Emergency
A Dry Dipstick Book Review Author: Neil Strauss
418 pages
ISBN 0060898771
2009, Harper Collins
Buy
It Now!
The cover text says: "This book will save your
life". I don't believe it. But it will make you aware of a
lot of possibilities, both good and bad. And that awareness,
and the resulting actions you might take, could save your
life.
Scenarios imagined by various Peak Oil observers range from
an apocalyptical Mad Max, dog-eat-dog world to one of communal
and blissful togetherness on a green, healthy and sustainable
planet. Neil Strauss saw Peak Oil as just one of many looming
disasters, all designed to bring down the Empire with him
in it.
He started his journey in this book with the decision to
prepare a safe retreat for life after the Collapse of the
Empire. He chose an island in the Caribbean along with a second
passport and a Swiss bank account. He also decided that he
needed to learn the skills that would help him fight, connive,
sneak and otherwise escape from the United States and reach
the safety of his island sanctuary.
Those skills include hunting and butchering, wilderness survival,
use of knives and guns for food and self-defense, setting
up caches, and disaster and emergency medical training.
Strauss studied under some of the most skilled, passionate
and perhaps even somewhat crazed people in the survival business,
and his stories are funny and illuminating. He learned a lot
about himself and the reader can learn a lot along with him.
Strauss started as a self-admitted urban wimp, whose idea
of foraging was to stop off for Chinese takeout on the way
home. By the end of the book he was a trained killer (more
or less). But, by the end of the book Strauss was a very different
person in other ways, too, no longer concerned with protecting
only his own rear. As a result of this book, the reader has
the option to go through similar changes.
It's a great read, filled with fascinating information and
anecdotes. And you just might get some ideas about what you'd
like to do next—for yourself and for your community.
Mick Winter (www.DryDipstick.com)
is the author of Peak Oil Prep: Prepare for Peak Oil, Climate
Change and Economic Collapse (www.peakoilprep.com) |
