Friday, May 29, 2009

Friday Book Review: Emergency - This Book Will Save Your Life

After 9/11 author Neil Strauss got a little paranoid and in
Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life you get a front row seat on his journey to preparedness. You'll get an autobiographical description of his efforts to secure a second passport and take courses in guns, knives, hunting, fishing, tracking, motorcycles, CERT training, CPR and first aid, urban survival, emergency management, and EMT. As a reader you won't actually learn any of these skills as this is not a how to book.

The driving force behind all of this is his belief that WTSHTF (when the shit hits the fan) that society will break down and it will be every man for himself. This is why the author spends over a year of his life adding skills and experience just in case the worst happens.

The interesting part of this journey is that the author doesn't quite end up in the same place he envisioned when he started. Case in point when he started taking courses on emergency management and EMT he was doing it so he could use his uniform and knowledge to "bug out" easier WTSHTF. However, what he found out is that he liked being part of something when disaster struck.

That is the message I'm taking from the book. When bad things happen it is better to pull together as a community rather than degenerating into every man for himself.

1 comment:

Jon Strayer said...

In humans "survival of the fittest" almost always turns out to be "survival of the best cooperators".