James C. Jones - Advanced Survival: A Guide to the Self-Reliance Revolution

Copyright 2016 by James C. Jones

First Skyhorse Publishing Copyright 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com .

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Tom Lau

Cover photo credit: iStockphoto

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-3899-7

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-3901-7

Printed in the United States of America.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

A ll the chapters except for Storm Warning and Energy were written exclusively for this book, but some of them have since been used in their original or modified forms in Live Frees American Survivor newsletter. The subjects covered are intended as a starting point and guide rather than a complete manual. Many of these subjectsincluding water, food, home defense, and medical careare well addressed in many volumes available to the reader. I tried to include some practical how-to information with each chapter, but the reader is advised to pursue further study and practical trial-and-error learning. Many of these skills can be pursued as hobbies or with groups that build support networks as well as sharing skills. I included Storm Warning as an imperative for the actions recommended in the chapters that follow and Food, Famine, and Power and Energy because they put the relationship between these key factors for sustainable population and economic stability in perspective.

INTRODUCTION AND PERSPECTIVE

I was born at the end of the steam age and at the beginning of World War II. My father was a stationary engineer, so I have memories of the odors of burning coal, hot metal, and steam. I was comfortable in engine rooms among the hiss and chug of pistons and the whine of flywheels. My early memories also include blackouts, block wardens, duck-and-cover drills, and weekly reports of nuclear tests. I grew up with gasoline-gulping automobiles and massive consumerism and waste. Everyone thought that we would have more and more and go further and further without consequences or cost. At one time I dreamed of being an astronaut. The hope was that we could colonize the moon and planets using solar power, hydroponics, and other technologies to survive and build on hostile planets. Now, as we run out of cheap fuels and our economies decline, we turn to these technologies to survive on this planet as it becomes more hostile.

The massive use of Americas resources and labor created a reserve of wealth that I saw in my youth. Unfortunately, greed, wastefulness, and apathy over the past decades used up those resources and financial wealth, and have run on debt, denial, and false hope for the past forty years. In the past centuries when people used up a land or ruined a society, they just moved on, but the new world is done and there is no place to go. We cannot run or hide from our situation.

The grim reality is that we cannot sustain this population at this level of civilization much longer. The idea that we can bring the whole planet to the living standard of America with two, three, or four times the population is absurd. Significant population reductions are inevitable through famine, epidemics, conflicts, and attrition. Shortages of critical materials and the effects of climate change on food production, water availability, and destruction of communities will reach crisis proportions. Ultimately a balance will be restored where a smaller population lives well and continues to push toward a better future. Who those survivors are and what they do with the future is the vital question of this millennium. It is a question to be answered by the readers of this book and their children. After a century of dependent living and regulated life, it will be challenging to adapt and restore independence and freedom through self-reliance.

This book can only provide an outline and some basic methodologies for addressing the various life needs and challenges of this revolutionary transformation. If good people prepare to survive and then act to become self-reliant, American values and ideals will prevail as the foundation for the future.

Storm Warning

• In the twentieth century, we put in less and less and took more and more.
• In the twenty-first century, survivors will be the ones who do more and more with less and less.
• The twentieth century was the time of waste and consumption and luxury.
• The twenty-first century will be the time of conservation and self-reliance.

THE PERFECT STORM OF CHANGE AND DISASTER IN THE YEARS TO COME AND HOW TO PREPARE FOR IT

In the movie The Matrix, Agent Smith (a virtual being) observes, Humans are the only mammal that acts more like a parasite, moving from one area to the next while growing exponentially until all of the resources in one area are gone and the area is dead and then moving on to the next area. In fact, archeological and anthropological data support this assertion. The arrival of humans always correlates to extinctions of animal, vegetable, and mineral resources. In cases such as islands where the human population was unable to move on, they fought with each other over the few remaining resources and then died out or lingered in misery and poverty.

In the twentieth century, America populated and consumed itself into a dead end. America was the last place to go, and now there is no place to move on to. The entire world is now populated beyond the remaining resources. We have a fast-growing population seeking higher living standards on a nearly used-up planet. There are as many people alive now as there were during the whole of recorded history combined, and that will double in the next forty years. Windmills, hydrogen power, solar power, and better farming will buy a little time, but this is a race that humanity cannot win. The use of corn for fuel has instantly caused a food shortage. Many stores in the United States have already experienced shortages of rice and other staples. Africa is starving and there have been food riots in Egypt, the Philippines, and Mexico. As of 2018, fifty-one countries have declared being in a food crisis. Some countries have banned exports of grain to ensure local supplies.

The falling value of the dollar has resulted in more of them being needed to buy the same amount of oil. The drive for biofuel is leading to fewer food crops and massive deforestation in third world countries. Grain reserves are at a thirty-year low. A bad harvest anywhere could be catastrophic. Massive legal and illegal immigration from have not to still have nations is generating instability, crime, and unrest throughout Europe and the United States, and this will only get worse. In some cases food is the new drugs. Criminal gangs known as boosters are beginning to steal food and resell it on the streets. The black market and government price controls will be more and more evident over the next five to ten years.