Survive Infinite Dangers: The Family Survival Guide of 21st Century Dangers (4 page)

We are still mostly unprotected as a country from both internal and external threats. In fact, recent unilateral shows of “friendship” to certain hostile countries and their leaders may make us even more vulnerable. We’ve only been made to appear weaker and impotent. That is not helpful. Our appearance of unilateral disarmament concerns me but, perhaps, they know things I don’t and disarming ourselves is the right thing to do. Still, it concerns me. Only time will tell if what is being done today was for the best. All the more reason for each individual to take all possible steps to protect themselves and their families (and groups) before anything happens especially when protection from 95% of presently known “21
^st
century man-made dangers” can be obtained for a comparatively small amount of money (i.e. under $1,000 for a family of four for basic protection).

This book is intended for the average person who knows there are many new dangers in the world but has detailed knowledge of almost none of them. They may not even know where to look to find something about yet another new “danger”. Hmm, the Internet is a great place to start! Something tells you the world is changing and NOT for the better! By the end of 1999 you were finally prepared for what the 20
^th
century had for you but NOT what is coming at you now in the early years of the 21
^st
century. With “9/11” and afterwards everything came at you so fast you are hopelessly confused! As the I.R.S. says, you are the “Head of Household” even if the household is just one person. This book is written for you, the “Head of Household”.

By the way, don’t let the I.R.S. decide who the “Head of Household” is for purposes of this book. It is whoever is going to be in charge! Decide in advance! And stick to it! If all decisions are “made by consensus, fine. But decide in advance. In my opinion, consensus should be considered but one person always has to be the one everyone else accepts and supports their decision if complete consensus is not possible. If you’ve picked the members of your group well and planned and discussed everything in detail months in advance few awkward situations should occur.

All these technical words the media throws at you you’ve never heard of! You can look each one up on the Internet with a million “answers” for every search but surely there is one book that contains almost everything. There is now. This book is it! Informational books that are mind numbing pages of useless (to you) complex information satisfying a particular author’s personal excitement about solar power, guns, and living “off the grid”, canning, becoming self-sufficient with their own garden, and so on are WORTHLESS to you. If you’re looking for a book with long-winded complex details, this is not it. I suspect you’ve already purchased a few such books thinking you were buying a general “cover everything” book like this book but felt only frustration after reading it. Keep them for those narrow subjects but be aware they are no longer your primary guide to survival.

On the other hand, there are many books about basic survival (mostly outdoor wilderness) skills. “Boy Scouts on Steroids” books I call them. Only with the clothes on their back and armed with a really great survivalist book the fully trained reader heads into the wilderness and emerges five years later no worse for wear! This is NOT one of those books. Do you really want to learn how to trap beavers and skin rabbits? Do you want to learn how to turn grass and weeds into hemp and hemp into clothing, roofs, rugs and all the things you can (much easier) buy at Walmart today? As an aside, Walmart is mentioned as a source in this book. The author believes in “Buy America” but assumes time is short and readers don’t have months finding USA manufactured items that can all be bought at a Super Walmart in a few hours (probably some items from China). Do what you want.

There are also what I call “living off the grid” books where a person once again lives in the woods but, this time, starts with, say, $300,000 of equipment and a well-built log cabin. The person (and probably family) is entirely self-sufficient right down to cooking, growing food, making clothes, (basic) hunting and fishing, (basic) first-aid and everything, and I mean everything, you buy at stores or on the Internet today. Except for a major medical problem they may not see another living soul for years - and prefer it that way! More power to them! In some ways I envy such people but, boy, do they go through a lot of work just to get milk from their cows, darn a pair of socks and make soap from animal fat. Whew! Give me a near-by discount mega-store any day! They may have the personal satisfaction of “giving back to the land what is taken” but have you ever smelled a large compost pile?

Above all, “living off the land” is a lot of work. On the other hand, if your total annual budget is $600 for property taxes for your log cabin (no one is truly self-sufficient – the government “has your number” even if you are ten miles from the nearest dirt road) you don’t have a job so just “living” becomes your job. Two hours to make butter, an hour to darn a pair of socks, time to gather and chop wood (no cheating with gas powered chain saws!) and on and on. By the end of the day you may wish you had a steady job, could eat a TV dinner popped in the microwave then sit down to watch whatever mind-numbing TV show is on tonight. You’re tired either way. At least not being a true survivalist, not being that “Boy Scout on Steroids” I mentioned you do have solar panels to provide a small amount of electricity and you do have a well for water, tablets or other means to purify the water and you may even have enough solar panels to afford the low wattage small refrigerators, hot water heaters, a low-wattage television and the like that are becoming very popular with families who “live off the grid”. If such living sounds of interest to you, I hope I’ve created enough interest for you to look into it further. In fact, in the back of this book is a “reference sources” to buy everything you need including books on becoming a true “hermit”. No insult intended by “hermit”. If I didn’t have a family and a “life” I might like to see if I could be a hermit myself! But read a hermit’s Web site (many have their own sites with their computer powered by alternative power). To “exist” there is no “sleeping in” or taking a day off. It’s a 14 hour seven day a week job. But it still sounds neat!

As solar panels become more efficient and less expensive and products of all types meant for such living explode into the marketplace, we may all be living “off the grid” in another thirty years. Well, not entirely “off the grid” but certainly for energy needs and other goods and services you pay for now. What a nice thought but today it is just a thought. Such living is possible now for the person who is committed to living off the land for decades acting as they or their group is the last person/people left on the face of the earth. Hmm, that also means no I.R.S. and no motor vehicle office where you spend hours only to learn you’ve been in wrong line!

Oh, yes. Even if you have no income you still have to file a 1040 and state tax forms each year. But by pre-paying an attorney years in advance and giving him or her signed power of attorney (POA) form they can become “you”. Better give them POA over a large checking account as expect to be audited every year as 1040’s that show zero year after year are flagged by the I.R.S. All you barter for is supposed to be on the federal 1040 and state income tax forms. Trade bushels of corn you grew for gallons of milk with your neighbor must be reported just as they and you are supposed to report what you gained by helping your neighbor build a barn. Come to think of it is darn hard to totally “legally” disconnect from civilization.

In general, people who truly live off the grid (except, as I say, legally) are willing to pay more for that privilege than visiting Super Walmart once a week. I know this will earn me letters written on tree bark using colored tree sap for ink from people absolutely swearing their “off the grid” abode and life style is saving them money but I have yet to actually see an “off the grid” home that truly costs less when everything is included than a new, energy-efficient high technology home of today if you count work time keeping it all running at say, even, $10 an hour. But the day is coming! Quadruple the efficiency (or cut the cost by 75%) of solar panels and/or invent a battery bank that is not the cost of a small car plus find a way to cheaply remove salt from sea water and clean it the point of it being safe to drink and you win! But we’re still at least 20 years away and Big Oil and Big Government is not helping as it is not in their best interests to allow people to truly live independently. You DO need their help? The only answer they’ll accept is “yes and we need much more! Please intrude in my life even more” even if your mind says “please go away and leave me alone”. No government works that way ANYWHERE!

There are books for “true survivalists” who can live in the woods for a year with a pocket knife. As I say, there are books for people who live “off the grid” with no commercial power and probably not even dirt roads for a thirty mile radius living totally self-sufficient for years on end. Then there are highly technical books that go into great detail about a single danger that is so complicated it is meant for writing a college thesis but of no use when all you want to know is “what is it and how do I protect myself and my family from it?”

So who IS this book written for? It is written for the 99% of you who have lives to live and enjoy “creature comforts” of today. You like your microwave, lawnmower, your big screen TV (and remote control – almost forgot THE most important item in a man’s home – OK the spouse comes in a close second – by the way, I’ve discovered it works BOTH ways; women MUST have TV remote controls too!) and on and on. Even the most basic household takes for granted what a King could not have had just a few hundred years ago.

This book is intended to provide (getting serious for a moment) possible “life and death” information that could save you and your family by knowing some bit of knowledge contained within these pages you need to know should a catastrophic and wide-spread disaster occur and you have NO IDEA WHAT TO DO!; thus the title for this book, “Infinite Dangers”. The 21
^st
century has brought forth, along with all the marvels of technology to make our lives more comfortable and enjoyable an unlimited (Infinite) number of new dangers that did not exist in the 19
^th
century and many did not exist until the last quarter of the 20
^th
century. How many people even 25 years ago knew “white powder” could be more than salt, sugar or many other harmless white powders. Suddenly we have the word anthrax thrown at us by a newscaster with people fleeing in panic in the background and you have absolutely no idea what it is!

Do you know what an EMP attack is? Don’t feel bad. Very few people do but our government tells us it is a real danger and it could happen on our shores and could throw North America back into the 14
^th
century within seconds - permanently! You are probably an average suburbanite who just needs all this new “stuff” explained in simple terms, be told what the probability is of each “danger” happening to you and/or your family, how to prepare (if you do need to prepare at all) and what to do IF that danger occurs physically close enough to you to be of a concern and what to do to protect your family and yourself. NOT an Einstein PhD thesis but also not a book so simple to be titled “Dangers For Dummies” containing pages and pages of very simple information you already know (I have one such book in hand that spends a full page to tell young mothers “be sure to have extra diapers on hand”, duh!) and pages of lists of government agencies and NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organization) to call for dangers “A to Z” (hint: if something major happens like “9/11” or Katrina don’t expect to call 911 on your phone and even hear a dial tone) plus 200 pages of filler information copied from the Internet that a third-grader probably already knows. But the book reviews sounded great (you mutter as you throw it in a box for your next garage sale).

This book is the reference book you need to thoroughly read once, have your spouse and older children read it then keep it handy! I’m not trying to sell extra copies but it will help to buy extra copies to loan out to friends, relatives and neighbors. Fill up the “notes” section to tailor it to your family and the particulars of your situation. Maybe you live on a farm, maybe you live in a high-rise in a densely packed city or maybe you live in a suburban home on a city-sized lot. The last situation is probably the most common and this book is written based on living in a single-family (or duplex/apartment/town home) in the suburbs but it contains survival information for everyone.

The word “survival” can mean many things. For the purposes of this book it means survive for at least six months in good health mind, spirit and body probably extending it to nine to twelve months as needed. It might not be an enjoyable period of your life but you will get through it in good shape and in much better shape because you read this book and followed its suggestions on preparing for “dangers”. A “danger” is something like an earthquake and, to get right to it, a terrorist attack by evil people or a demagogue. That’s probably the number one reason you bought this book, right? Read on and I won’t let you down.

Since “9/11” occurred, people still rank “terrorist attack” very high up on their personal lists of worries for themselves and their families. Everyone wants to be “prepared”. But they don’t know where to begin so they do nothing (beyond buying a gun, have extra water; buy some gold or silver coins and an extra week of groceries). Then they draw a blank and stop there. After reading this book you will be amazed how easy and inexpensive it is to truly be “prepared!

Dangers can be almost anything, happen at any time, anywhere and at any magnitude. Thus there is no such thing as being “too prepared”. But you also need not obsess believing “the end of the world is coming!” Treat this just like buying health insurance. Once completed (then maintained) it will provide you great peace of mind! While others may silently think “what will I do!?” when they see or hear a dangerous headline in the news, you will be relaxed knowing you are prepared! You are buying and making “assurance” of health and safety should the worst ever happen; even protection of your financial assets if that is important to you.