Review of "Enjoy the Decline" by Aaron Clarey.

 
Today, I'll be doing a short review of Mr. Clarey's Enjoy the Decline, which came in that lovely Amazon package with some other books I ordered with my government cheese. Named after his catchphrase, the book is essentially a self-help guide for the depressed fellows of the world who see the world going down the drain. Within the two hundred or so pages of this book, Mr. Clarey lays out in detail 1) why the United States is circling the drain, a phenomenon that can be extrapolated to varying degrees globally, 2) how we can reframe our outlook on life to not just weather, but harness the coming storm, and 3) useful snippets of relevant information that may be useful in doing so, either during the calm before the storm or while the lightning pierces the heavens.

Since many other people have covered his book in great depth, I'll try my best to base my review from the perspective of someone not just outside of North America, but outside of the Anglosphere as well, and comment on its relevancy and how people all over the globe can prepare to enjoy the international decline which the death of the US will no doubt precipitate.



Mr. Clarey opens his book, and indeed, most of his points with the fact that much of North America is screwed culturally, socially, economically, demographically, and so forth. Thanks to globalisation and modernity spreading much of the Cathedral's sermons far and wide throughout the world, we can observe various nations following in the footsteps of the US, caught in the same death spiral. Japan is a little further along, while Indonesia might be a little further back, but much of what Mr. Clarey speaks of in terms of cultural decline is applicable to the rest of the world.

In the vein of a true economist, all of Mr. Clarey's claims are backed up with copious amounts of evidence with all sources cited, and he pulls no punches in pointing out to us how the current system that we're told to buy into screws the productive and hardworking over in order to appease the unwashed masses.

Despite this, though, we need not despair, for the Captain points out that we need not be millionaires in order to live like millionaires. Indeed, by leading a minimalistic lifestyle and avoiding the sugar drip of consumer culture, by rejecting the current system and perhaps even learning to exploit it, he points out succinctly that we can cast aside the rat race and the stupid urge to keep up with the Joneses and concentrate on what's important in life.

Like other people. You only live once and all that, after all, and as Mr. Clarey points out, other people are a huge part of that. This forms the bulk of the book, and is an interesting read - while some modifications will have to be done to tailor his advice to different peoples and locations, the core message of his book is a universal one and I already have been taking a number of his suggestions on board.

One important aspect of reframing one's outlook on life is realising that much of the world as we know it today will not exist in the future, for better or for worse. An example would be Mr. Clarey's urges in the book for one not to save up for retirement or education - given a collapse, it is likely that retirement funds will be confiscated and worthless degrees made truly worthless. A lady I recently talked so mentioned that she wasn't saving up for her childrens' university educations primarily because she realised that by the time her kids were ready to attend university, the system as we know it would in all probability no longer exist. While the system stands, though, Mr. Clarey's book has a chapter specifically tailored to US citizens as to how to game the system and extract as much as possible from it - while the information per se wasn't that useful to me, it was nevertheless quite a horrifying look into how bloated the US welfare and benefits system has become.

While it is not the main focus of the book, Mr. Clarey also discusses some of the physical ramifications of both a short-term and long-term collapse, and makes some suggestions that might be helpful once the shit does hit the fan. He covers most of the basics and does suggest some essential items for you to have, so it's worth checking out.

Most preppers these days talk about what might happen during the collapse, but not the lead-up to it, and this is where Mr. Clarey's book comes in handy to peoples all around the world. The details might differ, but the base ideas can be applied by anyone, anywhere - I certainly am, that's for sure.

And it's a handy tool for waking up those who can be woken up. I've already passed the book around to two of my friends.

So yes. Buy this book now, and enjoy the worldwide decline!