The reason why Amazon has good reviews and the reason why it's going to be high on their list of purchased books is because the author begs his followers thru his website to buy the book thru Amazon specifically to bump up the sales figures.

Not saying that it's wrong for him to promote his book but the folks buying it are James Rawles fans, not the general book reading public. If you enjoy reading about folks are gonna allegedly "survive" in the post-apocalyptic world and you are a devout fundamentalist Christian, you'll probably enjoy the book. And if you think that a novel is gonna help you survive economic collapse.

I find it odd that Mr. Rawles rails against the coming collapse of society while at the same time selling and promoting tons of items and services thru his site that won't be of much use if the bottom should fall out. Anyone remember that movie with Robin Williams and the late great Walter Matthau in which the so-called survival instructor was really more interested in selling his followers time share condos and investment "opportunities" etc.? I also wonder if Mr. Rawles would accept rolls of nickels in exchange for some of his products and services?

I'd recommend that anyone interested in learning how people are profiting from exploiting people's fears read "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein.

For the record, what Doug does is the complete opposite of what Mr. Rawles and his fellow commercial survivalists are doing in my opinion, both in spirit as well as in practice.

JohnE