Neil Strauss is a former music critic for the New York Times and bestselling author. In his new book, Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life, Strauss describes how he grew up believing that America was the greatest country on earth until he lost faith in the Bush government and began to fear another terrorist attack. He set out to learn how to shoot a gun and hunt for food. Along the way, he met wacko survivalists and a New York billionaire, who urged him to get out of the U.S. Strauss went so far as to acquire a second passport.
Q: Your book is, in a strange way, like a self-help book, “How to Survive the Apocalypse.” About halfway through, you make the statement, “It’s a strange time to be an American,” and I thought that’s it—that’s the whole nut of the book, right?
A: Yes, that’s a great question because that’s what the entire book came out of, people being born in the ’70s and ’80s, who grew up with a silver spoon in their mouths. America was the lone superpower. All the problems of the world seemed to happen to other people. It seemed like the future was this bright, shiny, optimistic place where anything was possible.
Then, starting with 9/11, all of a sudden everything we thought couldn’t happen to us, happened to us. We had an act of war occur on American soil which hadn’t happened since Pearl Harbor. We had this constitution, which is kind of a holy relic, which makes us the best, freest country in the world, all of a sudden open to interpretation, and these things could change in the name of national security.
Q: And then there was hurricane Katrina.
A: Right. I think that was the real turning point. Katrina wasn’t like 9/11. They knew a disaster was going to strike and even then with advance notice they still couldn’t help anyone. You never think you’re going to see bodies floating in the street, ignored in America. That’s when I realized . . .
Q: You’ve got to look after yourself?
A: Exactly.
Q: You collected anti-American souvenirs for a while. Do you remember the first item in your collection?
A: I think it was the postcard in Belgrade of the Serbian soldier pissing on the American flag and saying “Oh, what a feeling.” I kept finding these things and it was sort of shocking to see the American flag, for example, desecrated by people.
Q: But you didn’t take their hate seriously at first. You said that you collected propaganda “in much the same way a singer confident in his talent makes a collage of bad reviews by hack writers and hangs it on his wall with pride.”
A: You can see hostile postcards about America and you’re okay with that. You say, well, that’s their problem. They’re just resentful. But then when you see someone actually beheaded for being an American, then you’re like, whoa, that’s serious.
Q: You write that hope can make us blind and vulnerable.
A: I think that’s very true. Even if you separate hope from politics, and look at relationships, probably every one of us has female friends who stay in these horrible relationships because they hope the guy is going to recognize their value and love them and treat them like they deserve to be treated and they cling on to .01 per cent of hope. I think hope is an emotion that sometimes causes us to cling to things we should really let go of.
Q: That’s interesting since you’ve just elected a president whose whole platform is hope. Do you think Americans are too hopeful right now?
A: You can’t tell the future. That’s why I wanted backup plans. I think everyone’s very pessimistic now. You’re at the gas station paying three times as much as you used to pay, and the house you bought for $500,000 is now worth $350,000, and you’re still paying the mortgage on it. I think maybe people have hope, but they’re hurting.
Q: You mention Paul Kennedy’s book, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. Do you really believe the crumbling of the American empire is an inevitable fate?
A: Yes, I think if you read Paul Kennedy’s book, you see that the writing is on the wall for America. He makes the argument that America is on its last legs as a superpower but that doesn’t mean if the great empire falls, everybody dies and it’s the sack of Rome. When Britain ended as an empire, it didn’t mean Britain was wiped out.
