Absolute Anarchy
Johnny Jacks
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Copyright © 2016 by Johnny Jacks
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored, or transmitted in any form, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission, send email requests, to johnnyjacks@absoluteanarchybook.com. Include “Permissions Coordinator” in the Subject. Published by New America Books, Cullman, AL 35056
ISBN: 978-0997486803
Disclaimers
I wrote this study guide with the expectation that a state of absolute anarchy will occur sometime in the first part of the Twenty-First Century. To ensure the information contained herein is not misconstrued as promoting or sponsoring those on the fringes of society actively seeking anarchy, let it be known that I support—and have officially sworn to uphold and defend—the Constitution of the United States of America. I do not endorse, advocate, or promote unconstitutional civil disorder or activities that encourage or attempt to bring about anarchy through unlawful means in an attempt to overthrow the Government functioning within the constraints and limitations of the Constitution of the United States of America.
The information contained in this book, including the author’s opinions, is for informational purposes only.
The author has made every effort to ensure all information in this book and its cited Internet and other resources is complete, correct, and valid and does not assume responsibility for any errors, omissions, or inconsistencies contained in any of these information resources. The author does not assume liability for any bodily injury to others or damage to others’ property as a result of using or misusing any instructional information, mentioned or recommended products, techniques in this book and its cited Internet and other information and/or instructional resources.
The author urges readers to research and abide by all local, state, and federal laws and regulations pertaining to all information presented in this book, including hunting, fishing, and trapping laws.
The author urges readers to follow all safety precautions when backpacking or practicing survival techniques, using firearms, knives, and other types of weapons, using or driving large and small mechanical devices of all types, and other activities that could result in injury or death to the reader or other persons.
The author does not assume liability for personal or property damage caused by proper or improper engagement in practical exercises or other activities described in this book or any of the supplemental resources cited in this book or the book’s website, https://absoluteanarchybook.com, or its companion website, http://partisanpreppers.com. It is the responsibility of the reader to learn and practice safety procedures when engaging in any activity described herein.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Johnny Jacks is a product of WWII. He was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on January 11, 1944—six months before D-Day—to semiliterate sharecropper parents. In 1949, several years after WWII and without the means to establish a farm, his family—parents and little sister—moved to Comanche County, Texas, where his father’s brother helped them to acquire temporary shelter in an old one-room slave house and a 40-acre farm to sharecrop. There, Jacks quickly became aware of the demands of living self-reliantly off-grid, off city water, without indoor plumbing, and without assistance from a welfare state.
In those days, if they did not grow vegetables, milk the cow, raise and slaughter pigs, raise chickens, harvest wildlife, and preserve their own food, they did not eat, especially in winter. They eventually moved to a small house that had electricity, but still obtained water from a hand-dug well and made use of a privy with Sears and Roebuck catalogues and corncobs in lieu of toilet paper.
In 1954, following the tragic loss of their farm equipment to a fire, including the tractor, his disheartened father returned them to Alabama where he obtained work in a veneer mill near Selma. They later relocated to Mobile where his father became a common laborer, moving from job to job, anything that provided enough pay to meet their basic survival needs. Beginning at the age of twelve, Jacks mowed lawns to help pay the bills and provide for his own needs.
On his seventeenth birthday, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, later transferring to the U.S. Army, where he became a Special Forces soldier, a Green Beret. He completed training at the U.S. Army Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in the spring of 1966 and began a career serving on Special Forces A-teams in Europe, Asia, and Central America, including a combat assignment to Special Forces A-team 102, Tien Phuoc, Vietnam, 1967-1968. He became proficient in guerrilla warfare strategies and tactics, high frequency radio communications, intelligence gathering, and guerrilla group organization and operations.
After retiring from the Army in 1982, Jacks worked for several government agencies over the next twenty-five years in significant positions involving national security and emergency preparedness program implementation and policy-making. These roles provided him with knowledge of the national security policy relating to continuity of government and continuity of operations, with insight into what will take place with the senior leadership when the Schumer hits the fan and the nation falls into a state of absolute anarchy.
This combination of experience and education in off-grid, self-reliant living, guerrilla warfare, and national security policy imbued him with unique insight into today’s individual and group prepper survival needs and requirements, and gave him the skills and knowledge needed to defeat organized gangs and other bad guys and assist refugees under a state of absolute anarchy.
DEDICATION
Major Steven Eugene Cook, United States Army (Retired)
Elkins, West Virginia
Major Steven Cook is the inspiration for this book. He is a Vietnam combat veteran and the epitome of an insightful and masterful leader of men. As Captain Cook, he was my Special Forces A-team leader in the mid-1970s in the 10th Special Forces Group, Bad Toelz, West Germany. He encouraged me to write a guiding document that provides Americans with the information they need to prepare for and survive the coming societal collapse. When I grew weary of the hour upon hour of extensive research and writing required for this undertaking and was tempted to leave it and go fishing, I thought of Captain Cook and how I could not fail that old Green Beret’s mandate. I dedicated this book to you, Sir.
De Oppresso Liber
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I sincerely thank the following people for their contribution to this effort:
Kay Jacks, my beautiful wife: For her patience over the long months that it took to research and write this study guide and for her encouragement to go to my office and write when the weather was calling this old man to go fishing instead.
Mahala Church: Editor extraordinaire. Bless you for putting up with my lack of skill in economy of words. You make me appear to be a real author.
A.R. Shaw and Steven C. Bird: Accomplished post-apocalyptic authors and two of the best human beings God ever placed on this planet. They patiently provided my first lessons on how to publish this book and generously placed aside their precious writing time to offer insights into the art of writing.
Dr. Joe Alton (AKA Dr. Bones) and Nurse Amy: For taking the time to review this book and write a foreword.
John O’Melveny Woods: Author and screenwriter, who lead me through the processes of book publishing and promotion.
Hristo Argirov Kovatliev: Master graphic artist, for the book cover’s splendid artwork.
Michael Ilacqua: For his website development skills and patience with me for the many changes I made, and continue to make.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Introduction 5
1-1. Purpose 5
1-2. Premise for This Study Guide 6
1-3. The Die-off 6
1-4. Become a Prepper 6
1-5. Clarification on Anarchy 7
1-6. Potential for TEOTWAWKI 7
1-7. Expected Result 7
1-8. Book Organization 8
1-9. Prepper Library 12
Chapter 2 – Potential for Societal Collapse 13
2-1. Purpose 13
2-2. Predicting TEOTWAWKI 13
2-3. Triggers 13
Chapter 3 – Inevitability of Economic Collapse 29
3-1. Purpose 29
3-2. Deficit and National Debt Review 29
3-3. Short-term Outlook Through 2024 30
3-4. Long-term Outlook Through 2040 30
3-5. The Bottom Line 31
3-6. Why? 31
3-7. The Crunch 32
3-8. The Result 32
3-9. Supplemental Reading – Chapter 18 32
Chapter 4 – Anatomy of Anarchy and the Die-off 33
4-1. Purpose 33
4-2. Facts vs. Opinion 33
4-3. History and Logical Reasoning 33
4-4. Small Town vs. City 34
4-5. Sequence of Events 35
4-6. The Die-off Begins 38
4-7. Gangs, Other Bad Guys, and Refugees 44
4-8. Refugees’ Survival Needs 44
4-9. Example Collapse Scenario 45
4-10. Normalcy Bias and the Sheeple 46
4-11. You Will Be On Your Own 47
Part 2 – Individual Prepper Considerations
Chapter 5 – Fundamental Prepper Questions 49
5-1. Purpose 49
5-2. Fundamental Prepper Questions 49
5-3. What am I preparing for? 51
5-4. What duration should I prepare for? 51
5-5. What is the difference between preppers, self-reliant preppers, and survivalist preppers? 52
5-6. Why should I be a prepper? 60
5-7. What are the necessary basic prepper knowledge and skills? 60
5-8. What are the things a prepper must do to be fully prepared? 62
5-9. Should I join a prepper group? 74
5-10. Should I bug out or bug in when the SHTF? 74
5-11. What are the basic requirements for selecting a BOL? 75
5-12. Do I need a bug-out bag (BOB) or get-home bag (GHB)? 75
5-13. When does a prepper know when to bug out? 76
5-14. What action do I take if trapped far away from home when the SHTF? 78
5-15. What are the moral standards toward which a prepper should strive? 79
5-16. Must I make changes in the way I think? 81
5-17. How much food should I stockpile? 84
5-18. Should I keep a cash reserve? 85
5-19. Should I learn to barter? 85
5-20. What are the options for power if the grid fails? 87
5-21. What should I do when the SHTF 89
5-22. How do I contend with martial law? 91
Chapter 6 – Survival Needs – The Rule of Three 93
6-1. Purpose 93
6-2. Air 93
6-3. Shelter 93
6-4. Water 94
6-5. Food 98
Chapter 7 – Bug-out Bag and Get-Home Bag 101
7-1. Purpose 101
7-2. General Considerations 101
7-3. Selecting a Backpack 105
7-4. Backpack Contents General Considerations 109
7-5. Backpack Contents Specific Considerations 110
7-6. Packing Your Bag 124
7-7. Dress for the Occasion 124
7-8. Considerations for Children 127
7-9. Miscellaneous Backpacking Tips and Techniques 128
7-10. Communications 130
7-11. Firearms 131
7-12. Go Backpacking 131
Chapter 8 – Prepper Skills and Gadgets 133
8-1. Purpose 133
8-2. Practical Exercise Selection 133
8-3. Knowledge vs. Skill 134
8-4. General Information 134
8-5. KISS Principle 135
8-6. Group Learning 135
8-7. Potential Situations 135
8-8. Prerequisites 136
8-9. Learning Steps 136
8-10. Self-reliance Requirements and Initial Limitations 137
8-11. Practical Exercise Tools, Equipment, and Materials 137
8-12. Shelter Practical Exercises 138
8-13. Water Processing Practical Exercises 141
8-14. Food Acquisition and Preservation Practical Exercises 148
8-15. Food Production – Fruits and Vegetables Practical Exercises 159
8-16. Food Production Slaughter Animals Practical Exercises 166
8-17. Food Production Animal Husbandry Practical Exercises 169
8-18. Food Production Dairy Products Practical Exercises 170
8-19. Food Production Hunting and Fishing Practical Exercises 174
8-20. Food Preservation Practical Exercises 177
8-21. First Aid and Advanced Medical Exercises 179
8-22. Off-grid Power Systems 181
8-23. Miscellaneous Practical Exercises 199
8-24. Summary 207
Part 3 – Group Survival Considerations
Chapter 9 – Group Survival Strategy 209
9-1. Personal Recommendation 209
9-2. Purpose 209
9-3. What is a MAG? 209
9-4. No Place to Hide 210
9-5. Why Group Survival? 210
9-6. Bugging In vs. Bugging Out 211
9-7. MAG Structure and Responsibilities 220
9-8. MAG Recruiting 230
9-9. Operations security 239
Chapter 10 – Bug-out Location Selection 243
10-1. Purpose 243
10-2. Companion Research Source 243
10-3. First Factors 243
10-4. Required Acreage 248
10-5. General Search Considerations 251
10-6. Tactical Evaluation 254
10-7. Water 257
10-8. Shelter 258
Chapter 11 – Bug-out Location Development 259
11-1. Purpose 259
11-2. Financial Resources 259
11-3. Adjustments 259
11-4. Getting it Right 259
11-5. Living Quarters 260
11-6. Command and Control Facility 262
11-7. Administrative Facility 264
11-8. Supply Facility/Warehouse 264
11-9. Armory 265
11-10. Operations Facility 265
11-11. Medical Facility 265
11-12. Common Use/Meeting Facility 265
11-13. Barn 265
11-14. Power System 265
11-15. Breeding Stock 267
11-16. Water System 267
11-17. Sanitation Station 268
11-18. Showers and Baths 269
11-19. Clothes Washing Facility 269
11-20. Food and Seed Caches, Production, and Storage 270
11-21. Food Preparation General Considerations 274
11-22. Security 274
11-23. Communications 279
11-24. Activation Plan 279
11-25. Peacetime Operations and Training 281
11-26. Equipment and Materials 283
11-27. Miscellaneous Thoughts 283
Chapter 12 – Prepper Communications 287
12-1. Not Technically Inclined? 287
12-2. Purpose 287
12-3. Join a Ham Club 288
12-4. Communications Means 288
12-5. Radio Networks 295
12-6. Communications Mission Needs 296
12-7. Means Selection 298
12-8. Antenna Theory, Polarization, and Wavelength 303
12-9. Radio Wave Propagation 312
12-10. Base Station Homebrew Antennas 322
12-11. Dipole Antennas 325
12-12. End Effect and Antenna Length Formula 329
12-13. Standing Wave Ratio 330
12-14. Antenna Safety 331
12-15. HF Radio Networks 332
12-16. Communications Security 333
12-17. Clandestine Communications 336
12-18. Summary 339
Part 4 – National Security and Militia Strategies
Chapter 13 – Militia Unit Organization 341
13-1. Change in Direction of Thought 341
13-2. Purpose 342
13-3. Militia or Police Auxiliary 342
13-4. Clandestine Militia Unit 343
13-5. Develop a Cadre 344
13-6. Power of Legitimacy 344
13-7. Code of Conduct and Rules of Engagement 347
13-8. Oath Keepers 348
13-9. Militia Unit Structure 348
13-10. Small to Medium Militia Units 353
13-11. Self-sufficiency 354
13-12. Recruiting 355
13-13. Training 358
13-14. Uniforms and Personal Equipment 359
13-15. Firearms and Other Weapons 360
13-16. Communications 365
13-17. Mission Categories 365
13-18. Leadership and Discipline 366
13-19. Initial Considerations 367
13-20. Main Points to Remember 368
Chapter 14 – Tactical Training and Operations Fundamentals 369
14-1. Purpose 369
14-2. Scope 369
14-3. MAG-Community Interface 370
14-4. Tactical Security 371
14-5. Tactical Operations 373
14-6. Law Enforcement Training 374
14-7. Tactical Training 375
14-8. Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage 376
Chapter 15 – National Security and Militia Strategies 377
15-1. Purpose 377
15-2. Disclaimer 377
15-3. Militia Basic Information 377
15-4. Fundamental Strategy 377
15-5. Who is Interested? 379
15-6. Assumptions 379
15-7. Immediate Actions 380
15-8. Operational Roles 383
15-9. Definitions 384
15-10. Militia Types 385
15-11. Militia Mission 386
15-12. State Militia 387
15-13. Standalone Irregular Militias 389
15-14. Mission Needs Statement 392
15-15. Requirements Statement 395
15-16. Direction and Control 396
15-17. Border Control 397
15-18. Conclusions 397
Part 5 – Final Guidance
Chapter 16 – Refugees and Judeo-Christian Principles 401
16-1. Purpose 401
16-2. Personal Opinion 401
16-3. Assisting Refugees 402
16-4. Recovery and Rebuilding 405
16-5. Judeo-Christian Morals 405
16-6. Continue to Worship 405
Chapter 17 – Start Prepping Today 407
17-1. Purpose 407
17-2. Share Your Ideas 407
17-3. What You Know 407
17-4. More to Learn 407
17-5. What You Can Do 407
17-6. Take Action 408
17-7. Final Thought 412
Supplemental Reading
Chapter 18 – Economic, Political, and Societal Collapse Supplemental Reading 413
18-1. Special Note to Readers 413
18-2. Just the Facts Ma’am 413
18-3. Fact Checkers Needed 413
18-4. Purpose 414
18-5. Factors to Understanding 414
18-6. Fundamental Economic Systems 414
18-7. Economic Systems and Political Terms Associations 418
18-8. Deficit and National Debt 425
18-9. The Progressive Movement 429
18-10. Presidential Power to Regulate 436
18-11. Bureaucratic Power 438
18-12. Social Security Trust Fund 439
18-13. The Propaganda Machine 441
18-14. Voter Apathy and Ignorance 452
18-15. Influx of Illegal Aliens and the Welfare State 452
18-16. Entitlement Spending 457
18-17. The Federal Reserve System 457
18-18. Progressive Movement’s Legacy 466
18-19. Nothing Will Change 472
A Special Note From the Author 474
Note: Book appendices are posted on the book website:
https//16q.a87.myftpupload.com
FOREWORD
In these uncertain times, it’s clear that we are at risk for issues that our parents could only imagine in their worst nightmares. Economic collapse, pandemics, and active shooter scenarios are just some of the issues that are either here now or loom in the not-so-distant future.
In the past, citizens looked to their government for stability. Unfortunately, recent administrations have been unsuccessful and, it seems, uninterested in maintaining America’s place in the world as a positive force. As such, other interests are well on the way to achieving their goal of weakening the position of the United States on the world stage.
Despite the reality of a worsening situation, the majority of the nation’s population turns a blind eye to the storm clouds on the horizon. American exceptionalism has become something to be disdained, and political correctness has reached heights that would make our ancestors cringe. Immigrants to our country no longer assimilate, but form enclaves with their own values. The melting pot has rusted.
Yet, a small percentage of the population sees things as they really are, and they are busy making preparations for a time when rule of law may no longer exist. Considered by many to be paranoid lunatics, they are the only truly sane people left in a world gone awry. They prepare not out of desperation or fear, but with hope; the hope that the average person can still guarantee a life worth living for their family, even in troubled times. These people will succeed when everything else fails.
Absolute Anarchy by Johnny Jacks outlines the issues that are part and parcel of the coming storm, and presents a reasoned and articulate plan of action for the average citizen. In his book, Mr.
Jacks lays out a strategy in plain English that will assure that the slings and arrows of the uncertain future will be a bump in the road, and not the end of the road. It’s a study guide for the student of survival; one which gives a multitude of references that provide a wealth of information for the prepared individual.
In Absolute Anarchy, the author outlines how, historically, we have reached the point where society may be on the brink. Be forewarned that there are political statements in this book that not every reader will agree with. This does not detract from the information in any way. His conclusions have strong basis in fact, especially in his discussion of the trend of today’s media to distort the truth. Mr. Jacks’ scenarios as to how civilization could topple make perfect sense to anyone who would look at the subject objectively.
The majority of the book, however, is an easy-to-read primer on how to keep it together if everything falls apart. Solid knowledge and advice can be found on everything from food and water, shelter considerations, defense, communications, medical issues, and group cooperation. What you don’t find here, the author provides links to that explain the topic in detail.
It would be wonderful to have a future where none of the issues in this book existed. Life is full of hard realities, though, and the vigilant would be well served to heed the advice in this book. In the face of the challenges facing our nation, its citizens should continue to look for the silver lining in the storm clouds on the horizon. Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst.
Joe Alton, MD, FACOG, FACS
Author, The Survival Medicine Handbook
PREFACE
Something is Terribly Wrong: There is a strong sense permeating the psyche of millions of Americans that we are currently experiencing a constitutional crisis, an economic collapse, and the potential for a major Islamic terrorist attack, any of which will bring about a societal collapse. Such a collapse will thrust our nation into a state of absolute anarchy and destroy our American way of life. To increase their chances of survival, many Americans have undertaken the task of preparing for the collapse. So, what does preparing for the collapse mean?
That question is what this study guide answers. It incorporates all of the diverse prepping and survivalist subjects into a single reference dedicated to helping preppers at all levels of expertise learn the basic details of the following general areas of prepping and national security knowledge:
- Those things that can bring about a societal collapse, with a focus on how we arrived at this point in our political and economic history, and a logical analysis of how a state of absolute anarchy will evolve
- What you must do to become fully prepared as an individual
- How belonging to a mutual assistance group (MAG) will significantly enhance your chances of surviving the die-of
- What must take place at the federal, state, and local levels for the country to survive the die-off, restore civil order, and guard against foreign invasion.
I have been a prepper most of my life, but was not aware of the term prepper and the prepper movement until I saw an episode of Doomsday Preppers on the National Geographic cable television channel. As an old—actually, very old—retired Special Forces soldier and former emergency operations officer working for federal government agencies in the national security and emergency preparedness arena, I took an immediate interest in the subject even though I was not impressed with the National Geographic sensationalized depiction of preppers as bizarre, paranoid extremists.
I do not blame National Geographic for wanting to make a dollar, and I acknowledge they brought the subject of prepping to the public eye. Unfortunately, they present a skewed perspective of the prepper community with their selection of those on the periphery. I guess normal preppers are boring.
After completing some online research and attending several prepper meetups, it became obvious to me that the great majority of preppers are your average neighbors. They are simply fearful that something ominous is about to occur that will end America as we have known it since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It also became obvious to me that they were experiencing difficulty defining the specific cause of their fears and were not aware of the many considerations, knowledge, and skills necessary to enhance their chances to survive a hostile environment.
Meetup discussions focused on specific topics, such as how to preserve food, how to make fire without matches, home security, which handheld radio is best, growing food, and many other specific considerations. The focus was on minute details and did not include overviews of major issues, such as how to recognize when a collapse is taking place or how it could evolve, means to deal with organized gangs and other bad guys, how to address refugee issues, and the need for operations security pertaining to their prepper activities. Those specific topics are very important, but do not provide an overview. It is like when you stand so close to the trees you cannot see the whole forest. This is a generalization and not applicable to all of the preppers in the various groups.
Absent from the discussions were issues dealing with what to do during the die-off, including ways to assist starving, desperate refugees, developing a well-regulated militia to help law enforcement entities restore and maintain civil order or repel a foreign invasion, and other topics critical to the restoration of constitutional law and ensuring national security long term. Hence, I decided to write this book and make it a prepper general study guide on how to prepare for and survive the die-off, become self-reliant, work in concert with others to protect our country against foreign invasion, restore civil order, and restore constitutional government.
What this Study Guide Can Do for You: Study the information in this book and the supplementary details available on the Internet via the Book Web Links portal, and participate in the practical exercises described in Chapter 8, and you will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to become a self-reliant prepper, fully prepared for TEOTWAWKI.
No Rambo Stuff Here: Many preppers are oriented toward survivalist techniques more related to the sort of things that Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and other pioneers used to endure on the American frontier of their times. Other than the information and training you require to travel on foot to get home or your bug-out location after a collapse and on long-range security patrols, we do not discuss surviving in the wild and hand-to-hand combat defense techniques. There are plenty of sources available for those items. Here, we focus on the practical application of prepper and off-grid living techniques that will enhance your ability to exit the other side of the die-off alive and ready to participate in reconstruction of New America.
Political Correctness and Gender: As a product of WWII, I am not disposed to participate in the political correctness silliness. I believe in treating men and women equally and consider male and female preppers as equals in our endeavor to ready ourselves for an uncertain future. When feeding your family and protecting them from bad guys is the goal, it will not matter who is shooting at the bad guys, hoeing the garden, standing guard, making the fire to cook breakfast, cooking the breakfast, engaging in security patrols, and the myriad other undertakings necessary to survive in a hostile environment without modern conveniences.
With that in mind, please understand that, for a smoother flow, I employ the historically conventional masculine pronouns he and him in lieu of he/she and him/her. If anyone has a problem with that, please take it up with my boss, and she will administer corrective action to get me on the right path. Hey! I’ve been married long enough to know who’s really in charge.
Information Updates: Since this is a first edition, no doubt, many readers will think of additions or changes that will help improve the next version. To keep up to date without having to wait for the next edition, go to the book’s website, https://absoluteanarchybook.com, to review the latest. You can also register to receive update newsletters.
Comments and Suggestions: I appreciate your comments and suggestions to improve the next edition. Go to https://absoluteanarchybook.com and click on CONTACT THE AUTHOR in the top menu to provide your input. It is important for all preppers to pull together and share information helpful to our entire community.
HOW TO USE THIS STUDY GUIDE
Web Links: The first thing to know: This is a study guide and reference book and it uses Internet Web Links to enhance your prepper learning experience. This study guide introduces you to the varied prepper subjects and actions you must take to maximize your chances to survive the die-off.
The information web links are easily accessible through the Book Web Links portal for this study guide’s homepage:
https://AbsoluteAnarchyBook.com.
I suggest going to the site as soon as possible—now would be a good time—and click on the Book Web Links menu item to view the chapter links access page. You should also click on the Book Appendices menu item to view the many helpful prepper resources.
Easy Access: For quick and convenient access to the portal, add https://absoluteanarchybook.com to your browser favorites list or place it as an icon on your computer’s desktop.
Why This Format: Why did I choose this format for the book? When I began writing it, I quickly discovered that it is not possible to address every prepping detail for all situations in each of the many different geographical and climatic regions in the contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, territories, commonwealths, and other possessions in a single book. The amount of detailed information is too vast. It would require years of research to write an encyclopedia large enough to cover every prepping element for every region. At 72, I doubted that I would live long enough to complete it. Having a single website with web links to the hundreds of Internet information resources allows you to benefit as follows:
- Convenience: It is a lot easier for you to click on a hyperlink on your computer than it is to type every link into the address bar. For example, the following website could cause you to have a nervous breakdown if you had to enter it manually: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=how+to+drill+a+well+in+your+own+backyard&FORM=VIRE10#view=detail&mid=0FDE392B67629E0C68130FDE392B67629E0C6813
Up-to-date Information: Websites and web pages come and go. I can remove the outdated or inactive web links from my website, https://absoluteanarchybook.com, and add more as they become available to provide you with the most current and accurate information.
PREPPER TALK – GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Anarchy – The absence of government with the means to maintain social order
BHB – Bug-Home Bag (also referred to as GHB)
BOB – Bug-Out Bag
BOL – Bug-Out Location
Bug In – To remain at home when the SHTF
Bug Out – To depart home and travel to a predetermined defensive location
Communications Means – A technical expression used to indicate the different ways you can transmit or deliver a message, such as telephone, radio, Internet, etc.
Die-off – The death of millions of Americans—including bad guys, refugees, and others—over a thirty-to-ninety-day period due primarily to bullets, disease, and famine
GHB – Get home bag (also referred to as BHB)
GOOD or G.O.O.D. – Get Out Of Dodge. A term used to indicate an immediate need to depart the area, to escape
Hooch – A common term employed to describe rustic cabins or temporary makeshift outdoors shelters made of ponchos, tarps, or natural forest materials
MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction. MAD is the acronym employed during the Cold War to describe why neither the United States nor the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dared to initiate a nuclear war
Meetup – A prepper term commonly used in lieu of the more formal term meeting, which is used in a business atmosphere
MRE – Acronym for Meal, Ready-to-Eat. A self-contained, individual field ration in lightweight packaging used for the military in combat or other field conditions where organized food preparation resources are not available
Prepper – Anyone who takes action to survive a state of absolute anarchy
Preps – Acronym for the materials and equipment preppers acquire in preparation for the collapse
Sheeple – A term derived from a combination of the terms sheep and people. People who are not capable of protecting themselves, expect others to take care of them, or are naïve enough to believe that they do not have to be prepared to take care of themselves
SHTF – Schumer Hits The Fan or Shit Hits The Fan
Spectrum – Anything that has a wavelength, including radio waves, visible light, infrared light, ultraviolet light, x-rays, and nuclear radiation—alpha, beta, and gamma radiation
Survivalist – For the purposes of this study guide, a survivalist is someone who is capable of surviving without electricity, fossil fuels, and indoor plumbing and can produce the foods necessary to sustain their own survival and that of their family members
TEOTWAWKI – The End Of The World As We Know It
ABSOLUTE
ANARCHY
Part 1
Elements of Societal Collapse
Part 1 analyzes events that would bring about a societal collapse and explores the inevitability of an economic collapse in the near future. It also discusses the way in which anarchy is likely to take place and the expected phases of the die-off. Part 1 subjects include:
Introduction
Potential for Societal Collapse
Inevitability of Economic Collapse
Anatomy of Anarchy and the Die-off
Chapter 1
1.1. Introduction
Important Note: If you have not read How to Use This Study Guide, please turn back a few pages and review the brief description of the relationship between this study guide and its associated web links before continuing. I also encourage you to read the Preface. Both will only take a few minutes to read and you’ll be glad you did.
Go to https://absoluteanarchybook.com and click on the Book Web Links button to access the webpages pertinent to this chapter.
1-1. Purpose: This study guide provides a nonfictional analysis and a SHTF preparation guide—a combined prepper field manual and technical manual of sorts—that addresses events that could cause the entire nation to fall into a state of absolute anarchy. Preppers refer to this as the end of the world as we know it, or TEOTWAWKI. To help you prepare, this study guide addresses the following general subject areas:
a. Society Collapsing Events: Potential events that could initiate a state of absolute anarchy—with a focus on economic collapse—and a logical analysis of the sequence of events that would follow.
b. Individual Preparation: What you as an individual must do to prepare for surviving TEOTWAWKI and help in restoring New America.
c. Group Preparation: The importance of joining or developing a mutual assistance group and identifying and developing a bug-out location, includes prepper communications.
d. Militia Organization and Operations: The things a prepper must know about militia organization and operations.
e. Moral Standards: Importance of helping refugees and maintaining our Judeo-Christian principles.
1-2. Premise for This Study Guide: This study guide uses the term a state of absolute anarchy to emphasize the fact that its premise unquestionably does not include any lesser scenario. It does not specifically address being prepared for a localized disaster situation where unaffected Americans can come to the rescue, such as we experienced with Hurricane Katrina, the Loma Prieta Earthquake, or other manageable social, economic, or political conditions where limited areas of anarchy occurred. Under a state of absolute anarchy, there will not be any unaffected Americans to come to the rescue; you will be on your own.
1-3. The Die-off: There is a strong sense permeating a sizable portion of America’s citizenry that the probability for a complete societal collapse into a spontaneous state of absolute anarchy is dreadfully high. Such a state would result in a die-off of perhaps 80-90 percent of America’s population due to gang violence, starvation, and disease. Recognizing the initial stages of a collapse, preparing for it, and having viable national, state, and local coordinating strategies to cope with the aftermath is crucial to restoring civil order and warding off potential invasions from our adversaries, such as China, Russia, and terrorist entities.
For our nation to have a sufficient number of citizens survive the die-off, it is critical that individuals have firearms and ammunition, stockpile food and supplies to get them through the first two years, and have the long-term ability to produce food and potable water to support their survival needs while adjusting to their new normal conditions.
1-4. Become a Prepper: If you are not a prepper, the two most important questions you can ask yourself are:
Question 1: What would I do in a nation where there is no law, where burning cities, gang violence, murder, rape, massive numbers of starving refugees, colossal deaths, widespread disease, and famine are common?
Question 2: If I become a prepper and nothing happens in my lifetime, what will I have lost or my descendants gained to secure their futures?
It is certain that the majority of those who remain standing after the die-off—about the first 90-180 days—will be preppers and refugees willing to cooperate with preppers to do their part to restore order and begin to produce food. Keep reading if you want to learn how to increase significantly your chances of being among the survivors.
1-5. Clarification on Anarchy: It is important to understand the difference between those in American society who advocate anarchy and the potential for a state of anarchy to erupt spontaneously without provocation by anarchist activists. Delve deeply enough into their philosophy and you will find that those calling for anarchy envision themselves as the arbiters to determine social and economic interactions. They have a Utopian worldview that is no different from those who naively advocate for socialism or the more tyrannical form of socialism, communism.
1-6. Potential for TEOTWAWKI: While there are a number of events with the potential to trigger TEOTWAWKI, most are only remotely possible. Chapters 2 and 3 address triggers that preppers commonly consider and the degree to which they are likely to occur. All societal collapse triggers relate to the fact that cities store only about a three-day supply of food. When the people who live in cities—about 80 percent of the population—deplete their food supply, uncontrollable rioting, looting, and gang violence will certainly ensue throughout the entirety of the nation.
The truth is that we are just nine meals away from inner-city societal collapse and the beginning of a state of absolute anarchy.
1-7. Expected Result: Those who study the information provided and undertake the actions described herein will reach full preparedness, greatly enhancing their ability to survive a state of absolute anarchy. They will exceedingly enhance their ability to contend with the absolute worst of conditions this country has ever experienced, including the War Between the States—also known as the War of Northern Aggression by Southerners, or the Civil War if you are a Yankee.
1-8. Book Organization: This study guide contains five parts, as follows:
Part 1 – Elements of Societal Collapse: Part 1 analyzes potential events that would bring about a societal collapse and the inevitability of government bankruptcy. It also discusses the manner in which anarchy is likely to take place and the die-off phases.
Chapter 1. Introduction: What this study guide is about. (This is where we are now.)
Chapter 2. Potential for Societal Collapse: Evaluates known potential events that would give rise to societal collapse, including economic, political, and social conditions and natural calamities
Chapter 3. Inevitability of Economic Collapse: Furnishes an abbreviated overview of the inevitable collapse of the U.S. economy. The details are contained in Chapter 18, Supplemental Reading.
Chapter 4. Anatomy of Anarchy and The Die-off: Provides a logical analysis of how societal collapse morphs into a state of absolute anarchy and results in a massive population die-off.
Part 2 – Individual Prepper Considerations: Part 2 focuses on the survival needs of the individual. In these chapters, you will gain knowledge and guidance on learning skills that greatly enhance your chance of surviving the die-off.
Chapter 5. Fundamental Prepper Questions: Discusses the elemental issues facing all preppers, regardless of expertise, and offers an overview of what prepping entails.
Chapter 6. Survival Needs – The Rule of Three: Gives a broad overview of human survival needs based on the rule of three: Anyone in good health can normally live three minutes without air, three hours under extreme weather conditions without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food. Keep these in mind when developing your written plans, preparing your BOB/GHB, and establishing your BOL.
Chapter 7. Bug-Out Bag and Get-Home Bag: Furnishes considerations for Bug-Out Bag (BOB) and Get-Home Bag (GHB) requirements that enhance a prepper’s ability to survive the initial stages of a state of absolute anarchy if they have to escape to their bug-out location or get home on foot.
Chapter 8. Prepper Skills and Gadgets: The other chapters in this study guide primarily pertain to prepper information, what you should know. This chapter is action oriented. It identifies and gives guidance on learning the skills each prepper should possess. Only knowing that you need to be able to make a fire without matches to keep from freezing to death is not helpful if you do not have the skill to make fire without matches.
Part 3 – Group Survival Considerations: Part 3 furnishes mutual assistance group (MAG) information critical to survival of individuals and families during the collapse and die-off, and information on prepper radio and clandestine communications methods.
Chapter 9. Group Survival Strategy: Examines the reasons everyone should either join an existing MAG or organize their own, MAG structures, and the pros and cons of bugging in and bugging out.
Chapter 10. Bug-Out Location Selection: Furnishes general guidance and considerations for selecting a Bug-Out Location (BOL), including an analysis for lodging and food production needs based on your MAG population, basic strategic and tactical issues, water availability, and other items necessary to selecting the best location for your BOL.
Note: Some preppers prefer to refer to their group as a community. This study guide employs the term mutual assistance group, or MAG, to identify preppers who come together as a defense and survival unit. This helps eliminate confusion in this study guide when discussing MAG interactions with the local non-prepper community near the Bug-Out location, or BOL.
Chapter 11. Bug-Out Location Development: Considers items necessary for developing your BOL based on your MAG’s requirements and financial resources parameters.
Chapter 12. Prepper Communications: Provides an overview of the different communication systems preppers need in the event common carrier commercial services are disrupted and includes communications needs within the local community, nationally, and internationally.
Part 4 – National Security and Militia Strategies: Part 4 offers a general strategy to unite local, state, and national governments to develop a network of well-regulated militias to contend with organized gangs and other bad guys, protect critical facilities, maintain civil order, and counter potential invasion by a foreign country. It also discusses treatment of refugees and necessity of keeping our Judeo-Christian principles.
Chapter 13. Militia Unit Organization: Provides considerations and guidance to organize local community volunteers into a citizen militia unit or an auxiliary police force. Here we discuss the local community, because your MAG, over time, will very likely either create its own militia unit or join a local militia unit.
Chapter 14. Tactical Training and Operations Fundamentals: Guides you through the fundamentals of militia unit training and tactical operations with a focus on unconventional (guerrilla) warfare.
Chapter 15. National Security and Militia Strategies: Provides a national strategy for developing a well-regulated militia that includes control by the state governors—through state and local law enforcement entities—and coordination between the president and state governors to implement joint operations where necessary to repel invasion by a foreign nation or Islamic terrorist organization. It also furnishes information for organizing and developing well-regulated militia units and the general conduct of militia members and tactical operations.
Part 5 – Final Guidance: Part 5 delves into Judeo-Christian principles, proper treatment of refugees, and encourages you to begin preparing now. It also provides a supplemental reading that analyzes how we arrived at this dangerous societal, economic, and political juncture.
Chapter 16. Refugees and Judeo-Christian Principles: Gives preppers guidance on how to prepare for and assist refugees to survive and become self-reliant. It examines the need to maintain our Judeo-Christian principles at a time the world is crumbling around us and we are tempted to withdraw and focus inward rather than outward.
Chapter 17. Start Prepping Today: Encourages preppers to start immediately prepping and provides an example of how to begin with an inexpensive 30-day supply of food for a family of four.
Chapter 18. Supplemental Reading: Examines how the Progressive Movement brought about a dangerous transfer of power from congress to the executive branch of government that now relegates American citizens to a status lower than that of the President of the United States, i.e., bastardization of the Constitution of the United States of America. It also reveals the inability of the government to continue paying the ever-increasing costs generated by the over-regulated welfare and entitlements state, a situation that will soon drive the government into bankruptcy, and consequently, the entire nation into chaos.
Appendices: Appendices are subject to periodic changes and are not conducive to inclusion in this study guide. Once printed, they cannot be changed. We have a better solution.
You can review and print updated appendices online for free by clicking on the Appendices button on the homepage at https://absoluteanarchybook.com. The appendices contain basic inventory lists, militia manuals, templates that facilitate prepper planning and actions, and other items that assist you to become fully prepared. Be sure to visit the site often and look for changes to existing appendices or newly added appendices.
1-9. Prepper Library: If you do not already have one, start a prepper library. Also, do not expect to gain the knowledge you will need after the SHTF if you do not have hard copies of the online study materials you access while learning prepping information here. To become completely prepped and ready for the coming collapse, you have to assume that the power grid is down and you must return to paper documents for information.
Since this study guide uses extensive online learning materials, you need to print and save the information. I suggest investing in a three-hole paper punch and several three-ring binders to store the information. Do not concern yourself with having double pages because you are printing on a single side. You can use the blank back pages to make notes and will find the blank pages useful after the SHTF and Walmart and Staples no longer exist to sell you more paper.
You can also use the three-ring binders to contain the notes you take on the online video study materials.
Chapter 2
Potential for Societal Collapse
Go to https://absoluteanarchybook.com and click on the Book Web Links button to access the webpages pertinent to this chapter.
2-1. Purpose: This chapter analyzes manmade and natural events with the potential to trigger a societal collapse that would result in a state of absolute anarchy throughout America. We will discuss events that could create an atmosphere in which bad guys and unruly citizens become violent and all citizens become desperate due to the lack of food and the government’s inability to maintain civil order. Each anarchy-inducing event is assigned to a general category of probable, possible, or remotely possible based on America’s political and economic conditions, the potential for Islamic terrorism, and America’s ability—or lack thereof—to provide strong leadership and military forces capable of restraining our adversaries and keeping our nation safe.
2-2. Predicting TEOTWAWKI: Predicting TEOTWAWKI is not an exact science. My analysis of the society-collapsing triggers may differ from those of others; that is okay. The point is to consider the logical prospect of TEOTWAWKI events so that we—the preppers—remain vigilant, prepared, and ready to take action when we see a collapse about to occur.
2-3. Triggers: We live in a culture where citizens generally respect the rule of law and those maintaining it. Societal collapse occurs when a sufficient number of defiant citizens overwhelm those upholding the law. Many political, social, and natural events could trigger the collapse of America’s social order and thrust the entire nation into a state of absolute anarchy. These events and their chances of occurring are topics frequently discussed in prepper circles, especially at group meetups. We will use the trigger levels Probable, Possible, and Remotely Possible to indicate the degree to which the different events are likely to occur
a. Probable Triggers: Probable Triggers are those events that have historical indicators where anarchy has occurred, and America’s current political, economic, and social conditions; a diminished level of leadership in the executive branch; and weak military strength, each point to a high probability of occurrence within the early part of the 21st Century.
1. Executive Branch Bankruptcy: We now often hear that the government is too big and borrows too much money. That is misleading. The legislative branch of government is not too big and neither is the judicial branch. Only the executive branch is too big. It is the only branch that collects taxes and borrows and spends money. As long as the President can tax and borrow enough, the executive branch remains solvent and can continue to spend as if there is no tomorrow. But, we have a problem; tomorrow has arrived. The executive branch has borrowed so much money, especially since 2008, that it has pushed Americans past the edge of our ability to repay it and its interest.Since it is obvious that this is not going to happen, the problem will grow increasingly worse until it reaches a crisis point of no return and, thus, the only logical conclusion is the executive branch will soon become bankrupt. A major question is whether our big cities will burn when the government can no longer pay for the welfare state. Will the people living in urban areas revolt when the executive branch cuts programs that provide them with free stuff? Will they spontaneously begin to loot, burn, and eventually kill? Whatever happens to the country is dependent on what takes place in the cities.Why do we have this situation? How did this situation happen? Beginning in 1895 with the Sherman Antitrust Act and accelerating with President Lyndon Johnson’s 1960s Great Society Program, year-by-year and law-by-law Congress has given the president the power to grant vast amounts of money to state and city governments, educational institutions, a wide variety of non-government entities (such as Planned Parenthood), and the list goes on. Now most Americans depend directly or indirectly on funding from the executive branch.
2. Economic Collapse: Economic collapse is directly related to executive branch spending and regulations. Even if the executive branch does not become bankrupt, the excess control it exerts over the economy by regulations and taxing, and the activities by the Federal Reserve, will eventually result in an economic collapse; it is inevitable. It is important to know that our nation is teetering on the precipice of a vast economic abyss that, if not reversed, will plunge our economy into a crash that is certain to result in a state of absolute anarchy.
The expected results will be much worse for America than the states of anarchy experienced in recent history in Argentina and Somalia.
Consider the 2001 collapse in Argentina to gain insight into our own conceivable destiny. Argentina was South America’s economic powerhouse, but after years of excessive government regulations that nobody could decipher, direct involvement in the economy, control over citizens’ personal lives, political corruption, and debt accumulation that placed future repayment squarely on the shoulders of future generations, hyperinflation took root and the country exploded in violent protests and looting.
Sadly, children starved to death because parents could not afford food due to the rate of inflation, often expanding by the hour.Somalia also offers us another glimpse into how people live in a state of anarchy. According to a BBC report on November 18, 2004, an estimated one million people have been displaced since the government collapsed in 1991. No doubt, it has become worse since then. Moreover, according to Bridging Refugee Youth and Children Services, “Since 1991, it is estimated that over 100,000 Somali refugees have resettled to the United States.” The spate of pirated ships in one of the world’s most transited sea-lanes off the coast of Somalia is a result of that country’s state of anarchy. Other than a few complicit warlords, there is no government force to restrain the pirates.
The problem in America is even more complicated: Politicians who 1) have the power to reverse the trend but do not understand the economic situation, 2) do not have the political stamina to take action for fear of being demonized in the media, or 3) are in favor of and working toward a collapse. Economic collapse in any country has never taken place without the government being the primary cause, directly or indirectly.
Capitalist societies do not collapse into states of anarchy. Hong Kong under British rule is a prime example. Britain ruled Hong Kong as a strictly capitalist society from 1841 to 1997, at which time they returned it to China with the understanding that it would remain a capitalist state. Hong Kong flourished and is now one of the most economically successful places on Earth. Conversely, as you will clearly see in Chapter 18, the U.S. is quickly becoming a fascist country with socialist elements supported by the remains of capitalism and borrowed money.
3. Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP): An EMP event is a brief surge of extremely powerful electromagnetic energy produced by either a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun or a high-altitude nuclear detonation, about 30 to 200 miles above the Earth’s surface. The two major things that an EMP event destroys are computer modules and electrical grids and everything connected to them.
An adversarial country with nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) or satellites, or an Islamic terrorist organization with a short-range missile onboard a barge in the Gulf of Mexico, can deliver and detonate a nuclear bomb about 200 miles above the center of the United States within a few minutes from the time of its launch. An ICBM coming from the other side of the Earth would take about thirty minutes to deliver a nuclear bomb over America. Any entity willing to detonate one nuclear bomb over America would probably detonate several of them over different areas of the country to assure total destruction of all electronic and electrical systems.
Our star, the sun, is a gigantic hydrogen bomb that constantly ejects enormous masses of electromagnetic material called a coronal mass ejection, or CME. These electromagnetic materials travel at a high velocity into various directions in space. Sometimes the Earth is in the path of these massive ejections. When the electromagnetic material enters the Earth’s atmosphere—commonly referred to as a geomagnetic storm—it normally is only powerful enough to create the arctic lights (aurora borealis), and sometimes minor disruptions to ground and satellite communications and electrical power systems. If powerful enough, the resultant EMP can destroy most electronic devices, satellites, and the power grid, throwing the entire planet into darkness and destroying the electronics in devices we use for daily life, such as our vehicles, cellphones, and computers.
To understand the potential for such a powerful CME, we need look no further than our relatively recent history. Consider the super geomagnetic storm of 1859, known as the Carrington Event. It resulted in telegraph stations and telephone poles catching fire, telegraphers receiving electric shocks, and destruction of the transatlantic telegraph cable. There was no critical impact on society at the time because electricity-based technology was greatly limited to landline telegraph networks. The telephone was about fifteen years away from invention, and we would not see radio communication for over thirty years.
You may think that 1859 was a very long time ago. So why worry now? On a solar scale, the Carrington Event was a fraction of a second ago. In July 2012, we missed a grid-destroying, society-collapsing CME by just a few days, one estimated to have been more powerful than the Carrington Event. The Earth had just moved out of its path. If the CME had taken place a week earlier, we would now be living as our ancestors did before the Twentieth Century, and if you were still alive, you would not be reading this study guide.
EMP, regardless of the source,—nuclear bomb or CME—will result in the following:
- Much, if not all, of the bulk electric systems (the grid) destroyed
- Computers, cell phones and their associated cell tower networks, the Internet, cable television, radio and television broadcast stations, ATM’s, banking systems funds transfers, credit card access, and just about anything else with modern sensitive electronic circuitry burned out
- Vehicles produced after the mid-1970s—depending on the make and model—will not operate, because their electronic control modules burned out
- Clean water systems inoperative
- Sewer systems backed up and unusable
- Food rotted in inoperable freezers and refrigerators
- Dialysis machines and other critical medical equipment inoperable
- Air conditioners and heaters not functioning. Most gas heating systems require electricity for the thermostats to work and the fans to blow hot air through the vents
- Gas stations unable to pump gas
- Oil refineries unable to produce more fuel
- Delivery trucks not functional because their electronic modules burned out
- Electronic controls of most backup generators failed. Those that remain functional, eventually run out of fuel
Note: Cars and trucks produced until the mid to late 1970s do not contain computer control modules and will still run. For the running vehicles, however, if there is no electricity to operate the oil refineries that produce fuel or operate the pumps to get fuel out of gas tanks, they will not be functional. Before these problems are solved, cities will be burning and gangs and other bad guys will be wreaking havoc in the suburbs and moving into the countryside
4. Attack on the Grid: The Bulk Electric System—commonly referred to as the power grid or simply the grid—is a national network of interfaced power generation plants, power transmission facilities, transfer stations, and switch controls.
- Purpose of the Grid: The grid’s purpose is to redistribute and balance electrical power loads between different areas of the country as power demands fluctuate or fail. Operators perform balance control through Internet connectivity between the computer equipment that controls the transfer stations across the country. It is possible, therefore, to disrupt or destroy the grid by hacking into the network through the Internet, i.e., a cyberattack.
- Means of Destruction: The grid can be disrupted or destroyed by at least three means—an electromagnetic pulse, a cyberattack on the control systems, or a terrorist physical attack on transfer station transformers. We have already discussed the effects of EMP on the grid. It is also possible for a hostile country or terrorist organization to perpetrate a cyberattack on the grid.
- Cyberattack: The White House reported in October 2014, that the Russian government had hacked into its computers. How discomforting is that?
- It was also reported in early November 2014, that Russian government-sponsored hackers infected U.S. government and industry networks in wind turbine, oil, gas, electric grid, water systems, and some nuclear power plants with a virus called BlackEnergy. The virus gives Russia the ability to shut down and/or destroy these systems.
The Department of Homeland Security employed a BlackEnergy-type virus in a test, successfully causing a generator to destroy itself.
In November 2014, the Director of the National Security Administration, Admiral Mike Rogers, reported the following in testimony to Congress:
China and “one or two” other countries are capable of mounting cyberattacks that would shut down the electric grid and other critical systems in parts of the United States, according to Adm. Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency and head of U.S. Cyber Command.
The possibility of such cyberattacks by U.S. adversaries has been widely known, but never confirmed publicly by the nation’s top cyber official.
At a hearing of the House intelligence committee, Rogers said U.S. adversaries are performing electronic “reconnaissance” on a regular basis so that they can be in a position to disrupt the industrial control systems that run everything from chemical facilities to water treatment plants.
“All of that leads me to believe it is only a matter of when, not if, we are going to see something dramatic,” he said.
- Physical Attack: A physical terrorist attack on only nine of the nation’s major grid transfer station transformers would disable our power for years and trigger a complete and irreversible societal collapse. A terrorist test attack has already taken place.
According to a Wall Street Journal report on March 12, 2014, the U.S. could experience a nationwide blackout if saboteurs destroy nine undisclosed power transfer stations. These large transformers are mostly produced overseas, cost millions of dollars each, must be custom made, and weigh 200,000 to 800,000 pounds. Depending upon the degree of destruction, it could take months to restore power to limited geographical areas and several years to restore the entire national grid. Before restoration, it is likely that the die-off will have run its course, and the survivors will have a lifestyle akin to that of our Nineteenth Century ancestors.
To understand the potential for such a terrorist attack to be successful, consider the April 16, 2013, attack on a Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s electric substation near San Jose, California. Terrorists cut the station’s fiber optic communication lines and destroyed the station’s ability to provide power to Silicon Valley by shooting AK-47 rifle bullets—the favored firearm of Islamic terrorists—into the transformers. The attack lasted for about nineteen minutes. Law enforcement agencies have yet to identify the perpetrators.
5. Terrorist Attack on the Homeland: Since Islamic terrorist attacks have been occurring for decades, we are no longer faced with a question of if we will be attacked, but when will the next one occur and will it be massive enough or conducted cleverly enough to destroy the American way of life as we know it now. There have been at least 82 Islamic terrorist attacks on America since 1972. Islamic terrorists, including ISIS fighters, have been infiltrating America and converting citizens to the point that they now appear on the verge of being able to bring America to its knees.
Let’s face it; the Islamic world has already declared war on America and is invading Western Europe. Since they hate us more than anything else in the world, referring to us as the Great Satan, why would we not accept that, sooner or later, we will be in a shooting war on our own soil for our very existence?
We are engaged in World War III and facing the potential for an all-out Islamic terrorist attack by sleeper cells. Considering the extreme weakening of our nation’s defense posture since Obama took office in 2009, and the current, despicably feeble leadership, the growth of ISIS and the potential for Islamic terrorist attacks on the homeland has increased to an almost certainty.
It is easy to see how Islamic terrorist attacks on the grid, attacks using weapons of mass destruction, coordinated, simultaneous poisonings of water supplies in all large cities, simultaneous attacks on petroleum refineries, coordinated attacks on soft targets with gun-free zones that kill tens of thousands, or other horrible events, have the potential to destroy American society.
We already have a taste of what is coming. Islamic terrorist attacks that occurred on our homeland over the past several decades are not the type that could create a state of absolute anarchy. Those attacks—the 9-11 attack and the Boston Marathon bombing to name just two—while horrific were limited in scope. They were not the huge types that cause simultaneous anarchical reaction in all of America’s cities.
That has changed. An organization of ISIS terrorists is in every state in America. As reported on February 25, 2015 in The Hill—a top U.S. political website frequented by more lawmakers than any other site—FBI Director Comey told a meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General, “We have investigations of people in various stages of radicalization in all 50 states.” It is only a matter of time before these terrorist, with support from our enemies, plan an attack that destroys our way of life.
b. Possible Triggers: Possible triggers are those events that have some indicators related to relatively recent historical events and the potential for occurring within the first part of this century. Consider the fall of Cuba to Communism, Iran’s nuclear bomb program, plus the 1973 OPEC oil embargo added together times ten, and you will have an idea of the possible triggers we face.
- Tyrannical Administration: Our nation was founded on the premise that the power to govern is derived from the people, and the government is a tool for carrying out the will of the people. The people’s representatives create laws according to the will of the people. The president carries out those laws and must do so regardless of his own personal convictions. This is not the premise at work today. There are now millions of Americans currently angry and fearful enough to participate in such a revolution. Until recent history, tyranny would not be considered a trigger. Now it is.
Until recent history, it rarely occurred to Americans that any president could gain sufficient power to rule as a tyrant. An administration powerful enough to govern outside of constitutional limits with impunity—to the point of creating a fascist or socialist government—would undoubtedly provoke a national rebellion that would dwarf the American Revolution.
Today the executive branch of government controls millions of federal workers and holds trillions of dollars over the heads of every city, county, and state government in the country, including the education system, the welfare system, and grants for an untold number of city, county, state, and private social projects of many kinds. The executive branch plays our lower level governments and other entities like a bunch of string-puppets. Do as the government demands or you will lose your funding. Do as the government tells you and reap the benefits of more funding. How close does that put us to tyranny?
In the supplemental reading in Chapter 18, we will discuss how the executive branch acquired the far-reaching regulatory power that it wields today. For this discussion, it is obvious that it absolutely is possible for the United States of America to have a president that deliberately and unashamedly ignores the U.S. Constitution and rules autocratically, as a tyrant.
- Nuclear Attack: An all-out nuclear attack—the MAD (mutually assured destruction) scenario—would certainly cause enough damage and civil unrest to move us into a state of absolute anarchy. Depending upon the degree of destruction, the state of anarchy might be irrelevant to those left standing. If America is completely leveled and covered with a layer of radioactive fallout, and survivors are facing several years of nuclear winter—where sunlight is blocked by atmospheric debris—the likelihood of living long enough to begin regenerating the population is extremely remote.
Because of our own capacity to destroy any country with such hostile intent, it is only remotely possible that the MAD scenario will take place, unless committed by an Islamic terrorist organization.
We also have to be concerned about dirty bombs. A dirty bomb is made of conventional explosives with nuclear material attached to it. When it explodes, it spreads the nuclear materials in a limited area. Anyone unlucky enough to be exposed will suffer from radiation sickness and likely quick death. A small amount of radioactive material can kill and bring about illness to thousands of people. Imagine a dirty bomb detonated at the Super Bowl. A single bomb would be cause for concern. However, if terrorists detonated many dirty bombs in areas with high populations, it could quickly bring about a state of absolute anarchy.
- Extreme Political or Social Event: It is possible that an extreme political or social event, such as the assassination of a national leader, unemployment on a massive scale, or some other society-altering event could generate conditions whereby social order completely fails and anarchy ensues.
- Fuel Disruption: The American economy only exists to the extent that it does today because of a regular flow of oil. An abrupt disruption of the international oil supply to the United States or a coordinated terrorist attack on America’s petroleum refineries has the potential to disrupt the fuel supply and interrupt food distribution. There are about 140 operating oil refineries in the U.S. Islamic terrorist attacks on perhaps half of them would bring fuel production in this country low enough to create the chaos necessary to bring about a societal collapse when food supplies in cities dwindle.
c. Remotely Possible Triggers: Remotely possible triggers are those events that do not provide us with a minimal amount of tangible evidence that they will occur in our lifetime.
- Chemical or Biological Attack: Because of terrorist activities taking place at the time I write this, I considered moving chemical or biological attack up one level. Upon reflection though, I believe that the potential for such an attack on the scale necessary to bring about a state of absolute anarchy throughout the country is very remote, but it is still possible.
- Asteroid Impact: We know that asteroids big enough to destroy most life impacted the Earth in the distant past. While small objects hit the Earth on a regular basis, they do not threaten our extinction. However, it is still possible for one that is just the right size to mess up our day, kill many people, and leave us in a state of absolute anarchy. If an asteroid is big enough to destroy all human life, then prepping is irrelevant—we all lose.
- Epidemic/Pandemic: To understand these terms, first think of a nationwide epidemic like the influenza epidemic of 1968–1969; now add other countries and suddenly it is a pandemic. A pandemic is an epidemic taking place simultaneously in different countries. As defined by WebMD, epidemics and pandemics are associated with influenza (flu) outbreaks when a flu virus mutates into a new strain, one to which many people have developed little or no immunity.
The most destructive flu pandemic of the Twentieth Century occurred after WWI, from 1918 to 1919. It was estimated that the global mortality from that pandemic was between 30 and 50 million, with an estimated 675,000 Americans among the dead. How quickly we forget. That was almost a century ago and did not result in a societal collapse. Because the medical field has advanced leaps and bounds since then, we consider an epidemic resulting in a societal collapse as only remotely possible. Consider how the U.S. was able to react to the relatively recent Ebola scare to contain it in this country and diminish its affect in Africa.
- Super Volcano Eruption: One source defines a super volcano as one that produces a magma volume of more than 500 cubic kilometers. That is 500 times greater than the materials that erupted from Mount St. Helen. Another source defines a super volcano as a magnitude 8 eruption on the Volcano Explosivity Index (VEI), which means that the measured deposits for a particular eruption is greater than 1,000 cubic kilometers. Various sources show that there are three super volcanoes in the U.S., including the Yellow Stone Caldera in Wyoming, Long Valley caldera in east-central California, and Valles Caldera in Northern New Mexico. There are others in North Sumatra, New Zealand, Southern Japan, and one developing in Bolivia. A super volcano eruption could destroy a large number of lives within a short period. It would create a nuclear winter that would greatly decrease the amount of sunlight that reaches the Earth and lower global temperatures for several years, reaching the point that insufficient food could be produced to prevent massive starvation around the entire globe.We have a well-known historical example of what could take place by reviewing the 1816 Year Without Summer. In April 1815, Mount Tambora on the remote island of Sumbawa in the Indian Ocean erupted, spewing enough materials in the atmosphere to block much of the sunlight throughout Europe and North America the summer of 1816. This caused temperatures to drop dramatically and crops failed on both continents. If such an event were to take place on the super volcano level, it would undoubtedly result in massive starvation around the globe.
- Super Surge of Illegal Aliens: An organized effort leading to an extremely high number of illegal aliens—many hundreds of thousands or millions—surging into the U.S., such as the ongoing surge of Muslims into Europe, has the potential within a short period of time to overwhelm our economy to the point of collapse.
Chapter 3
Inevitability of Economic Collapse
Go to https://absoluteanarchybook.com and click on the Book Web Links button to access the webpages pertinent to this chapter.
3-1. Purpose: If you have a strong sense that the American economy is on the brink of collapse, but you do not understand why, this chapter provides you with some answers. Here you learn that, if nothing changes to reduce significantly entitlement spending and the size of the executive branch of government, the U.S. economy has no alternative but to collapse. The economic collapse will certainly trigger a state of absolute anarchy; there is no other option. The details of exactly how we arrived at this dangerous, American society-destroying juncture in our history are further explained in Chapter 18. It is important that you absorb this information to enable you to recognize the signs of the coming economic collapse.
3-2. Deficit and National Debt Review: The difference between the annual deficit and the national debt are often misunderstood. The federal government obtains money primarily through taxing the income of citizens and businesses and borrowing from various sources. If the taxes are insufficient to pay the bills, then the government has no choice but to borrow money to make up the shortfall. The shortfall for any given year the deficit. Each year’s deficit is added to all of the previous years’ deficits to give us the total national debt. To reiterate:
a. Deficit: The deficit is the difference between the amount of money the government takes in from taxes and other revenues and the amount of money the government spends during any single budget year.
b. National Debt: The national debt is the total accumulation of all of the annual deficit borrowing since George Washington was president to address the annual deficits.
3-3. Short-term Outlook Through 2024: According to the February 2014 Congressional Budget Office, The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2014 to 2024, Chapter 1, Page 2 Table 1-1, the total of the estimated added deficits between 2014 and 2024 are projected to be $7,904,000,000,000. According to the Brillig.com National Debt Clock, the national debt at the time of this writing in December 2015 is more than $18,802,000,000,000. Apply the added estimates for the years 2016 through 2023, minus the estimates for 2014 of 992,000,000,000 gives us an estimated total national debt of $25,714,000,000,000 (twenty-five trillion, seven hundred and fourteen billion dollars) in 2024.
3-4. Long-Term Outlook Through 2040: According to the Congressional Budget Office Publication 50250, The 2015 Long-Term Budget Outlook (if nothing changes) 25 years from now the federal debt will be more than everything America produces. That is, every penny’s worth of everything we produce will not be enough to pay the debt. What do you think the potential is for us to ever reach that point without a collapse that leads to a state of absolute anarchy? Here is the quote from The 2015 Long-Term Budget Outlook:
If current law remained generally unchanged in the future, federal debt held by the public would decline slightly relative to GDP over the next few years, the Congressional Budget Office projects. After that, however, growing budget deficits—caused mainly by the aging of the population and rising health care costs—would push debt back to, and then above, its current high level. The deficit would grow from less than 3 percent of GDP this year to more than 6 percent in 2040. At that point, 25 years from now, federal debt held by the public would exceed 100 percent of GDP. Moreover, debt would still be on an upward path relative to the size of the economy. Consequently, the policy changes needed to reduce debt to any given amount would become larger and larger over time. The rising debt could not be sustained indefinitely; the government’s creditors would eventually begin to doubt its ability to cut spending or raise revenues by enough to pay its debt obligations, forcing the government to pay much higher interest rates to borrow money.
If this makes your head want to explode, don’t worry, the collapse will occur well before we reach the point of public debt exceeding 100 percent of GDP. Keep reading…and prepping.
3-5. The Bottom Line: If you are having trouble following this, all you have to know is that in 2024 each American citizen will owe about $80,000, meaning a family of four will owe $320,000. It is not feasible to believe that we can reach 2040 without a complete economic collapse. The question is not if the government will go bankrupt and/or the economy collapse before then, but at which point do creditors (other countries) cut us off and cause our economy to collapse?
Stretch this out a few more years, and you can see that the America we have known is doomed. Logical analysis tells us that it is impossible to have any other outcome. Our children and grandchildren and their descendants will likely have a miserable existence.
3-6. Why? These astronomical numbers and dire outlook are the result of unfunded entitlements—meaning enough taxes are not available to pay them—and an excessively large, out-of-control executive branch of government, provided by the hands of congress over many years. Those on the left will blame it on military spending. Do not allow yourself to fall for that lie. Use caution when accepting figures from Obama’s Executive Branch on military spending; you will not find it on the White House website pages meant for public information.
The White House website uses the comprehensive term, National Defense Spending, in their budget information to the public, which includes nonmilitary spending on such items as foreign military aid, foreign economic aid, veterans, and other items not directly related to actual spending directly on the military itself.
3-7. The Crutch: Since it is obvious that congress and the executive branch will not reverse the spending trends and are taking our nation to ruin, why has the executive branch not already gone bankrupt? Simple: the Federal Reserve System maintains a continuous flow of funny digital money to mask the problem. We will explore further this elusive issue in Chapter 18.
3-8. The Result: What will happen when the executive branch cannot continue to support the inner-city welfare state? What will happen when EBT cards can no longer be recharged, free housing becomes unavailable, and the many other freebies that half of our citizens are accustomed to receiving to support their lifestyles without working for it dry up?
These questions go to the heart of this chapter. If farmers do not receive subsidies to grow crops, we can expect that they will not riot, loot, and burn towns. We can expect, however, that when inner-city dwellers’ EBT cards in particular become useless, rioting and looting will ensue. Are you starting to get the picture?
3-9. Supplemental Reading – Chapter 18: This overview of the coming collapse is a compilation of facts, not opinion. Chapter 18 expounds on the economic problem and explains how the Progressive Movement forced us into this untenable position and a number of other topics pointing toward the coming state of absolute anarchy. Read it and be informed.
Chapter 4
Anatomy of Anarchy and the Die-off
Go to https://absoluteanarchybook.com and click on the Book Web Links button to access the webpages pertinent to this chapter.
4-1. Purpose: This chapter provides an obvious and compelling analysis of how a state of absolute anarchy develops and describes the sequence of events that will bring about the ensuing massive population die-off.
4-2. Facts vs. Opinion: Throughout this study guide, I adhere primarily to facts but must also include predictions and opinions in a few chapters on subjects that have scant historical references. I base my predictions on how a state of absolute anarchy would most likely unfold in America on logical reasoning, the history of anarchy in Argentina and Somalia, and my personal observations of extremely poor people existing on the edge of survival in Africa, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Central America, and South America.
For example, it is logical to expect that when people living in inner cities run out of food, they will leave en masse, traveling to surrounding suburbs, then to outlying areas farther and farther away in search of water, shelter, food and security. It is also logical to assume that bad guys with guns will create havoc for others—killing, raping, and pillaging at will—and that militias will emerge to deal with them.
4-3. History and Logical Reasoning: States of anarchy begin primarily in cities, not small villages and remote farmlands where most folks are self-reliant—at least to some degree—and more familiar and civil with one another. The December 2001 rebellion of the middle class and poor in Argentina serves as a prime example. They rejected their government and all of its attempts to reorganize an ever-failing, extremely corrupt system. The ensuing anarchy took place in cities and was extensive and almost but not quite absolute; yet it still provides us with an indication of what can happen here when the SHTF.
The population of Argentina is about thirteen percent of that of the U.S., and a state of anarchy here will likely have a much greater impact than that experienced by the people of Argentina. Little analysis is required to see that America is currently on the same social and economic paths that brought Argentina to its knees.
Perhaps the closest thing to anarchy in the U.S. was the Whiskey Rebellion of the late 1700’s and the lawlessness of the early days of U.S. western migration, engendering the term Wild West. Considering the possible triggers discussed in Chapter 2 and the impending economic collapse discussed in Chapter 3, it is logical that a state of absolute anarchy in this country is becoming more likely each day. It will begin in cities, not in outlying small towns or rural areas of the country where people tend to be more self-reliant, have more of a personal bond with one another, and are more likely to adhere to strong Judeo-Christian principles.
4-4. Small Town vs. City: In general, citizens of small communities do not tolerate gangs and do not riot, loot, and burn their towns to the ground. Those situations occur in heavily populated areas. That is a big problem for America because, according to the U.S. Census Bureau report released March 26, 2012, “Urban areas—defined as densely developed residential, commercial and other nonresidential areas—now account for 80.7 percent of the U.S. population….”
It is reasonable, therefore, to expect that any event that disables the electrical grid and/or disrupts food delivery to cities for more than a few days will result in the onset of civil disorder and leave over 80 percent of our population almost immediately in turmoil. Without clean water, food, and basic services, and with the concentration of people, disorder, fear, and confusion will take place very quickly.
4-5. Sequence of Events: The following descriptions present a reasonable sequence in which a spontaneous state of absolute anarchy will take place:
a. Awareness: People will initially sense that something is wrong, but most will not be immediately aware of the extreme level of seriousness to which the problem will rise. The speed that a state of anarchy takes place depends on the type of event that occurs and the character of the population. An economic collapse will evoke a relatively slow societal degradation, taking place over days; the rate of inflation and ability of the executive branch to continue to provide free stuff will be the defining factors. An EMP event will bring about a much quicker state of anarchy. Awareness could take only a few hours or a few days to sink in. For the relatively slower-moving anarchical-creating events, awareness will begin slowly but increase exponentially as food and liquid fuel distribution dwindle and become unaffordable. Tuned-in preppers and some others will understand that something very ugly is about to happen and take action to protect themselves. Others will ignore the problem and incorrectly expect that the government will take care of the situation, the way they always do.
b. Initial Reaction: Mobs will gather on city streets to protest and, before long, begin to riot and loot. Looters and urbanites making mad-dash purchase runs will empty the shelves of all businesses that sell any form of food—from supermarkets to convenience stores. Consider the run on groceries on the scale of localized emergencies—an approaching hurricane, for example. Now, think of that same scenario on a nationwide scale, taking place in every city and small town in America. Since there is roughly a three-day supply of food in any city at any time and a person can only survive three days without water, inner-city chaos will erupt well before those three days elapse. Rioting, burning, looting, raping, and killing will start well before the food delivery trucks stop operating, water faucets stop running, food rots in refrigerators and freezers, and sewage begins to back up in toilets. Once suburban and outlying area citizens become aware of the danger most will be in a quandary about what action to take. A few will pack and head for the countryside. Some will attempt, with a little success, to form neighborhood defense groups or militias. If you have seen any of these movies, you have some idea of the type of situation they will face: The Road, Armageddon, 28 Weeks Later, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012.
c. Violence Intensifies: Within hours, millions will be in the streets of every city, and arson, gang violence, and brutality will intensify. Desperate refugees will emerge from their homes and start to flow out of the cities. The more ignorant of the looters will delay leaving the city, distracted with taking things that will be of no value to them, such as electronic devices and liquor. For refugees who remain in cities, that will be a good time to escape by moving through back streets, away from the action. To delay another day or two will give the bad guys time to become hungry and refocus on their neighborhoods. After the initial chaos subsides and there are no more places to loot, bad guys will disperse and refocus, becoming more aware of your presence; you will then become a major target. You can be sure there will be no police force to stop them.
d. Collapse of Law Enforcement: As violence increases and police forces are overwhelmed, the instinctive reaction of law enforcers will be to abandon their posts and rush home to protect their own families and property. At some point, they will submit to their natural instincts of self-preservation and protection of their loved ones. Think of what you would do if you were a police officer on duty where rioters are obviously about to overrun your position and then advance to your neighborhood where your spouse and children are holed up. Your superior ordered you to stay and guard against whatever. And, remember, calling 9-1-1 won’t do your family any good. Which would be more important to you, whatever or your spouse and children? Even the most dedicated cop will tell the chief, “Adios, Dude! I’m out of here.
e. Famine, Disease, and Guns: Starvation and disease do not recognize wealth or social status. The most impoverished barrio of Los Angeles and the richest millionaire neighborhood of Manhattan will have the same experience. Everyone will be equal when truck drivers can no longer transport food to markets, the electric grid is down, water stops flowing, toilets back up, and money has lost its value. When people become hungry enough, they will leave their homes, very likely on foot, to find food and potable water. The only difference will be the availability of firearms and the mentality to use them against other humans. For example, it is common knowledge that there are many well-armed gangs in New York City but, because of the restrictive laws and citizen attitudes, there are relatively few law-abiding registered gun owners. From this, we can assume the gangs will overwhelm the more civilized citizens. As the Manhattanites—and others in their socio-economic group across America—encounter gangs, we can expect the less well-armed folks to be robbed, raped, and murdered by those who are accustomed to engaging in these activities on a daily basis during normal times.
f. Outlying Communities: Folks in outlying small communities and rural areas will be impacted when the violence and widespread hunger spills out of the cities. Depending on their distances from cities, the direct effect will initially be much less harrowing than for those living outside of cities and their suburbs. That will rapidly change as the exodus continues. Bad guys and desperate refugees will expand into outlying countryside communities, challenging small-town and rural law enforcement forces nationwide.
g. Refugee Problems: People escaping cities will be without clean water, shelter, food, and, in most cases, security. Those with vehicles will find themselves blocked in traffic jams and very likely not able to acquire fuel. Consequently, everyone will eventually find themselves on foot. Those unlucky enough to be riding bicycles or motorcycles can expect to be attacked, and probably killed, by someone who wants it for himself.
4-6. The Die-off Begins: A nationwide state of anarchy quickly leads to massive deaths. Although, those on life support, diabetics, dialysis patients, and other such situations will die very quickly at the onset of absolute anarchy. Other deaths will occur over the next few days or weeks primarily from bullets and disease—mainly dehydration, cholera, and diarrhea. After about two weeks, starvation begins and within a few more weeks, famine on a massive scale will ensue.
When the die-off begins, do not expect FEMA to come to the rescue. There are not enough MREs on the planet to solve a problem of this magnitude. According to the Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack Critical National Infrastructures, April 2008, here is what the federal government assumes:
A natural disaster or deliberate attack that makes food less available, or more expensive, would place at least America’s poor, 33.6 million people, at grave risk. They would have the least food stockpiled at home and be the first to need food supplies. A work force preoccupied with finding food would be unable to perform its normal jobs. Social order likely would decay if a food shortage were protracted. A government that cannot supply the population with enough food to preserve health and life could face anarchy.
a. The Sheeple: The most naïve folks, the sheeple, will remain in cities to wait for the government to distribute MREs and bottled water and return society to a normal state. They live in a fantasy world referred to by preppers as normalcy. It will not seem possible to most Americans that the executive branch has limited resources and cannot take care of all of them and return society to a normal state. Those poor souls will eventually kill each other for something as small as a can of green beans. If you do not believe this, try living just on water and going without food for a week—under proper medical observation of your doctor, of course—and watch the alterations take place in your attitude toward food. (You won’t last two days.) To realize how bad it can get in this country, consider this excerpt from a report by Perla Astudillo on February 22, 2003, on World Socialist Web Site, pertaining to child starvation in Argentina after their economy collapsed in 2001-2002:
…Argentina has reported the deaths of scores of children from malnutrition, with thousands more hospitalized and fighting for their lives. Nearly half a million children—more than one in five—are suffering from malnutrition across the country. Included among the deaths reported in recent weeks was a 14-year-old who died February 10, weighing only 25 kilos and a three-year-old weighing only 9.8 kilos—the normal weight for a one-year-old. Argentina is the world’s sixth-largest exporter of agricultural products, capable of feeding 300 million, 10 times its population. However, in 2001, the economy went into free-fall after the government was forced to float its currency, the Argentine peso, and defaulted on foreign debt payments.
Note: A kilo equals 2.2 pounds. Twenty-five kilos equals 55 pounds and 9.8 kilos equals 21.5 pounds.
Reminder: The problem of starving children in Argentina was absolutely caused by a corrupt and heavily regulated fascist government whose members’ primary concern was to line their pockets and those of their friends. If the government had remained small and supported capitalist economics, Argentina would still be a strong economic force and the people would be prosperous. Argentina serves as an example of why we need a much smaller executive branch of government with a lot less power. America is currently experiencing the same issues that caused Argentina’s collapse, from which that country has yet to recover.
b. The Early Die-off: The early die-off phase begins almost immediately, certainly within a couple of days, when food supplies run out, extending throughout the country for about the first 30-90 days. Between the violence, disease, injury, dehydration, and starvation, most people will begin to die quickly.
- The people who die quickly are those who are infirm, have chronic illnesses, are in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, etc. Emergency generators may provide a few days’ additional time for very ill patients, but, as hard as it sounds, hospital staff may have no choice but to abandon medical facilities in order to save their own lives and the lives of their family members. For most, self-preservation will override their sense of dedication to nonfamily members.
- Burning, looting, mass murder, rape, and other violence become commonplace throughout the country. Bad guys will kill anyone, including each other, for their possessions or just for the heck of it, the same as today in normal times. Once starving and thirsty, it will be catastrophic.
- Several days of rioting, looting, burning, and killing exhaust all inner-city resources. Afterward, like disturbed ant mounds, gangs and refugees will rush from cities to loot businesses and break into homes in the suburbs and other outlying communities. Gangs and desperate refugees will take by force whatever they want, burning, killing and raping as they go.
- As technicians abandon their jobs, our electrical power systems, telephone networks, radio and television networks, sewage processing plants, and water treatment and pumping systems begin to fail.
- Poor sanitation conditions and lack of treated water create conditions for cholera and dysentery pandemics.
- Rioters will set fire to inner-city buildings causing entire cities to become engulfed in flames.
- The success of neighborhood defense groups will be limited, depending upon the inhabitants’ propensity to defend themselves—their warrior mentality, availability of firearms and ammunition, ability to employ defensive tactics, and the size and tactical abilities of the bad guys. Firearms and ammunition resources will vary in accordance with the local community’s attitude toward guns and state and local gun control laws. If you do not have adequate firearms and ammunition, you and your family face being dislodged from your home or killed by well-armed bad guys.
- Eventually, even successful neighborhood defense organization members will run out of food and fuel, and most of their water and sewer systems will cease operation. They will either join the already massive refugee population wandering into the countryside and/or turn on each other. Most will eventually die.
- Small communities in outlying areas around cities and rural areas will set up roadblocks, snipers, and ambushes to eliminate gangs and prevent refugees from entering.
- Those that survived in the cities and suburbs will be forced to leave and become refugees in search of food. After about a week, there should be almost nobody alive in cities. Once every available bite of food is gone, that is it. You either leave or stay and starve to death. There are no other choices.
c. The Extended Die-off: The early die-off phase will quickly change into the extended die-off, which roughly covers the first 180 days after the collapse. The population will be reduced by 80 to 90 percent of its original size.
- City dwellers—gang members and refugees—cannot compete on an equal basis with those living in small towns and rural areas. When you employ city-boy methods to fight Bubba and his country cousins, you lose. Those living in small towns and rural areas are more inclined to be armed and form militias to work with local law enforcement to counter gangs. Many have personal food production and storage capacity, clean water, shelter, and a means of security.
The city dweller bad guys and refugees will not have those resources. Refugees will primarily be unarmed, and their attitude toward cooperative actions for the good of the community is weak. On the other hand, folks who live in small towns and rural areas are more likely to have strong family, community, and Judeo-Christian religious principles and bonds, making it probable that they will organize strong defense units and, in the end, prevail.
- The state of desperation will be extreme. Refugees will turn on each other in an attempt to keep their respective families from starving to death. They will kill each other for clean water, food, shelter, firearms, and ammunition.
- Many desperate refugees will be killed by militias or other armed citizens protecting their own survival resources, families, and property.
- The die-off will reach its end after about 180 days. Some people will still succumb to disease, and there may still be some random firefights, but the bad guys will either be eliminated or have a change of heart, joining civil society for their own good. The remaining population will not tolerate uncivil behavior and will return to a more stabilized and amicable society. Intercity bad guys, once they move into the countryside, will find themselves in an unfamiliar environment under the control of Bubba, and Bubba don’t play their games. I know because I’m a redneck Bubba.
d. New America: Preppers and others living in rural areas that form militias to protect their communities and have the long-term means to produce food are most likely to remain standing. From a logical perspective, it is obvious that city folks who are not preppers will probably compose the great majority of the dead. So, how many will be left? It is generally accepted that about 90 percent of the U.S. population will perish. It is my opinion that the survivors could be 10 to 20 percent. Since the current U.S. population is about 330 million, that means 33 to 66 million survivors should remain standing after the die-off has run its course, a substantial number.
Militias are needed during the die-off to kill bad guys, protect those who prepared ahead of time to survive the die-off, and maintain order after the die-off has run its course and regular law enforcement entities and a judicial system are reestablished. I imagine that maintaining order afterward will be relatively easy because those who survive will be good guys that will not tolerate bad guys. New America will arise through the strength of the survivors.
4-7. Gangs, Other Bad Guys, and Refugees: Starving members of organized gangs, other bad guys, and desperate refugees—ordinary individuals and families—will not be kind to one another. Other bad guys are defined here as criminals who did not initially belong to organized gangs but have low moral standards. They will be armed and may come together in small groups during the die-off, possibly forming into larger organized gangs as the die-off progresses.
Where it does not cause confusion, we will use the term bad guys to include both individuals and organized gangs. Because bad guys are armed and already have a criminal, warrior-like mentality, they will exercise power over unarmed refugees, killing, robbing, and raping at will. They will display little or no pity for anyone. Most of the first refugees will not be armed or have a warrior’s mentality, especially those who live where state and city gun control laws are severely restrictive.
4-8. Refugees’ Survival Needs: If you are to survive, you must understand your survival needs. The refugees’ primary goal will be to satisfy their basic survival needs: shelter, water, food, and security. We use the rule of three in this study guide to address each survival need, which states that a person in good health can normally live:
- Three minutes without air
- Three hours under extreme weather conditions without shelter
- Three days without water
- Three weeks without food
Do not trust reaching the end of these limits and expect the government to be there to help you recover from them. The government will be in a shambles and ineffective.
We include security as one of your survival needs under a state of absolute anarchy.
We will revisit the rule of three several times in other chapters to help reinforce its importance.
4-9. Example Collapse Scenario: While there are numerous potential triggers that can initiate a state of absolute anarchy, we will utilize the known inevitable scenario—economic collapse and government bankruptcy—to analyze the most logical sequence of events. Other scenarios, such as an EMP or terrorist attack, present a similar sequence of events, but at a much quicker pace.
- The flow of money from the fed and the national debt grow to the point of unsustainability, initiating hyperinflation, quickly making the dollar worthless and food and fuel unaffordable.
- Fuel prices become too costly for truckers to make a profit, so they park their trucks. All it takes is a day or two of stalled food shipments to create chaos.
- The executive branch and the Fed lose the ability to keep up with the rate of inflation and are unable to fund the welfare state. The executive branch cannot tax or borrow enough to pay for the housing, utilities, healthcare, food, and other items that sustain much of the inner-city populations; i.e., the ability of the executive branch to meet the survival needs that half of the nation’s population depends on evaporates.
- Food, medical supplies, and other necessary goods do not arrive to replenish market shelves, resulting in a rush on all available food. Not one donut or cheese cracker packet remains on the shelves of any convenience store or in garbage cans.
- After a few days, even at inflated prices, food supplies in inner cities are depleted causing large portions of the populace to begin to starve and igniting massive unrest with widespread looting and other evil consequences, followed by an enormous exodus of bad guys and desperate refugees into the surrounding suburbs.
- Over the next few days, depending on the size of the population and geographical areas involved, those living in the suburbs come under attack from bad guys, experiencing considerable lootings, killings, robberies, rapes, and whatever other evil such people force on the unprepared. The masses of bad guys and refugees, with those added from the suburbs, grow in numbers and move into the nearby countryside, where the nasty events repeat in small communities and isolated homes.
- After a few more days, the bad guys and desperate refugees begin to move into more remote rural areas where they encounter resistance from organized militias and civil war begins to take root.
- After a few weeks, the total nationwide food supply will dwindle to nothing, more killings occur between all factions, disease begins to take an ever-increasing toll, and dehydration and starvation begin to take place on a colossal scale.
4-10. Normalcy Bias and The Sheeple: Normalcy bias is a mental denial condition experienced by people faced with extreme disaster. The condition causes people so inclined to underestimate the seriousness of a disaster and its effects, before it occurs and immediately afterward, when the world is falling down around their feet. Those who experience normalcy bias expect the government to almost immediately show up and solve the problem. Unfortunately, they live in a fantasy world and will be among the first to die after the SHTF.
4-11. You Will Be on Your Own: It is essential that every prepper remains aware that, under a state of absolute anarchy, there will be insufficient federal, state, and local law enforcement and military resources combined to restore and maintain order. You will be on your own.
We are nine meals away from a state of absolute anarchy. Are you ready?