vii

Introduction Considering the Coming Dark Age 1

Chapter 1 Basic Dark-Age Preparations 3

Chapter 2 Caching Supplies 17

Chapter 3 The Survival Workshop 29

Chapter 4 Recycle and Salvage Everything 65

Chapter 5 Making Fire 75

Chapter 6 Making and Using Cordage 83

Chapter 7 Making Clothing 93

Chapter 8 A Barter Economy 109

Chapter 9 Adapting to a New Social Order 117

Table of Contents

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Survival, more currently called “prepared-ness,” carries with it great personalresponsibility.So daunting is the thought of this much

personal responsibility that many peoplesimply refuse to even consider the realitiesand implications of a survival economy. Thisis especially true when forced to contemplatelong term or extended life in survival mode asis proposed by author James Ballou.

Europeans tend (perhaps erroneously) toequate survival entirely with eating berriesand twigs while regressing to primitive, labor-intense means of production. Americans, insharp contrast, view survival as a means ofgetting along nicely without government inter-vention, control, or help—if, in reality, there issuch a thing.

History is, of course, on the side of theAmericans, who note that just in the lastcentury we have examples of Berlin, Madrid,Jerusalem, Stalingrad, Warsaw, Nanking,Tokyo, Beirut, Manila, and many other citieswherein a total collapse occurred. Citizens

Foreword

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Long-Term Survival in the Coming Dark Age

were summarily left to their own devices foran extended period of time. Many, so circum-stanced, were unable to take personalresponsibility for their own well being andsimply disappeared.

Reasons for, and causes of, a collapse aremany and varied. Wisely, Ballou does notoverly entangle himself with these, or thelikelihood of their occurring. Suffice it to saythat these are dangerous times. The likeli-hood of some sort of national or eveninternational catastrophe with which ourgovernment is incapable of coping seemsmore and more probable.

Ballou is concerned that wise peopleprepare for the very long term. The cost ofbeing prepared need not be excessive; the costof being unprepared can be huge.

Critics may point out that most of myexamples of cities in crisis were not for thelong term. Yet, three years or more is a very,very long term for those with absolutely nopreparation in terms of skills, plans, referencelibrary, or goods.

And what about the modern-day exampleof Cuba? There the economy has been in astate of collapse for almost 50 years. A veryfew innovative, creative, hard-workingCubans are still making it, but only becausethey have adapted many or most of the plansand devices suggested by Ballou.

A cornerstone of preparedness plans mustinclude the absolute truth that at least onesource of life’s vital goods must be renewable.

No matter how many goods—especially hard-ware—remain to be scrounged, some itemsmust be made new. In that regard, we aregoing to have to create, build, and improve,frequently creating vital survival goods out ofwhat seems to others to be thin air.

Long-Term Survival in the Coming DarkAge very nicely addresses many of the skillsand talents that many of us will need toacquire if we are to be among the elite groupknown as “survivors.”

Specialization, as practiced by NorthAmerican Indians as well as early Europeansettlers, trading, scrounging, and making dowith substitute goods will all be of vitalimportance. Even if readers are unwilling, atthis time, to expend the time and effort tomaster many of the skills outlined in thisbook, they will—at least—be sensitized to theneed for such should a Dark Ages scenariopop up on the horizon.

“Better late than never” may not always bemuch better, but it is still something.

Having information such as this in one’slibrary is always of great value, even if noimmediate action is taken. Yet, acting nowon this information—while there is stilltime—is of much greater value, but only forthose sufficiently brave and independent tosay, “I will make it through, completely onmy own.”

—Ragnar Benson2006

Considering the Coming Dark Age

1

A t the time of this writing, it is probablysafe to say that most Americans believewith confidence that civilization and tech-

nology will continue to advance at aprogressively accelerating pace. Our historyover the past 200 or more years would seemto indicate that this is what we can expect.

But the future can certainly be unpre-dictable. Before September 2001, who wouldever have dreamed that commercial passengerplanes would smash into and destroy theWorld Trade Center buildings? BeforeDecember 2004, who could have imagined thetsunami that killed well over 200,000 peoplealong the coastlines of Indonesia and severalSouth Asian countries?

When we consider some of the events ofthe 20th century—two world wars and numer-ous other bloody conflicts, the GreatDepression of the 1930s, the AIDS epidemic,and the series of natural disasters just since1989—it does not seem unreasonable to expectthat some major world-changing events awaitus in the 21st century. More countries have

Dark Ages: The period between about 500 and1000, which was marked by frequent warfare anda virtual disappearance of urban life.1

INTRODUCTION

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Long-Term Survival in the Coming Dark Age

nuclear weapon capabilities now than everbefore, and the Earth’s climate seems to bechanging in some very strange ways.

Civilized societies function on a system ofinterdependence: A government depends onthe taxes collected from its citizens; citizens,in turn, depend on their jobs for the incometo pay those taxes and to buy goods andservices essential to their survival; theiremployers depend on customers whopurchase their products and services. Mostcitizens depend on motor transportation to getto work, which means depending on vehiclemanufacturers, fueling stations, repair shops,and roadways, which are all paid for withmoney from the people who drive the cars,buses, and trucks that move the people andgoods to work, to market, or out shopping tobuy the things that create the jobs that paythe taxes to the government. And on and on.

So really, every part of a society dependson the other parts of the society for its exis-tence, either directly or indirectly. The wholesystem works like a complex machine, and ifany major component of the machine goesdown for any reason, it could have a disablingeffect upon the entire works.

Just imagine, for example, what wouldhappen if a really nasty computer virus—onethat was capable of circumventing the variousvirus protection programs—started spreadingrapidly and, say, roughly 80 percent of allcomputers, including business and bankingcomputers, personal computers, and govern-ment computers crashed all at the same time.What if a nuclear bomb detonated in NewYork City, destroying hundreds of buildings,killing people by the thousands or possibly

millions, vaporizing Wall Street, and makingthe collapse of the Twin Towers look like apinprick by comparison? Could you imaginethe chaos that would follow?

The possible catastrophic scenarios maybe endless, but the point is that modern civi-lization has certain vulnerabilities and isperhaps more fragile than we generallyrealize. If the New York Stock Exchangesuddenly disappeared, what would that do toour national economy? If our economycollapsed, what effect would it have on therest of the world? If a deadly tsunami were todevastate the eastern seaboard of the UnitedStates, how would it affect the rest of thecountry? The few scenarios mentioned herecould even be mild compared to the perils ourworld may encounter in the years to come.

This book is intended to help readersprepare themselves for life without the typeof social order we often take for granted.Organized cities, municipalities, governments,power stations, factories, stores, computers,and the general infrastructure of civilizationmay not always exist the way we know thesethings today. An array of challenges likelyencountered by survivors in the months andyears following a cataclysmic event will bediscussed in the chapters of this book, withthe end goal of finding practical solutions tosome possibly exceptional problems.

ENDNOTE

1. “Dark Ages.” Encyclopedia BritannicaPremium Service. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9028782. (Accessed July 31, 2006.)

3

The best time to prepare for hard times isusually during good times, for obviousreasons. But relatively few people are

forward-thinking enough to prepare for acalamity that might not even happen. Someuse the excuse, “Remember all the doom-and-gloom predictions about Y2K?”, dismissing asfantasy the possibility of other problems.Consequently, plenty of excellent opportunitiesfor getting ready are often missed, and everyyear the usual wildfires, floods, hurricanes,and other natural disasters catch peoplecompletely unprepared. Our world has a wayof making unprepared people suffer.

According to a TIME magazine articlepublished on the one-year anniversary ofhurricane Katrina, 91 percent of Americanslive in areas with a moderate-to-high risk ofdanger from earthquakes, volcanoes, torna-does, wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, high-winddamage, or terrorism. But instead of preparingfor these potential disasters, they tend toignore them. “There are four stages of denial,”says Eric Holdeman, director of emergency

Mountains and forests might offer survivors the bestchances for survival, with wild game, fresh air, freshwater, lumber, and a place to hide when the turmoilbegins. The cities may become violent slum areas for themost part, plagued with diseases.

Basic Dark-Age Preparations

CHAPTER 1

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Long-Term Survival in the Coming Dark Age

management for Seattle’s King County, whichfaces a significant earthquake threat. “One is,it won’t happen. Two is, if it does happen, itwon’t happen to me. Three: if it does happento me, it won’t be that bad. And four: if ithappens to me and it’s bad, there’s nothing Ican do to stop it anyway.”1

WHY PREPARE?

The people in this fourth group often seembewildered by those who make a survival plan;they seem to believe only paranoid doomsdaypessimists plan for a perilous future.

In my view, however, the best prepared-ness strategy isn’t organized by a pessimistbut by an optimist. An optimist will takeaction now in order to make his future better;he believes he can survive and is willing toinvest some effort toward ensuring the bestpossible living conditions for himself and hisfamily in spite of anything that may happenaround him. If you weigh the disadvantages ofbeing unprepared against the disadvantages (ifany) of making yourself even a little bitprepared, which way do you think the scaleswill tip?

If we are certain something is going tohappen, most of us prepare for it the best waythat we can—parents of newborns start collegefunds, workers put their money into 401(k)accounts or other retirement plans—but whenwe can only speculate on the nature of acoming event, it is more difficult to prepare forit. In a sense we are all like ships sailing outinto the ocean at night without navigation orobservation equipment, and none of us knowswhere the icebergs are drifting. Each of us is apotential Titanic. This book is intended to helpyou avoid sinking into the abyss.

WHAT’S OUR STRATEGY?

Preparing for a future Dark Age will bequite different from preparing for a badstorm or any other local or short-termpredicament. An “age” implies a period ofsome years. Here we will focus primarily on

the long-term survival issues under the worstpossible conditions.

You can develop a strategy for makingyourself better prepared than most people willbe at shock and panic time. If your strategy issound, it should help you through the firstphase at least. After that, survivors will haveto adapt to a very different kind of world thanwe know today.

What Could Happen?If you live in a city, try to envision your

neighborhood without the weekly garbagepickup, reliable electricity, or a functioningsewer system. Running water may be scarce,and responding fire and police protectioncould be very difficult to manage withoutthe resources of an organized government,which may ultimately be replaced by localgangs. The remaining elements of humansociety may eventually regroup into a tribalsystem, reminiscent of history’s more primi-tive cultures.

Normal commerce may also be soseverely disrupted by a major catastrophethat supermarkets and shopping malls are nolonger in operation. These businesses relyheavily on electricity, computers, security, alabor force, and shipping, and any or all ofthese things may be unreliable at best, andnonexistent in the worst of situations.Imagine not being able to buy fresh produce,or toilet paper, or milk, at the store whereyou always used to shop. In the first weeksfollowing a catastrophe, store shelves may bepicked clean by desperate looters. Under less-than-ideal circumstances it could take a longtime to restore a lost system.

If the government of the United Statessuddenly collapsed, the American dollarwould only be as valuable as any other green-colored strip of paper. It would haveessentially no buying power at all. The sameis true for the currency of any other country.Unlike the currency of years past, which wasminted from inherently valuable preciousmetals, the only thing that bestows any valueat all upon modern money is the faith people

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Basic Dark-Age Preparations

have in their government. Since commerceworks best when a standard medium ofexchange can be relied upon, traders withouta stable currency will be forced to barter withone another. The barter system might workwell between individuals, but it certainly isnot industry-friendly. Banks, manufacturers,retailers, restaurants, and other businesseswould struggle severely in a barter economy.

A good preparedness strategy will take allof these matters into consideration. Basic livingwould demand different occupational skillsthan most of us presently apply in our normalroutines. Where now we concern ourselveswith maintaining our automobiles, paying ourmonthly bills, getting to work or school ontime, budgeting our incomes, and filing ourtaxes, in a harsher environment we will haveother priorities. We might have to stalk, kill,and butcher any meat that we eat ourselvesbecause the grocery store is closed. We mighthave to move about on foot or on a bicyclebecause the gas stations are closed, or maybethe fuel is unaffordable for most of us. And ifwe have anything of utility or survival value,we might have to protect it by force, becausethe police may no longer serve the people.

Short Term vs. Long TermPreparing for the short term should be

fairly easy. It will involve stockpiling certainessentials such as storable foods, bottledwater, extra cash, blankets, batteries, fuel andfuel preservatives, and medicines. Basic emer-gency and first-aid skills would be valuable.Keeping bags packed for travel might behandy in the event of a rapid evacuation.Things like gas masks, fire extinguishers, roadflares, inflatable rafts, tire pumps, winterclothing, ropes, tarps, water filters, and othermiscellaneous emergency survival gear couldbe useful immediately following a disaster ofany proportion.

Long-term survival presents additionalissues. Eventually, stockpiled resources willdwindle. Water supplies may dry up orbecome contaminated. Motor vehicles,machines, appliances, and other manufac-

tured products will eventually wear out. Theprogressive deterioration of sanitation wouldbe likely. For how long such conditions couldlast is anybody’s guess. Rebuilding the infra-structure and restoring technology wouldmost likely become civilization’s main priori-ties, but day-to-day survival needs will takeprecedence for some time.

The natural tendency of social order isfor the strongest to dominate and—at leastfor a while—those with the greatest fire-power or superior weapons could become therulers in the barbaric new society. (Theissues of individual security and survivalweaponry in times of anarchy are veryimportant topics; I hope to cover them exten-sively in another book.)

Where Do I Start?Any preparations you begin making now

should be made in anticipation of a worldwith different demands. Obviously, anyonewith the financial resources and initiative toinvest now in rural acreage is probably wiseto do so. You could become quite self-suffi-cient with a private well, septic system, solaror other alternative power source, backupgenerators, wood stove and several years’supply of firewood, fruit cellar, fruit trees,greenhouse, chickens and cows, several late-model 4x4 utility pickups, fuel storage tanks,tool shop, a dozen hunting and militaryweapons with thousands of rounds of ammu-nition, and a basement full of storable foodsand other groceries. But while most of us willhave to make do with less, there are stillmany things we can do to get through thisdifficult time.

People who survive the initial stages of asevere global crisis will have to be resourcefulto continue surviving. A certain degree ofingenuity will evolve by necessity where itdidn’t exist before, we can be sure. The ideasand concepts outlined in this book should behelpful to almost anyone who studies andremembers them in the coming years, shouldour modern world unravel the way I believe itso easily could.

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Long-Term Survival in the Coming Dark Age

While you would be concerned quite a lotwith matters of self-defense in a time after aglobal cataclysm, no doubt, and food andsupplies might be scarce and precious, you willalso need practical skills and a useful education.Pursuits generally popular in a time of prosper-ity, such as performing arts, may no longer bein such high demand. You might find yourselfin desperate need of a doctor or dentist whocan help you with whatever improvised tools hemight scrounge up. A mechanic who is able tokeep a generator or a vehicle running after it’sconsidered worn out could be a very importantperson all of a sudden; people with practicalskills will always be valuable.

You could start educating yourself rightaway in as many subjects as might be usefulto your future survival in a harsh environ-ment. Subjects related to technology andscience, mechanics, electronics, medicine,agriculture, or engineering might be espe-cially useful, as well as wilderness survivalskills, self-defense, and warfare. If knowledgeis power, then you have access to unlimitedpower right now. You might as well educateyourself while the vast educational resourcesare still available to you.

THE BASICS

In this chapter dealing with basic, long-term survival preparations, a somewhatcomprehensive discussion on equipmentmight be useful. A list of provisions will bepresented here, with some of the gear to bereviewed further in subsequent chapters.

As already noted, it’s fairly easy to lay inenough supplies to get you through a coupleof days or even weeks after a disaster.Equipping for an unspecified period of yearspresents a greater challenge. Also, what youread here represents one man’s ideas aboutbasic long-term survival gear. The readershould be mindful that one person’s (orfamily’s) situation, geographic location, shop-ping budget, storage or load-carrying capacity,and medical or dietary requirements maydiffer substantially from another’s. An assortment of old steel traps might serve as barter

or as food collectors during a Dark Age.

Vegetable seeds weigh next to nothing, take up littlespace, and are cheap now compared to their potentialvalue after a collapse.

Low-tech devices might be the most practical in a Dark Age.