A Review of Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse by James Wesley Rawles

A Review of Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse by James Wesley Rawles

James Wesley Rawles runs Survival Blog,the best preparedness/survival web site on planet Earth. The web address is www.survivalblog.com

James Wesley Rawles is also a first class writer. He has written a second fiction book, Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse. If you liked Mr. Rawles first book Patriots, you will like Survivors. While the books are alike in some ways, there are some significant differences. This article will compare and contrast the books.

Many of the characters who were in Rawles first novel Patriots are also in Survivors. (The books are written in such a way that you do not have to read Patriots first to get what’s going on.)

For those of you who read Rawles’s first book, Patriots, you know that while it is a work of fiction, it is essentially a training manual as well. You learned something new in every chapter. The knowledge base Rawles possesses is incredible.

Survivors focuses a little more on the human side of survival during a TEOTWAWKI type event. Still, this book has a lot of good information in it. There are three chapters in the book that contain such high quality data that those three chapters are worth the price of the entire book. (I’m not going to tell you what chapters they are, as the purpose of this article is to get you to go out and buy a copy of Survivors.)

Survivors, like Patriots begins during a worldwide financial meltdown. Patriots focused mostly on what happens in the United States as a result of a global financial meltdown. In Survivors however, Rawles paints a very good picture of what happens all over the planet when the global financial meltdown occurs. There are characters who live in Afghanistan, Western Europe, Central America, and the United States. This is what really sets the book apart. It shows the financial meltdown not just from the perspective of a United States citizen, but from people in other countries. This brings us to the main character.

The main character in the book is a combat hardened veteran of the war in Afghanistan. As the worldwide economy collapses, he finds it hard to get home. What makes his situation worse is he has a bride back in the U.S.A. waiting to marry him. He manages to hop a German military transport to Germany. From there he has to hike and bike his way to the western coast of Europe. He then has to get a boat to England, not an easy task in a worldwide economic crash.

His situation gets harder. When he gets to England he wants to get a boat going directly to the U.S.A. But with rioting in major U.S. cities and large scale social breakdown, no one with a boat wants to go to the United States.

Our hero does manage to get a boat ride from England to Central America. He then has to go on foot and horseback from Central America to his home in the Four Corners area of the United States.
As you might imagine, during his trek across Europe, during his boat ride across the Atlantic, and during his trek from central America to the Four Corners regions of the United States, our hero has a number of incidents with thugs (and pirates during the Atlantic Ocean crossing.) This isn’t a great problem while he is in Western Europe, because most of the civilian population there do not have guns. Our hero does-only a pistol, but a make generally considered to be the best in the world. During the Atlantic Ocean crossing this pistol is put to good use against pirates. When our hero arrives in Central America things get much more complicated, as most everyone has guns.

While the main character is making his trek from Afghanistan to the United States, the other characters are trying to survive. Some of them form retreat communities. Others find ways to open businesses that give the citizens what they want, as there is no excessive government to speak of, at least for a while.

The economy changes into one where there are essentially three currencies: Barter item, gold coins, and silver coins.

Remember the previous "at least for a while" ? In Survivors, a so called legitimate government arises that is allied with the United Nations. (One character in the book stated something very funny. He said essentially any government that actually has to call itself the “legitimate” government probably isn’t legitimate.) Using United Nations troops and United Sates troops who are traitors or are so ill informed they believe they are doing the right thing (they’re still traitors.) the new “legitimate government” tries to impose it’s will.

Pretty much all firearms and other equipment that would be useful for resisting a criminal “United Nations” government are banned. If not turned in by a certain time, any person caught with such weapons after that time is summarily executed. This goes right along with real life United Nations standard operating procedures. In real life, United Nations "peace keepers" have executed people for simply violating curfews.

The new and “legitimate” government does what all criminal governments do-it steals from the citizens. How does the “legitimate” government in Survivors do this? By re-introducing fiat money. Remember, in addition to being counterfeit, fiat money is also a hidden form of taxation via printing more worthless paper.

With that last sentence in mind, Mr. Rawles chose the perfect first name for the president of the new “legitimate” government: Maynard!

For those readers unfamiliar with economics, there is a school of thought in economics called the Keynesian school of economics, named after economist John Maynard Keynes. This school of economics favors big government, massive intervention in the free market, and prefers fiat money. Fiat money is backed by nothing. It’s money because the government says it is.

The new “legitimate” government uses the United Nation’s troops and the traitors in the U.S. military to “pacify” They begin with four states. I actually live in one of those first four states the “legitimate” government chose to be “pacified” in the novel.. That state is Alabama.

(Just a personal comment. If a situation like the one described in Survivors, ever really occurs, unless a “legitimate” government is willing to use nuclear, biological, chemical, scalar weapons, or totally defoliate all the crops, trying to “pacify” Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Northern Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Texas is going to be.......interesting.)

Perhaps the most important thing in Survivors that every person that is into preparation and survival should pay close attention to is Rawles description of the emergence of organized criminal gangs that loot entire towns. I think Rawles description is a very accurate one. Essentially what he describes is modern day brigandage. (Brigandage is a crime committed a lot in the past. You see it in movies sometimes. Gangs ride in on horseback, loot the village, rape the women, kill all the men, and then burn the village down.) In a TEOTWAWKI situation, the probability of the emergence of organized criminal gangs that loot entire towns is essentially one hundred percent. In fact, I would not be surprised if various criminal organizations are already planning for this type of activity so they can take maximum advantage of a TEOTWAWKI event.

In the book, the leader of this criminal organization is very smart. He starts out his criminal career by forming a gang and doing home invasions (which Mr. Rawles and I both believe is going to be a very common crime in the near future) but as the economy crashes, the leader manages to steal military vehicles, including A.P.C.’s (Armored Personnel Carrier). The gang grows and eventually reaches the point it can raid towns with populations of twenty thousand or more.

AGAIN-This type of organized criminal looting is essentially a sure thing if there is a TEOTWAWKI situation such as the power grid going down or full scale economic collapse.


I said the beginning of this blog entry that Survivors focuses more on the human side of survival. Let me explain what I mean.

Patriots is a novel that had huge appeal to people who were already into preparedness and survival. Patriots presented fictionalized data on how to fight a war of resistance (guerilla warfare) against a non-legitimate U.S. puppet government backed by the United Nations-a global criminal organization, and traitors from the U.S. military who join the U.N. forces. Data like this can be a bit heavy for people who are exploring getting into preparedness. I have no doubt that many people who read Survival Blog gave a copy of Patriots to someone they care for who isn’t preparing hoping it would induce that someone they care for to start preparing. If I were laying odds, that might have worked 1 time in 9.

Survivors is the book you should give to that person who will not prepare. Why you ask? The book shows what a TEOTWAWKI situation would look like through the eyes of the people living it in, but it does so in a way that is a bit more palatable for the average person, for the non-prepper.

In Patriots Mr. Rawles simply lays out the honest truth of what a TEOTWAWKI situation would look like.. In Patriots there is even one example of cannibalism. For a lot of people, this is too much. Truth can be an ugly thing. Most people really don’t like the truth. Most people prefer the soothing comfort of the lie.

In simple terms, Patriots may be too much of a psychological shock to the non-prepper, because non-peppers are mostly non-informed. Let me explain.

The average person, the non prepper, watches their 30 minute local newscast and a 30 minute national newscast, and they think they know what’s going on in the world.

Not so for the prepper. Just to get a basic idea of what’s going on in the world we use the net to study economics, geopolitics, worldwide food levels, disease outbreaks, and even praxeology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praxeology

How many non prepper’s or even professional investment advisors look at the Baltic Dry Goods Index?

Mass media portrays prepper’s as mostly nut jobs, gun nuts, or associates preparedness with race hate organizations. In a small number of cases, these portrayals are correct. But most of the presentations of prepper’s are smear jobs. I’ll give you a good example.

James Wesley Rawles did an interview with a newspaper, I think it was the Los Angeles Times. Rawles told the newspaper he opposed racism because judging someone solely by their race is fundamentally irrational. RAWLES EVEN STATES THIS ON HIS WEB SITE! So guess what the Los Angeles Times does? On their internet addition on the same page with Mr. Rawles picture and article link there is a link to a story about some guy convicted of a crime who was a member of some race hate organization!

Now, taking those facts into account, consider the fact that most people who live in the first world operate under the normalcy bias (see link)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias

and have no concept of what black swann event are or how and why they occur.

How many people who live in the first world have really experienced hunger? In the United States, how many people have actually ever had to go 48 or 72 hour without any food. Remember, when I said Patriots event had an incident of cannibalism in it? Like the looting of towns by organized criminal gangs, in a TEOTWAWKI situation, cannibalism is going to happen (and, like in the book Patriots, the people who do it should be shot.) But to even think about this is usually too much for your average person.

One thing I want to be clear on though: I AM NOT saying Survivors is some kind of watered down version of Patriots. If anyone tells you that, you can be certain they have not read Survivors. But Survivors is not quite the shock to a non-prepper that Patriots can be. Survivors is a better book to give to the non prepper than Patriots if you are trying to get the non prepper to start preparing.

If you have not read Survivors get out and buy a copy. If you do long haul driving there is an unabridged version available on CD.

I even think there is movie potential for Survivors, provided you could find a producer and a film company not overly concerned about political correctness.

I’m currently in the process of reading Rawles next book Founders, scheduled to be released later this year. So far it’s looking very good. From what I’ve read so far, it seems to be a cross between Patriots and Survivors. I will write a review here when I’ve completed reading it.

To all of you out there around the planet, keep the faith.

Vonu

In the early 1970's several people published a magazine called Vonulife with the subtitle “how to live and let live, out of sight and mind of those unwilling to let live.” The publishers of the magazine invented a new word “vonu.” Vonu means “invulnerability from coercion.”

I get the idea that the people who published the magazine were hippie types (no offense if any of the publishers are reading this), but nevertheless, I salute them for their principle of being invulnerable to coercion and their creativity to invent a new word.

So how can one be coerced?

First, there is the obvious physical coercion-coercion by physical violence or the threat of physical violence. So what countermeasures can one take against physical coercion?

Carry weapons. Use passive defenses like body armor. Study martial arts. Be fast, which enables you to elude the person(s) doing the coercion. Hide-if they cannot find you they cannot use physical coercion against you.

Second, there is the more subtle psychological coercion. So what countermeasures can one take against psychological coercion?

Study, understand, and be able to recognize the techniques used by psychological manipulators. You can goggle any of the following and get lots of information:

psychological manipulation
psychological manipulation techniques
propaganda
propaganda techniques
verbal violence
psychological coercion
guilt manipulation
psychological violence
psychopaths
sociopaths

Third, there is financial coercion. In this area, government is the biggest threat. I want to be clear, I do not advocate tax evasion. However, there are lots of reasons the government can use to seize or freeze the money you have in bank accounts, stock portfolios, mutual fund portfolios, and other financial instruments. Lawyers can do the same thing using civil lawsuits.

So what countermeasures can one take against financial coercion?

There is the option of foreign bank accounts. However, as the economy continues to decline, government regulations will make it harder to send money out of the country. This is also true for investing in foreign companies.

One can convert one’s money to cash and store it at home. There are dangers in this however.

First, your cash can be stolen. If you’re going to keep lots of cash at home I recommend a gun safe that is rated to keep guns safe in a fifteen-hundred degree fire for thirty minutes. Even with a gun safe of this type, cash is more apt to burn than guns, I suggest wrapping your cash in with two layers of aluminum foil. Keep the gun safe in a secluded part of your home. Ideally one would have a hidden space behind a wall that can be accessed easily but looks like a normal wall.

Second, if the government finds out that you have large amounts of cash at home, they will seize it and accuse you of some illegal activity, such as trafficking narcotics. So if you are going to keep large amounts of cash at home, tell no one.

Third, given the fact that the government is running the money printing presses 24/7, it’s highly likely all your U.S. currency will be good for is toilet paper. Remember, inflation is not about prices going up, it’s about the value of your money going down. Every time another dollar is put into the system, the value of every other dollar in the system drops a little more.

One can convert one’s money to precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and iridium. All of the statements given above for storing cash at home apply to storing precious metals at home, with the exception of wrapping your precious metals in aluminum foil.

WARNING: Do not store cash, precious metals, stock certificates and other financial instruments in a bank safe deposit box. In a crisis, government will declare a bank holiday and you will not be able to access your safe deposit box. The same is true if the government seizes or freezes your assets.

The best way to secure your money is to convert it into tangible assets that can be sold or bartered. Some of the better ones are:

rifles
shotguns
pistols
ammunition
freeze-dried food
dehydrated food
MRE’s
dried beans
water purification equipment
non-hybrid/non-GMO seeds
water purification chemicals
medical supplies
hardware
fuel
portable cooking equipment
energy devices
liquor
tobacco
antibiotics
over the counter medications

(See my article Crisis, Martial Law, and Black Market Operations for a more detailed list)


http://knowledgeisthekilleroffear.blogspot.com/2010/04/crisis-martial-law-and-black-market.html

The list is potentially endless. I recommend you study your particular area to determine what items are in high demand.

Remember, coercion is a fact of life. Do what you can to avoid it.

How They Attack You When You Give Useful Information

I try to give useful information on my web site. Apparently that scares some people.

A web site can be attacked directly or indirectly. My web site site was attacked directly and indirectly.

My web site was attacked directly and my article on cold weather survival was deleted. It is back up now. Direct attacks are easy to see. This has happened to several very high volume web sites like George Ure’s Urban Survival (www.urbansurvival.com) Stan Deyo’s web site (www.standeyo.com), and Steve Quayle ‘s web site (www.stevequayle.com).

The indirect attack on my web site was very sneaky. My article Principles of Accurate Analysis and Synthesis was the DI-Daily Insight link on the web site www.codenameinsight.com for the date 04-25-11. When I last clicked that link it took me to the following web address:

www.hancinema.net/watch-stream-korean-drama-Really_Really_like_you_full_episode-4-english-subtitled.html

In simple terms, someone hacked the Code Name Insight website and redirected that link. Someone did not want that article to be read. It’s also worth noting that the redirected link mentions Korea, because it has a personal meaning from a time in my past. In case you’re wondering, I’m not Korean. I’m basically a European mixed breed-English-Irish-German-French.

So what’s the lesson to other bloggers and writers? If you get your writing linked on web sites, go back periodically and check the link’s to make sure they have not been redirected.

So who would do this? Probably government. Read the article Principles of Accurate Analysis and Synthesis and ask yourself is there anything in it government might not want you to know.

By the time you see this, the person(s) who did this might fix the link. I’ve tried to get in touch with the webmaster at Code Name Insight to fix the link but either the webmaster is very busy, or my e-mails to the webmaster are being blocked.

Perhaps you the reader could send the Code Name Insight webmaster the link to this article? The webmaster’s e-mail address is webmaster@codenameinsight.com

A word to all the white hat hackers out there: It would be very nice if you could come up with a system to trace attacks such as this back to their source that is relatively easy for the non-computer professional to use. Perhaps it could be built directly into web sites.

Readers please forward the link to this article to your friends and ask them to forward it to their friends. Knowledge IS the killer of fear.

Principles of Accurate Analysis and Synthesis

Principles of Accurate Analysis and Synthesis

This article is about making predictions. Predictions are just best guesses of what is going to happen in the future based on known intelligence (information). This article can be useful for any type of prediction including military prediction, business prediction, and science prediction

Analysis is the process of breaking down known pieces of information into smaller pieces of information so that the details can be studied.

Synthesis is the process of putting the studied small pieces of information together in a way that will paint a picture of possible future events.

Data analysis and synthesis should be based on facts or data that has a high order of probability of being accurate.

1. Avoid preconceived notions. Just because an event happened a certain way in the past does not mean it will happen the same way at this point in time. By repeating the same action over and over again, a good enemy can lull you into believing that he will never change tactics. Then he kills you.

View every situation as a blank slate, even if that situation is similar to a past situation. Enemies that don’t change their tactics from time to time do not survive long. This means change will come at some point even though the situation’s are similar to past ones.

2. Think cause and effect. If you want to understand an effect, study the effect’s cause. If you want to understand a cause, study the effect produced by that cause.

3. Do not rely on just a few sources of information. Get your information (intelligence) from as many sources as possible-internet-books-magazines-libraries-talking to people. Also, don’t be an intelligence snob. Get your information from the good. Get your information from the bad. Get your information from the ugly. Don’t be afraid of getting information from sources that are so low they can sky-dive off a piece of paper.

4. Listen to the dissenting opinions. The majority is often wrong. Why? Because the majority is made up of individuals who fall into that broad and general category known as “average.” How do average individuals behave? Average. This means they are susceptible to peer pressure (cause) and to group-think (effect).

At this point lets be clear: groups do not think. Only individuals think. What group-think really refers to is a situation where a few individuals in a group (usually the more popular or charismatic individuals) do the thinking and everyone else in the group just goes along.

Truth is not determined by consensus. At one time, not so long ago, you could go to the greatest universities on this planet and talk to the most learned men of science, and they would tell you, with a straight face that if you sailed your ship too far out to sea you would fall off the earth because the earth was flat. The fact that they had a consensus did not make their idea true.

5. Remember that big changes for better or worse happen extremely fast. If something big happens, it is going to happen fast. Think Pearl Harbor for example. Think stock market crashes’.

6. You don’t have all the information. In fact, you’re lucky if you have half of it. And, if and when you get the other half, the half you have now will be out of date.

7. The universe we live in is a chaotic, non-linear system. This means that some things cannot be predicted, yet via observation patterns can be detected. Always look for patterns in data that seems totally chaotic. Often patterns will appear.

8. Small details matter. By observing small details, you may catch a pattern that you would otherwise miss.

9. Be on guard for disinformation. Enemies will put out false data. More dangerous enemies will put out false data mixed with true data. Sometimes the false data mixed with the true data will be something crazy. This is done to make the person looking at the data have a knee jerk psychological reaction. The person looking at the data thinks that if the source of the information can come up with something this crazy, the source is crazy, and one should believe none of that source’s data.

When looking at data and you come across something crazy, study it just as you would study any other data. Then move onto the next piece of data.

It’s worth noting that the disinformation an enemy puts out can tell you as much about that enemy as true data. The nature of the disinformation will often tell you what your enemy is trying to hide and what your enemy fears.

Cold Weather Survival

Cold Weather Survival-I had to re-post this as a hacker deleted it.

Cold kills. That’s a fact. Cold kills via hypothermia. Hypothermia is the term given to the condition when the amount of body heat lost to the environment exceeds the heat produced by the body.

The symptoms of hypothermia include: Shivering, confusion, decreased activity, clumsiness, shallow breathing, and slow heart rate.

Wet cold is defined as cold that goes down to 14 degrees farenheight. In wet cold, the ground freezes at night and thaws out during the day. Dry cold is defined as cold that goes below 14 degrees farenheight and rarely goes above this temperature. Since water freezes at 32 degrees’ farenheight, in dry cold the ground stays frozen all the time. This is important as being wet increases the loss of body heat.

There are 4 basic rules about clothing for cold weather.

keep it-------Clean
avoid--------Overheating
wear it-------Loose and in layers
keep it-------Dry

Keep it Clean-Dirt clogs up the air spaces in your clothing and reduce their insulating ability. The same is true for soap, so make sure washed clothes are completely rinsed out.

Avoid Overheating-If you overheat in very cold weather you will sweat. The sweat will then freeze and make you even colder.

Wear it Loose and in layers-This also helps prevent overheating. Wearing several thin layers of clothing can produce a lot more insulation than a single layer of thicker clothing.

Keep it Dry-The previous two rules have a lot to do with this. The human body cools itself to a large extent by a process called evaporative cooling. In everyday terms we call that process sweating. Being wet in a cold environment creates the same effect, even if the liquid is not sweat.

Consider the 50-50-50-50 rule: A normal adult without specialized cold water protective clothing has a 50-50 chance of surviving for 50 minutes in water that is 50 degrees farenheight.

Keep as dry as possible at all cost. One modern way to keep dry when overheating is to wear clothing made of Gore-Tex material. This material has pores in it large enough to let sweat evaporate out, but small enough to keep out water in the form of rain and melted snow.

Wool is another good clothing material for cold weather because it wicks water away from the body to the outside of the clothing. Traditional wool is very scratchy and uncomfortable, however, a modern form of wool called Moreno Wool is a lot more comfortable and has all the benefits of standard wool.

FROSTBITE-Frostbite occurs when body tissue freezes and thaws out. The hands, feet and head are particularly vulnerable to frostbite. For the feet, I suggest socks made out of Moreno Wool. If your feet get wet, this material will wick the moisture away from your skin. These socks are available in the hunting department of your Wal-Mart type establishments and at dedicated outdoor supply stores.

For the hands, gloves are essential. Ideally, the gloves should be waterproof and provide good insulation without having a major effect on manual dexterity, so you can do things like shooting a gun. I like the neoprene gloves as they meet all those criteria.

Protecting your head from the cold is important because 20 percent of your body heat is lost through your head. In cold weather the hat should be considered mandatory. If the cold is severe with high wind, your also going to need to protect your face, ears, and neck from frostbite. If you look at your local Wal-Mart type establishment or in outdoor catalogs catalog’s like Cabella’s you will find garments that you pull over your head. These garments cover everything except your eyes, nose, and mouth. However, in extreme cold with high wind, these areas will have to be covered as well. For gear to cover these areas, look to military supply catalogs like Brigade Quartermaster.

Snowblindness is a factor to consider if your going to be in the cold for long periods in areas where it snows. Snowblindness is caused by light reflecting off of the snow. A pair of sunglasses with polarized lenses will prevent snowblindness. In a pinch, one can cut two small slits in a piece of cardboard or wood and attach it around your head with a piece of string.


Why do so many people die from cold via hypothermia? In his book Survival Psychology, psychologist Dr. John Leach Ph.D. cites the work of J. Bligh to find the reasons. They are:

1. Misfortune-This refers to events like airplanes crashing, boats capsizing, or even failure of home heating equipment. The Lesson: If you are flying over Alaska or boating in Canada, bring along the appropriate protective clothing. If your home is in a region that get’s extremely cold, have a backup method of heating your home AND some very good cold weather clothing that is rated to protect you to the lowest outdoor winter temperature in your area. (The worst case scenario is you might have to leave your home and be in the outdoors).

2. Miscalculation-Inaccurate assessment of one’s situation. For example, you underestimate how cold it is. The Lesson: Get correct information about the weather situation before you go out. For example, your going hunting and you believe, incorrectly, that the temperature is going to 40 degrees farenheight with a 5 mile per hour wind when in reality the temperature is going to 15 degrees farenheight with a 20 mile per hour wind. If you dress for the 40 degrees and 5 mile per hour wind, your going to have problems. If you do not have accurate weather data, you cannot plan and dress accordingly.

3. Misplaced confidence-Inaccurate assessment of one’s ability to survive in cold weather or believing, incorrectly, that if you do get hypothermia there will be someone to come to your rescue. The Lesson: You are not Superman, and Superman will not be there to rescue you. DO NOT OVERESTIMATE YOUR OWN ABILITY, ESPECIALLY WHEN IN COLD WEATHER.

4. Logistic failure-Not bringing adequate cold weather clothing and survival gear with you. The Lesson: This one ties in with # 1,2, and 3. WHEN IN DOUBT, OVERESTIMATE THE SEVERITY OF THE COLD AND BRING MORE GEAR THAN YOU NEED.

5. Individual pathophysiological susceptibility-This refers to individuals who have medical conditions that make them more vulnerable to the cold. The Lesson: If you have medical problems like hypothyroidism (low thyroid), heart disease, diabetes, problems with mobility, etc. you are going to be much more vulnerable to the effects of the cold. As such, PLAN ACCORDINGLY.


My state, Alabama, is not usually thought of as a cold state. However, Alabama has some of the largest extremes in temperature in the U.S.A. Summers often reach temperatures of over 100 degrees farenheight, and in winter nighttime temperatures go below 20 degrees farenheight. Some of you have winters much colder than that, but I doubt many of you have temperature ranges that extreme.

I’m often amazed how some people will go out in the middle of winter, say to the store, with nothing but a shirt on. The thought process is something like this: The store is only 3 miles away, I’ll only be out of my car as I walk from the parking lot into the store. What could happen?

In answer to that question, my reply is: “A damn lot!”

What if your car breaks down on a rural road, and your out of cell phone range? What if you have to change a tire? What if the weather changes dramatically for the worst while you are in the store shopping?

My solution to these potential problems is to keep the following items in your car:

1. A light, compact jacket that gives you some rain/snow protection.
2. An emergency space blanket or bag. These are made of metal foil and they reflect heat back to your body. The bags are better than the blankets. Ideally you would have one of each.
3. An emergency poncho for extra weather protection and extra warmth. These are available at Wal-Mart type establishments for around $1.99. Orange is the best color for visibility-choose this color if it is available.
4. 3 disposable Bic type lighters left in the plastic package until needed.
5. 4 boxes of waterproof matches.
6. 1 Zippo type lighter with extra flints and a small can of lighter fluid.
7. Kindling material for starting fires. Cotton balls smeared with Vaseline Petroleum Jelly kept in a nalgane bottle are a good choice.
8. A good flashlight, ideally and LED flashlight, to help you find your way and signal for rescue.
9. A signal mirror-to signal for rescue.
10. A whistle-it’s sound can go much farther than a human voice

The best warning about cold weather survival is this: Don’t get caught with your pants down. Be prepared.

Some Basic Survival Questions

This is and article I wrote in the now defunct Idaho Observer.

From the December 2006 Idaho Observer:

Some basic survival questions

by Kevin Swindle

Following is by no means a comprehensive list of survival questions. This is simply a bare bones list of questions to get you thinking about survival and your own situation.

1. How much potable (drinkable) water do I have stored and how long would it last if all sources of water were cut off? Ideally, you should have 2 gallons per person per day. (3 gallons per person per day if your stored food is freeze dried or dehydrated.)

2. How much food do I have stored and how long would it last if all sources of food were cut off and all electric power were cut? (Hint: this means all your frozen food and foods requiring refrigeration are gone.)

3. How much essential medication for myself and my other family members do I have on hand and how long would they last if there was no way to get refills or if there was a medical emergency?

4. How much emergency medical supplies do I have? Do I have enough for every family member?

5. Do I have a firearm for each adult family member? Do I have enough ammunition for each firearm (The minimum should be at least 1,000 rounds of ammunition per firearm)?

6. Are the firearms I have in good working order? (This means old guns that have not been shot in 50 years should be considered unreliable until proven otherwise. Also, guns like a .22 caliber pistol probably won’t help much in defending your home from a group of intruders). Ideally the caliber of all handguns you have should begin with the number 4. (Notable exceptions to this rule are the 9mm, 10mm, .357 magnum, the .38 special, and the .22 magnum.) Ideally, all shotguns should be either 10, 12, or 20 gauge. When choosing rifles, reliability should be the # 1 consideration in survival situations. The AK-47 and its many variants are best in this area, but they are not as accurate as other military type rifles such as the AR-15, FN-FAL, and SKS carbine. Most deer rifles are excellent in this area as well.

NOTE: HAVING ANY FIREARM EVEN IF IT IS LESS THAN IDEAL IS BETTER THAN HAVING NO FIREARM.

7. If I live in a cold weather climate, do I have proper clothing to survive assuming all energy sources were cut off? In simple terms this means its cold and you have no heat. (Space blankets and space bags, which are made of metal foil which reflects body heat, are a low priced way to give yourself protection in this area).

8. How much CASH money do I have stockpiled for emergencies? In survival situations, you should work off the assumption that checks and credit cards will not be honored. You should have at least $200stockpiled in case of emergencies.

NOTE: HAVING ANY AMOUNT OF CASH STOCKPILED EVEN IF IT IS LESS THAN $200 IS BETTER THAN HAVING NO CASH STOCKPILED.

9. Do I have any books on survival in my personal library? If the answer is no, get some. Delta Press and Paladin Press are two of the best sources for books on survival. I recommend that you read every book you can get your hands on by Duncan Long and Ragnar Benson. These two gentlemen are, in my opinion, the best writers on survival topics on this planet.

10. Do I really know what’s going on in the world? If you don’t know what’s going on, you cannot plan for emergencies effectively. (Hint: If you get all your news from the mainstream media, you DO NOT know what is going on. That’s a fact.)

The First Lesson in Survival: Humility

From the November 2006 Idaho Observer: An article I wrote for their print and online edition with an introduction by the late Don Harkins, publisher of The Idaho Observer


The first lesson in survival: Humility


We are in the middle of perilous times. If surviving our uncertain future is your goal, when presumed expertise may or may not help you, then our first lesson is humility. Kevin Swindle is a survivalist who intends to begin publishing "Kevin Swindle’s Preparedness Newsletter" early next year. Because there has been a merger of our respect for Swindle’s sincerity in providing (potential) readers with vital, cutting-edge material and our desire to perpare our (existing) readers to survive the coming storms, Swindle has provided us all with THE "point-A" perspective on the subject of survival.

by Kevin Swindle

What is humility? First of all, lets define what it is not. Humility is not shame, as the guilt merchants of the world would have you believe. HUMILITY IS THE REALIZATION THAT YOU ARE JUST ONE OF MANY IN THIS GREAT BIG WORLD, AND THAT NO MATTER HOW STRONG, INTELLIGENT, OR TALENTED YOU MAY BE, YOUR ABILITIES HAVE A DEFINITE LIMIT. To put it another way, you are not Superman.

You might be thinking, "Yeah Kevin, no kidding, that’s obvious." But is it? If you look at most people’s behavior you will quickly conclude it is not obvious. Graveyards are full of people who did not know their limits.

Here are some points to ponder on the topic of humility.

1. JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE AN EXPERT IN 1 FIELD DOES NOT MAKE YOU AN EXPERT IN EVERYTHING.

Individuals in the medical, scientific, and legal fields are particularly bad about making this mistake. They think because they are in a highly technical field this somehow makes them experts in everything. It does not.

I recently visited with my tax accountant and we talked about this topic. He told me of a medical doctor who decided he was smart enough to do his own taxes. The doctor took about a day and a half to do the taxes. He brought it in to show my accountant. My accountant reviewed the return and calmly informed the doctor he could have saved him an additional $6000.00. This doctor would not have gone to his accountant for surgery, so why did he go to himself for tax preparation? Arrogance, or more precisely, LACK OF HUMILITY.

In his excellent book Deep Survival, author Laurence Gonzalez tells of a U.S. Army Ranger who was killed on a white water rafting trip. Despite all of the survival training this Ranger had, he did not have training in white water rafting. His expert status did him no good, because his expertise did not extend to white water rafting.

Understand and know what you are an expert in, but more importantly UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE NOT AN EXPERT IN. If you are going into an area in which you are not an expert GET TRAINING through self-education, the classroom, or find someone who is an expert in the area you are going into and consult them.

2. YOU DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING. IN MOST SITUATIONS YOUR LUCKY IF YOU KNOW HALF OF IT.

OVERCONFIDENCE KILLS. If you enter into a situation thinking you have all the information, all the relevant data, you may at best be in for shock, at worst it can cost you your life.

Military history, from ancient times to the present is filled with examples of where overconfidence cost men their lives. Sometimes it caused empires to fall.

Survival situations are the most dangerous places for the overconfident person. Nature can throw things and situations at you that you could not foresee in a million years. If you face nature with the attitude that you know it all, that you’ve got all your bases covered, nature will embarrass you and maybe even kill you.

Note: CONFIDENCE is a good thing. FEAR is a killer every bit as deadly as OVERCONFIDENCE. You should not be afraid. Just avoid OVERCONFIDENCE.

OVERCONFIDENCE = LACK OF HUMILITY

Always keep this fact in your mind, especially in survival situations, whether they occur in the woods, ocean, or corporate boardroom: IN MOST SITUATIONS, YOU WILL BE LUCKY TO HAVE 50 PERCENT OF THE RELEVANT FACTS. This means that half of the facts that are relevant are unknown to you. If that doesn’t make you humble it’s likely nothing ever will.

3. ASK FOR HELP WHEN YOU NEED IT

There is nothing more stupid than to err or fail OR DIE when there are people around who are willing and able to offer you assistance. All you have to do is ask them.

LACK OF HUMILITY however, keeps many from asking for the help that is readily available. Some people just don’t like to admit they need help.

People have died, and do die on a routine basis simply because they refuse to ask for help. So the next time you find yourself in a potentially dangerous situation, and you don’t want to ask for help, you may want to ask yourself if your stupid pride (LACK OF HUMILITY) is worth dying for. Trust me, it is not.