How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It - James Wesley Rawles [4]
You are startled to hear loud, rapid-fire gunshots. They are very close by—right near your neighborhood. This is going to be a very bad day . . .
The scenario that I just described is just one of dozens that could cause The End of the World as We Know It (TEOTWAWKI) in the near future.
But for what other reasons should you prepare? Here are just a few terrifying possibilities (in no particular order):
• Hyperinflationary depression
• Deflationary depression
• Terrorist nuclear, biological, or chemical warfare
• Nation-state nuclear, biological, or chemical warfare
• A third World War
• An oil embargo on the First World nations
• Martial law
• Invasion
• Climate change
• Major volcanic and/or earthquake events
• Major asteroid or comet strike
Suffice it to say, we live in an increasingly dangerous world, with a fragile and highly interdependent infrastructure. In recent years we have witnessed accelerating threats of terrorism and economic instability. It is prudent to prepare. In this book, I will focus on specific criteria for choosing the location for a place to live, and once you have it—or even if you decide to prepare right where you are—how to stock up and equip for self-sufficiency. With the right preparation, you can protect your family from numerous threats—so you can not only survive, but thrive.
Because I strongly believe that you will stand the best chance of survival if you are able to live in a retreat location year-round, most of the information in this book is geared toward that ideal scenario. It may sound extreme, but When the Schumer Hits the Fan (WTSHTF), you will thank me. There is no single ideal retreat location, because everyone’s needs are different. For some, their work requires that they be near a major airport or university. Others, for example, might have chronic health conditions that require proximity to a specialized medical center. So everything that I put forth herein must be tempered by your own particular requirements.
The Golden Horde
Because of the urbanization of the U.S. population, if the entire eastern or western power grid goes down for more than a week, the cities will rapidly become unlivable. I foresee that there could be an almost unstoppable chain of events:
Power Failures, followed by
Municipal Water Supply Failures, followed by
Disruption of Food Distribution, followed by
Collapse of Law and Order, followed by
Fires and Full-Scale Looting, followed by
Massive “Golden Horde” Out-Migration from Major Cities
As the comfort level in the cities rapidly drops to nil, there will be a massive outpouring from the big cities and suburbs into the hinterboonies. This is the phenomenon that my late father, Donald Rawles—a career physics research administrator at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California—half-jokingly called “the Golden Horde.” He was of course referring to the Mongol horde of the thirteenth century, but in a modern context. (The Mongol rulers were chosen from the “Golden Family” of Temujin. Hence the term Golden Horde.)
The Thin Veneer
In my lectures on survival topics I often mention that there is just a thin veneer of civilization on our society. What is underneath is not pretty, and it does not take much to peel away that veneer. You take your average urbanite or suburbanite and get him excessively cold, wet, tired, hungry, and/or thirsty and take away his television, beer, drugs, and other pacifiers, and you will soon see the savage within. It is like peeling the skin off an onion—remove a couple of layers and it gets very smelly.
Here is a mental exercise: Put yourself in the mind-set of Mr. Joe Six-pack, a hypothetical