Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life by Neil Strauss
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Book Reviews of Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life
Book Review: Neil Strauss, student of life.
Summary: 5 Stars
Neil Strauss is a great writer and in my opinion an amazing human being. Why? Because he's not afraid to get outside his comfort zone and to encounter obstacles that would normally make the average human being wet themselves and cower in the corner. In "The Game" he conquered his anxiety of women, completely reinventing himself in the process and introducing us to a sub-culture of wannabe Casanova's that prove that truth is stranger than fiction.
In this book Neil somewhat repeats this pattern but in a fresh way. The subject matter deals with the dread that the common free minded man feels when confronted with the concepts of terrorism, natural disaster, and economic collapse. They think to themselves "what can I do about it? Is there anything that I can do to prevent it and protect myself and my loved ones?" Typically people just shrug their shoulders and try to change the subject. Not Neil.
While not a survival nut at the beginning of this book each page chronicles his increasing paranoia as the dawn of the twenty first century begins and brings with it 9/11, the Iraq war, tsunamis, hurricane Katrina, and eventually complete economic collapse. While apparently many of the reviewers found the beginning portion of this book uncharacteristically slow for Neil I like it just the way it is.
Sometimes you have to think in retrospect, and the man that Neil is at the end of this book is completely different than the man at the beginning and this is why this part is so crucial. The book begins with Neil working as a journalist for the New York Times just before the end of the twentieth century and having to deal with a story on the fringe lunatic Y2K cults that started popping up all over the United States and the world claiming that Armageddon would begin at midnight December 31st (would that be east coast or west coast time guys?). He finds these groups amusing to say the least and doesn't consider them serious at all (we make fun of those we're afraid of becoming) and naively begins collecting anti-American propaganda when visiting foreign nations. After all what's the worst that can happen in today's day and age?
Well WTSHTF in the beginning of the Bush administration Neil begins to worry about his safety and understandably so. I remember many times watching the news in 2003-2006 and thinking that those bible thumping crazies may have been right about the end of days after all. But unlike me Neil begins to do something about it. After meeting with a group called the B-club (for billionaires) he gets the idea to search for a second citizenship to runaway from the potential disasters facing us. Besides what's a 5'6''130lbs journalist going to do to put up a fight? I don't want to spoil the rest of the book but I will say that Neil begins to evolve as a human being and instead of just looking to run he begins to understand and undertake all of the necessary skills needed to survive in any environment.
While I truly loved this book it is not without faults. Like so many have stated, the book cover when read makes this book sound like a field manual for natural / urban survival or a self defense book. I can assure you that if you are specifically looking for that kind of book you need to look elsewhere. While you will learn some aspects of survival training from this book they are few and far between. This book is more of a memoir of one mans shift in how he perceives the world. Another aspect that I can see turning off some readers is that he does have an anti-Bush stance but in my opinion I really didn't think it was all that bad and I personally thought he was more than fair. And that's coming from someone who considers himself an Independent Conservative. So if you are easily offended get over it. Because if you don't you will be missing out on a great thought provoking book by an artist who is a master of his craft. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll be disturbed. But most of all you will have your eyes opened.
I hope like The Game Neil considers writing a how-to follow up ala Rules of the Game. Seriously few men on the planet have had outdoor survival training, urban survival training, gun training, knife training, and CERT, EMT, and CEMP training. If he were to write such a book I would definitely get it in a heart beat.
Book Review: The (Comical? Serious? Important?) Effects of Neil Strauss on Me
Summary: 5 Stars
So I just finished Neil's newest book, Emergency. I read the majority tonight, and couldn't put it down. I've read a lot of his books, but one of the most important was The Game. For those of you who honestly don't know about it, what the book breaks down to is this:
1: Women hold most, if not all the cards in a given social situation.
2: Men (typically) have far less knowledge of social proof and how to talk to women.
3: There is an entire sub-culture that works specifically just to learn how to even the odds and attract women.
4: Neil went from super nerd to Style (one of the most respected men in the community) in an incredibly short period of time.
5: A lot of the knowledge taught is used solely to get guys laid. Which means they are "abusing" this process (or maybe using it to it's fullest, who knows).
Even while I was reading the book, I realized how pitiful my own interactions with women were. I'd never dated someone I aimed for and frequently had to rely on females picking me. After reading this book, I started to work on changing that. I was no longer content to just sit around and hope something great would fall into my lap. I would change my image. I would work out harder. I would "sarge," to use their parlance, and number-close women until I was successful.
Initially I was wary in talking to people about it, as so many people think that this community is rather silly, if not outright chauvinistic. But as I worked harder on becoming the best me possible, not some fake jerk that's hitting on girls, but me, the best version of him, my friends changed their minds. For the first time in years, I was willing to go out into social situations. I was willing to talk to strangers, male and female, so that I could come to terms with my own social awkwardness. I bought clothes that fit and looked nice on me. My friends commented on how I changed (most said for the better, a few for the worse), and were very curious to see where I was going to end up.
This came to a halt when I realized that I still wasn't done with where I wanted to be. There were still things I needed to work on within before I felt ready to go back out and meet people. The difference between this and the same thing that I said for years was that I was fervently working to change. It wasn't just a simple stalling tactic to hide behind. It was a true statement of intent.
Around this time my friends came up with this idea of surviving if anything bad ever happened in LA/USA/Earth. While I agreed on the need to do that, I didn't really agree to the way they were working towards it. I felt that instead of doing reading up on the subject, we were just flailing about wildly, realizing that the United States might not be what we were led to believe all our lives. In a WTSHTF scenario, we all realized that it would be us that we'd turn to. We wouldn't wait for local or federal agencies to set things right. We'd do it ourselves. But the way we were talking about it seemed wrong. Like we knew what the problem was and had a general idea to the solution, but no real way to go about it.
Cue Neil Strauss (aka Style), the man who is known as one of the best Pick Up Artists in the world. Apparently, he's been feeling the same way as my group, and decided to do something. And in his flailing, he has spent the past 7 years slowly learning how to become a "survivalist." The book itself, while great, does an even better job of showing the steps of what he did to reach his goal. It shows the things he tried and failed at, the realizations he had on who he was and how that wouldn't save him, and a long list of books/reference quides/etc. to help him.
I feel as if the thing that my group has been looking for to help guide/motivate us was just placed into our laps. I'm curious, excited, and a little afraid of where this book will lead me. But I feel that unlike last time around, this time I will have the help of my friends on this journey. Not saying that they weren't there for me last time, but it was a much different situation. Anyway, here's to the start of something new. It will be interesting to see where I am 15 months from now (as that's how long it's been since I read The Game).
Book Review: Last Man Standing
Summary: 5 Stars
It's very interesting , though I never laughed out loud once while reading it. Few years back when I read The Game Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists I was rolling around on the floor most of the time. Emergency isn't funny at all, rather, it's a straight-forward recounting of the author's evolution into the learning curve of urban and wilderness survival skills.
He documents how he got freaked out by 9-11 and overall fear of terrorism (despite the fact that 9-11 was obviously a Psy-Op but I don't expect anybody as mainstream as Strauss to understand that, it's ok), which propelled him on a manic search for a way to escape the total collapse of American law and order. The first part of the book details his gradual awakening and search for another country to relocate to, or to at least re-citizenship himself so he could get out of Dodge when the AK's and RPG's come out and the bullets begin to fly. The only real narrative drive comes from the suspense of waiting to see if his dual citizenship application (to a Caribbean paradise isle) will go through or not.
The second half of the book details all his survival training. It's good stuff, the typical programs that anybody with the requisite cash and time would go to if you suddenly got freaked about survival and hopped on the net and signed up immediately for something in the top 3 Google results for your target topic.
Throughout the book he sprinkles a lot of fantastically apt and enchanting quotes from the ancient Sumerian 'Epic of Gilgamesh' thus proving that although he's now a hardcore tough guy, he retained the ear and the heart of a great literary sensibility.
Here's a list of all the training courses attended by Strauss:
Gunsite Academy (firearms)
Motorcycle Safety Foundation
CERT (Community Emergency Response Team)
American Red Cross (CPR / AED)
Flight lessons
Tom Brown Tracker School
Mad Dog private knife training
School of Self-Reliance Edible Plant Walks
American Sailing Association Basic Keelboat Sailing
onPoint Tactical - Urban Escape and Evasion
Krav Maga (hand to hand self defense)
California Institute of Emergency Medical Training (EMT certification)
California Emergency Mobile Patrol
FCC Technician Class exam
(I've done a fair amount of the above type of stuff myself, especially the shoot training, but not nearly enough. Why am I such a survival slacker... Is it that I have a Death Wish or what?)
Overall a book very much worth reading. He evolves through three stages: from rock music critic, to fear-crazed solo refugee (in his mind), to community-minded "let's all pull through this together" type of mentality. Fascinating, and even though he's (temporarily?) lost most of his sense of humor, he's still a very good writer. And, I don't doubt, a really skilled survivalist and urban warrior now.
Book Review: A lot of people seem to have read this book but not gotten it
Summary: 5 Stars
The reviews for Emergency seem to be clearly split between people who found it valuable and people who didn't. Those who didn't seem to fall into two groups. The first group that didn't like it bought the book because they bought The Game and they apparently thought that because they liked a book on learning to pick up girls, they'll like a story of becoming a self-reliant individual (with predictable results; i.e. they didn't). If you loved The Game, that appears to not a good reason to buy this book; it's very different. The second group that didn't like it expected it to be packed with techniques that magically transform them into someone who is survival-competent. I understand a little more why they feel this, as the publisher's cover blurbs skew that way, but a basic flip-through would tell you that it is not that kind of book; it is, instead, a story of transformation. I'll have more to say to you guys a little later.
The people who did like it likely already care about, and know some things about, survival. As one of those people, let me explain why it is a seriously good book: survival is a mentality, a way of looking at the world - backed up by a rich set of basic skills. There is no coffee-table book that is going to make you a good shot, a good lock-picker, good in a crisis, a good EMT, good at managing financial risk, etc. Those are deep skills and you get them reading many books, going to classes, spending time in the field or dojo or gun range - i.e. by doing the work. Expecting a book to make you a good survivalist is like reading a book by a karate master and expecting to fight like one at the end. It's not going to happen like that. You need to do the work. The value in a book about someone's journey from novice to expert is that it tells you *where to spend your time*. When Neil tells you a story about how he was able, barely, for a half million dollars to get a St. Kitts citizenship as the door for second citizenship was closing, while narrowly avoiding being ripped off, the real message is that getting a second citizenship is not a viable path unless you already qualify for one. When he tells a story about how he structured asset protection and the company ends up getting investigated by the IRS, he's telling you that's a rat-hole and you can now avoid going down it. By the end, he realizes that he is by nature an urbanite and he's learning things that work for his environment, such as becoming an EMT and building relationships with the police. Viewed from that perspective, the book is excellent.
Book Review: Not a How-to, But A Why-to
Summary: 5 Stars
I became a "survivalist" in 1980 when Ronald Reagan got elected. As a newly registered Libertarian, I wasn't opposed to his politics so much as I KNEW he was going to get us into a nuclear war by the end of the decade. Good thing I was wrong.
But since then, I have bought hundreds of pounds of books on survival, emergency preparedness, primitive technologies, homesteading, etc. Just because TEOTWAWKI hasn't happened yet, TSHTF looms ever closer.
When I saw this book on a main table of my local chain bookstore, I perused it but almost didn't buy it because it was not like the books I was used to--there were no lists of supplies, no defined sections on food, water, shelter, etc, like I was used to seeing. But the back cover and this weird list of "survival" skills which intrigued me and I went ahead and bought it. I am so glad I did.
As some reviewers have noted, this book is not a how-to on preparedness. If you want a good one on that, check out Holly Deyo's "Dare To Prepare", that has all the info and lists to get you through any emergency you can imagine. It's very comprehensive and worth the money.
What Mr. Strauss has done is show us the "why-to" of preparedness and does it in an engaging style that reads like a novel. His journey from jaded, citified reporter writing on kooky millenium cults to an independent, self-reliant individual is an educational and highly entertaining read.
We are living in "interesting times" and it behooves us all to become less dependent on big bureaucracies and corporations and take more responsibility for ourselves. But Mr. Strauss does not advocate lone wolf survivalism, but encourages getting involved with your community. The end of his journey is inspiring and has lead me to talk more with my neighbors instead of just waving to them as I go by. And I have found they have the same concerns that I do and are replacing their ornamental plants with food plants just like I am, and for the same reasons.
IF you are already into this kind of thing, you will love this book. But it is also a great book for those who may be on the fence. I've pushed my copy on to my sister in hopes that she may take preparedness more seriously. If Neil Strauss doesn't convince her, then it is hopeless. But I think he will.