avg_rating: 3.68
name: James Wesley, Rawles
about: James Wesley, Rawles (born 1960) is an American author, best known for his survivalist-genre Patriots novel series. Rawles is a former U.S. Army Intelligence officer. He is the founder and Senior Editor of SurvivalBlog.com, which covers survival and preparedness topics, and has published collected material from this in two books. He also works as a survival retreat consultant. Rawles is a Constitutionalist Christian libertarian. On his book covers, in his signature, on his checks, in his blog, and as his legal name, he presents his name as "James Wesley, Rawles", using a comma to distinguish between his given and family names.James Wesley, Rawles was born James Wesley Rawles in California in 1960 and attended local public schools. He earned James Wesley, Rawles (born 1960) is an American author, best known for his survivalist-genre Patriots novel series. Rawles is a former U.S. Army Intelligence officer. He is the founder and Senior Editor of SurvivalBlog.com, which covers survival and preparedness topics, and has published collected material from this in two books. He also works as a survival retreat consultant. Rawles is a Constitutionalist Christian libertarian. On his book covers, in his signature, on his checks, in his blog, and as his legal name, he presents his name as "James Wesley, Rawles", using a comma to distinguish between his given and family names.James Wesley, Rawles was born James Wesley Rawles in California in 1960 and attended local public schools. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from San Jose State University.From 1984 to 1993, he served as a United States Army Military Intelligence officer. He resigned his commission as a U.S. Army Captain immediately after Bill Clinton was inaugurated as President of the United States.Rawles worked as an Associate Editor and Regional Editor (Western U.S.) with Defense Electronics magazine in the late 1980s and early 1990s Concurrently he was Managing Editor of The International Countermeasures Handbook.He worked as a technical writer through most of the 1990s with a variety of electronics and software companies, including Oracle Corporation. In 2005, he began blogging full-time.He is now a freelance writer, blogger, and survival retreat consultant. One journalist called him a "survival guru" He was described as the "conscience of survivalism." Rawles is best known as the author of the survivalist novel Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse.Rawles is an outspoken proponent of family preparedness, especially regarding food storage and advocates relocating to lightly populated rural "retreat" areas. His preparedness philosophy emphasizes the fragility of modern society, the value of silver and other tangibles for barter, recognition of moral absolutes, being well-armed, maintaining a "deep larder," relocation to rural retreats, and Christian charity. In an interview in The New York Times, Rawles identified himself as a "guns and groceries" survivalist.Rawles interprets the 2nd Amendment as supporting citizens' individual rights to bear and keep arms. He believes they should be able to take arms to public events.Rawles is opposed to racism. He supports abolition of modern slavery in the world.Rawles is a spokeman for the surivalist movement. A central premise of that movement is that there is a high risk of a coming societal meltdown and the need to prepare for the repercussions. Rawles said that the popular media has developed an incorrect far-right "lunatic fringe" image in part because of the actions of a radical few such as Timothy McVeigh. He called this a distortion of the true message of survivalism. Unlike the handful of fringe proponents, Rawles focuses instead on family preparedness and personal freedom. Rawles explained that the typical survivalist does not actually live in a rural area, but is rather is a city dweller worried about the collapse of society who views the rural lifestyle as idyllic. Speaking from his experience, Rawles cautions that rural self-sufficiency actually involves "a lot of hard work". In 2009, he was quoted as saying: "There's so many people who are concerned about the economy that there's a huge interest in preparedness, and it pretty much crosses all lines, social, economic, political and religious. There's a steep learning curve going on right now." In a December, 2014 interview with The Economist magazine, Rawles described the survivalist movement as decentralized and full of people who value their privacy. He was quoted as saying: “You don’t want to be known as the guy who has 3-4 years’ supply of food in the basement. Because one day you could see it confiscated by the government or stolen by neighbours ...more