, try new ways of working and thinking, rediscover the common good, and recreate strong social bonds. We can change a lot without it even showing and without “dropping out.” Go on working at your job: use your salary and your wealth to prepare yourself. Do it discreetly, for in our conformist society, attitudes or thoughts truly critical of the system—and not just expressions of the system’s “right” and “left”—will increasingly become suspect; you could risk being consigned to the margins of society. Socially, many people simply won’t understand you; friends and family will criticize you or make fun of you behind your back; your employers will find you to be a little too “fringe”; your career may slow down or even end with your firing. Over the long term, this is not a serious matter; in the short term, however, it could deprive you of resources useful for your preparation. So ignore the skeptics and focus on the preparation necessary to achieve your goal—survival.
Not everyone will make it. Most will not have the ability, discipline, or determination to survive. Others, conscious of what they should do, will not start to change until forced by events. Others still will remain in denial, and, like those who could not believe that the Titanic would sink since it was “unsinkable,” they will be taken cruelly by surprise.
So take time to reflect carefully on what you have read in these few hundred pages. Make the time to do so. Take a vacation or decline that promotion and stay at a job where, thanks to your experience, you can get your work done quickly enough to have time for thinking, reading, verifying information, and beginning your preparation. Detachment and indifference can also be useful feelings: he who is depressed and feels himself a stranger in the world of today is perhaps ready for the one that’s coming.
This is why I remain optimistic. Those who will change, who are able to prepare and transform themselves, who choose frugality and simplicity voluntarily, who want to rediscover the rectitude and dignity of man—those who will survive—will form the cultural and genetic foundation of a new world. And this world will be more beautiful and have more meaning than ours.
In any case, you have no excuse: you are a responsible person and, as my father used to say, a 100-percent shareholder of yourself! Your family is counting on you, so work hard, learn, train. Above all, I don’t want to hear any whining! No moaning about it being too hard and that you will never get everything ready in time! If you do not achieve perfect results right away, do not be discouraged: persevere and start over, again and again!
Lastly, be able to take the time to stop, smell the flowers, contemplate the countryside, breathe, and profit from the little things in life. They are what is truly important.
Still there? Well then, get to work!
Bibliography and References
Section 1
Analysis
English
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Ferguson, Niall, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World, Penguin Books, 2009.
Galbraith, John K., The Great Crash 1929, Mariner Books, 1954.
Gardner, Dan, Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear, Virgin Books, 2009.
Heather, Peter, The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, 2006.
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____, Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Decline, New Society Publishers, 2007.
Holmgren, David, Future Scenarios: How Communities Can Adapt to Peak Oil and Climate Change, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009.
Huffington, Arianna, Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream, Crown Books, 2010.
Klare, Michael T., Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict, Owl Books, 2002.
Lasch, Christopher, The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy, W. W. Norton, 1995.
Luttwak, Edward, Turbo-Capitalism: Winners and Losers in the Global Economy, Harper Collins, 1999.
Lynas, Mark, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, Fourth Estate, 2007.
Martenson, Chris, The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of our Economy, Energy and Environment, Wiley, 2011.
Monbiot, George, Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning, Allen Lane, 2006.
Mullins, Eustace, The Secrets of the Federal Reserve, Bridger House Publishers, 2009.
Parker, Selwyn, The Great Crash: How the Stock Market Crash of 1929 Plunged the World into Depression, Piaktus, 2008.
Rothkopf, David, Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making, Little Brown, 2008.
Ruppert, Michael C., Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, New Society Publishers, 2004.
____, A Presidential Energy Policy, New World Publishing, 2009.
____, Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak Oil World, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009.
Schor, Juliet B., Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture, Scribner, 2004.
____, The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, Basic Books, 1993.
____, The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need, Harper Perennial, 1999.
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, Random House, 2007.
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French
Arnoult, Jacques and Blamont, Jacques, Lève-toi et marche: propositions pour un futur de l’humanité, 2009.
Attali, Jacques, Une brève historie de l’avenir, Le Livre de Poche, 2011.
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Clouscard, Michel, Néo-fascisme et idéologie du désire, Le Castor Astral, 1973.
____, Le capitalisme de la séduction, Éditions ES, 1981.
____, Critique du libéralisme libertaire—généalogie de la contre-révolution, Éditions Delga, 2005.
Conte, Bernard, La tiers-mondialisation de la planète, Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2009.
Drac, Michel, Crise ou Coup d’État?, Éditions Le Retour aux Sources, 2009.
____, Crise économique ou crise de sens?, Éditions Le Retour aux Sources, 2010.
Guénon, René, Le règne de la quantité et les signes des temps, Gallimard, 1945.
____, La crise du monde moderne, Gallimard, 2004
Holbecq, André-Jacques, La dette publique, une affaire rentable : qui profite à le système?, Éditions Yves Michel, 2008.
Jovanivic,
Pierre, 777 : La chute du Vatican et de Wall Street selon saint Jean, Le Jardin des Livres, 2009.
____, Blythe Masters : La banquière de la JP Morgan à l’origine de la crise mondiale, Le Jardin des Livres, 2011.
Juvin, Hervé, Le renversement du monde: politique de la crise, Gallimard, 2010.
Latouche, Serge, La déraison de la raison économique : du délire d’efficacité au principe de précaution, Albin Michel, 2001.
Laurent, Éric, La face cachée des banques: scandales et révélations sur les mileux financières, Plon, 2009.
____, Le scandale des délocalisations, Plon, 2011.
Leconte, Pierre, De la crise financière vers l’hyper-inflation : Comment vous protéger, Éditions Jean-Cyrille Godefoy, 2009.
____, La grande crise monétaire du XXIe siècle a déjà commencé!, Éditions Jean-Cyrille Godefoy, 2007.
____, Tragédie monétaire : quelle monnaie pour la mondialisation, le dollar ou l’or?, Éditions François-Xavier de Guilbert, 2003.
____, Les faux-monnayeurs: sortir du chaos monétaire mondiale pour éviter la ruine, Éditions François-Xavier de Guilbert, 2008.
Lugan, Berard, Pour en finir avec la colonisation, Éditions du Rocher, 2006.
____, Atlas historique de l’Afrique des origines à nos jours, Éditions du Rocher, 2001.
Michéa, Jean-Claude, L’enseignements de l’ignorance et ses conditions modernes, Climats, 2006.
Sapir; Jacques, Le nouveau XXe siècle: du siècle « américain » au retour des nations, self-published.
Soral, Alain, Comprendre l’empire: demain la gouvernance globale ou la révolte des nations?, Éditions Blanche, 2011.
Todd, Emmanuel, Après l’empire : essai sur la décomposition du système américain, Gallimard, 2002.
Zaki, Myret, La fin du dollar: comment le billet vert est devenu la plus grande bulle spéculative de l’histoire, Éditions Favre, 2011.
Ziegler, Jean, La haine de l’Occident, Albin Michel, 2008.
Italian
Rubbio, Carlo and Criscenti, Nino, Il dilemma nucleare, Sperling & Kupfer, 1987.
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