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Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life by Neil Strauss
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Neil Strauss Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2009-03-10 ISBN: 0060898771 Number of pages: 432 Publisher: It Books
Book Reviews of Emergency: This Book Will Save Your LifeBook Review: An Entertaining Book with some interesting information that may kill you or save you Summary: 5 Stars
I had to get this book after I read the first few chapters of the book online. The Author, Neil Strauss became paranoid about the recent political changes in the US and wanted to develop an escape plan in the event another horrible disaster happened in the US (be it Nuclear War, Weather related, civil war, etc.) Neil became more and more worried after being exposed to several events. Some of those turned out to be non-events such as Y2K, and some turned out to be major events like the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina disaster. And I believe his paranoia is justified to a certain extent. Neil then embarks on a timely and expensive journey to learn a set of skills and secure a second home in another country in an effort to be able to survive and have the ability to leave the US in the event such a disaster would happen in his lifetime. However, the irony of this book is that Neil almost kills himself physically and almost bankrupts himself financially, by attempting to obtain the needed skills and assets to ready himself for this type of emergency. The book describes his self educated journey towards that goal. Neil presents his story in a way that keeps you entertained as you follow him on this journey. Neil also researches this subject in great depth and I would say all of his information is interesting and accurate and may just save your life if applied in the right way by the right person or it might kill you and bankrupt you also lol. You may wish to take some of the survival courses that he attended but I would not follow his financial advice regarding buying real estate in a foreign country that does not have a US embassy your just asking for trouble and someone will steal your property, defraud you, kidnap you, and/or end your life. Remember we live in the USA (which is a gilded type of cage because of the benefits it has to offer, which is a good thing and when you climb out of that cage you better be ready to fight hard to survive).
Personally after reading this book I think Neil's efforts to obtain a second citizenship in order to flea the US is a big waste of money on his part, when you consider his investment represented almost all of his net worth. Especially when you consider his pick of a safe place out of the country is a small island and he is subject to financial scams without legal recourse, revolution, hurricanes, crime, shortages of power and food each year and is in my opinion at greater risk of suffering from a major disaster on his island retreat than anywhere in the US. Just recently in one of Neil's own emails/posts to his followers stated that the lawyer he dropped a ton of money on to purchase his real estate on his island retreat, took off with a bunch of money people had given him. The foreign lawyer stole the money, no big surprise there. I feel sorry for the idiots who read this book and apply Neil's exact methods for buying real estate in the caribbean islands that have no ties to the US. Take his advice at your own peril.
When and if the US ever closes its borders Neil's second passport is a waste of money in my opinion, unless he leaves before the emergency hits and not during it. He is not going to be able to get through the borders when they close them. He will have to use his off road motorcycle, guns, or other means of force or deception to get out of the country. So why spend $250K to obtain a second passport when chances are it will not work any way. Neil should have just applied for long term VISAs in several different countries and saved himself a ton of money. The VISAs with a US passport will work just as well as a second passport, until the laws change and they close the borders then your screwed in any event.
What I like about this book is the list of items he puts together as part of his so called "bug out bag". He really does buy some great items. When you can get that list down to just a few items like clothes, a good knife, a flint, and maybe a fishing pole, and a big boobed bimbo to re-populate the planet with after the apocalypse, then you really have acquired a graduate degree in survival. And if you need help landing yourself a big boobed bimbo read Neil's other book "The Game". When you can survive with just these items alone and your accumulated skills then you really are prepared for the worst. I think I will hang out in the good old USA before, during, and after the apocalypse. Maybe I will buy a second house in Hawaii for my little island survival spot lol. It is pretty hard to find a better place on earth and good news it is located in the USA.
Summary of Emergency: This Book Will Save Your LifeWith the same sharp eye, quick wit and narrative drive that made "The Game" a bestseller, Neil Strauss takes us on a white-knuckle journey through America's heart of darkness as he scrambles to escape the system. As the economic downturn, continuing climate change and the prevailing terrorist threat prove that the dangers facing our world loom larger than ever, Strauss decides he's had enough. Soon he is investigating ways of getting second citizenship on the island of St. Kitts, protecting his assets offshore, and making friends with an elite group of billionaires who are thinking exactly the same thing. Strauss' thirst for survival becomes more extreme as he prepares for The End Of The World As We Know It. He trains with guns, learns American Indian tracking skills, hides caches of supplies and acquires a special forces motorcycle to help him 'bug out'. When The Shit Hits The Fan, this book might just save your life. Book Description Terrorist attacks. Natural disasters. Domestic crackdowns. Economic collapse. Riots. Wars. Disease. Starvation. What can you do when it all hits the fan? You can learn to be self-sufficient and survive without the system. **I've started to look at the world through apocalypse eyes.** So begins Neil Strauss's harrowing new book: his first full-length worksince the international bestseller The Game, and one of the most original-and provocative-narratives of the year. After the last few years of violence and terror, of ethnic and religious hatred, of tsunamis and hurricanes?and now of world financial meltdown?Strauss, like most of his generation, came to the sobering realization that, even in America, anything can happen. But rather than watch helplessly, he decided to do something about it. And so he spent three years traveling through a country that's lost its sense of safety, equipping himself with the tools necessary to save himself and his loved ones from an uncertain future. With the same quick wit and eye for cultural trends that marked The Game, The Dirt, and How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, Emergency traces Neil's white-knuckled journey through today's heart of darkness, as he sets out to move his life offshore, test his skills in the wild, and remake himself as a gun-toting, plane-flying, government-defying survivor. It's a tale of paranoid fantasies and crippling doubts, of shady lawyers and dangerous cult leaders, of billionaire gun nuts and survivalist superheroes, of weirdos, heroes, and ordinary citizens going off the grid. It's one man's story of a dangerous world?and how to stay alive in it. Before the next disaster strikes, you're going to want to read this book. And you'll want to do everything it suggests. Because tomorrow doesn't come with a guarantee... Questions for Neil Strauss Amazon.com: What initially inspired you to write Emergency? Strauss: It happened over the last eight years, watching as everything that we thought could never happen in America suddenly started happening. So I decided to take control over my own life, rather than being dependent on an increasingly undependable system, and worked toward becoming as self-sufficient, independent, skilled, and experienced as I could. That journey continues today. Amazon.com: You use the term "Fliesian" in the book (as in Lord of the Flies). What is a Fliesian? Strauss: Someone who believes that people, if put in a world where there are no consequences to their actions, will do horrible things. Amazon.com: So how can we hold on to our kindness and humaneness in a crisis? Strauss: Fortunately, in my experience, it is precisely these situations when you see the best in people come out. The worst in some tends to arise only when the resources one needs to survive are scarce and there is competition for them. Amazon.com: Do you think that this book is catering to a fear-based culture? Strauss: Actually, the book is less about spreading fears than getting over them. What most of us fear is the unknown, and we fret about what?s going to happen in an uncertain future when we consider the calamities of the past. I decided to no longer react to the things I read in newspapers, but instead to understand them. So I took each worst-case scenario to the extreme, and experienced many of the things that used to make me anxious. I guess, in that way, it was like a more interesting, adventurous Prozac. Amazon.com: A lot of writers these days are basing books on various year-long stunts: read the encyclopedia for a year, always say "yes" for a year, have sex with your wife every day for a year. But your brand of immersion journalism, in Emergency and in The Game, is more open-ended--and more personal--than that. Do you draw any sort of line between the books and your life? Strauss: My books never begin as books. They usually begin as some sort of lack I recognize in my life and try to fix with the help of the most qualified experts I can find. Often, these people are not in the public eye, but hidden in a splinter subculture. And while I?m trying to get taken under their wing, I realize at some point I?m spending so much time trying to learn and improve that I might as well have something to show for it, so I write a book. Amazon.com: One of the first subcultures you embedded yourself in was a cabal of billionaires. Are wealthy people safer than the rest of us? Strauss: No, they?re more scared than the rest of us. That?s why they?re taking so many precautionary measures. They are defined by their money, and now that identity is crumbling around them. You can?t buy safety. Those who are the most safe are the ones with knowledge, skills, and experience. Amazon.com: You describe the philosophy of the sphincter in Emergency. What is that? Strauss: I learned that from one of my defense instructors. The basic idea is that, in a high-pressure situation, the first thing that happens is people get nervous and uptight. And as soon as your sphincter tightens, as the metaphor goes, it cuts off circulation to your brain. So one of the best survival skills you can have is the ability to quickly and coolly assess a situation rather than panicking and doing something stupid. Amazon.com: From your wilderness survival training, it sounds like you're in pretty good shape if things ever hit the fan. But what if you live in the city? Strauss: That?s a good point. A lot of the wilderness survival skills I learned don?t take into account that, in America today, there?s little actual wilderness left. So I took a class called Urban Escape and Evasion. As the teacher put it, ?Once you learn lockpicking, the world is your oyster.? He also taught car hot-wiring, evading pursuit vehicles, and, as an exam, handcuffed me, put me in a trunk, and told me I had to escape. It was one of the most interesting classes I?d taken in my life. If I?d known these skills in high school, I definitely would have been expelled. Amazon.com: The book has a surprising trajectory--surprising to the reader and I think to you as well. You start out looking for a way to get out of Dodge if one of many possible disasters strikes, but as you develop your survival skills, instead of becoming a lone wolf in the woods, you start becoming tied to your community, as an EMT and a trained crisis management worker (not to mention a goat midwife). It's actually pretty heartwarming. Did you see any of that coming? Strauss: Definitely not. I had no idea that when disasters happen now, instead of running away from them, I?d be running toward them and trying to be of some use to the community. I think that, if there?s a silver lining in the dark cloud that is the economy right now, it?s that hard times bring people closer together. Now is the time to get to know your neighbors. You never know when you may need them. Amazon.com: Has your experience writing Emergency affected you differently from your experience writing The Game? Strauss: Yes, because now, at 3 a.m. on a Saturday night, my search-and-rescue pager will go off and I?ll have to stop doing what I learned in The Game and start doing what I learned in Emergency.
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