The American Redoubt is a survivalist movement founded by James Wesley Rawles, who hosts SurvivalBlog.com. According to Wiki, Rawles has written eight books:
- Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse
- Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse
- Founders: A Novel of the Coming Collapse
- Expatriates: A Novel of the Coming Global Collapse
- Liberators: A Novel of the Coming Global Collapse
- How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times
- Tools For Survival
- Land of Promise
It’s possible you see a pattern.
I pulled this quote from Rawles’ website, off the page titled “The American Redoubt — Move to the Mountain States”:
Giordano Bruno identified a trend that has been developing informally for many years: A conscious retrenchment into safe haven states. I strongly recommend this amalgamation, and that it be formalized. I suggest calling it The American Redoubt. I further recommend Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, eastern Oregon, and eastern Washington for the réduit. Some might call it a conglomeration, but I like to call it an amalgamation, since that evokes silver. And it will be a Biblically-sound and Constitutionally-sound silver local currency that will give it unity. (emphasis original)
The term “redoubt” comes from the French réduit, which is a
fortified structure such as a citadel or a keep into which the defending troops can retreat when the outer defences are breached. The term is also used to describe an area of a country, which, through a ring of heavy fortifications or through enhancing through fortification the defences offered by natural features such as mountains, will be defended even when the rest of the county is occupied by a hostile power. (Wikipedia)
Hence, a national redoubt:
A national redoubt or national fortress is a general term for an area to which the (remnant) forces of a nation can be withdrawn if the main battle has been lost or even earlier if defeat is considered inevitable. Typically, a region is chosen with a geography favouring defence, such as a mountainous area or a peninsula, to function as a final holdout to preserve national independence and host an effective resistance movement for the duration of the conflict. (Wikipedia)
And from national redoubt Rawles jumps to The American Redoubt:
The American Redoubt is a political migration movement first proposed in 2011 by best-selling survivalist novelist and blogger James Wesley Rawles which designates three states in the northwestern United States (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming), and adjoining portions of two other states (eastern Oregon, and eastern Washington) as a safe haven for conservative, libertarian-leaning Christians and Jews. (Wikipedia)
Chicken Little Syndrome
The American Redoubt is the Y2K scare with a slightly different angle. The sky will not fall because of an international software glitch. The sky will fall when the “American economy hits the fan. When banks fail, the government declares martial law, the power grid goes down.” (Los Angeles Times) And when the sky falls, The American Redoubters will have their gold, guns, and Bibles to keep safe.
The Wilson Angle
Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, agrees with Redoubt politically but he does not agree with Redoubt practically. That is, he affirms with Redoubt that the political system is on the verge of collapse, but he is not a survivalist. He couldn’t last a day in the wilderness, let alone a night. But he is an opportunist and Moscow, Idaho, falls not far from the geographical center of The American Redoubt, which explains Doug Wilson’s political endorsement of Republican Carl Berglund for the Idaho House of Representatives. Carl Berglund is The American Redoubt candidate. The website Redoubt News posts regular updates about him.
This is no-brainer. Doug Wilson is establishing his Redoubt street cred to recruit Redoubters to move to Moscow. Attrition has wiped out the Kirk and he will shrivel without new followers. Mr. Wilson could care less about the movement, except for what he can skim off it — such as warm bodies to occupy seats at the Logos gymnasium on Sunday mornings. The influx of new kirkers arriving to Moscow this summer will be gun-toting survivalists looking for a safe haven from the coming apocalypse. And the sky is falling — right into Doug Wilson’s lap.
If this were a TV series, it’d be a sitcom.
There is a TV series. It’s called Wayward Pines. It is set in the fictional, post apocalyptic town of Wayward Pines, ID.
Wilson may have established his little (shrinking, I hope) fiefdom in Moscow, but any members of the Redoubt whackozoid movement who pull up stakes and move to Moscow will, upon arrival, find that, outside the crazed “Pastor” Wilson and his acolytes, the overwhelming majority of Moscow citizens will not be the welcoming community that Wilson may lead these whackazoids to believe it will be. In his fevered delusions, he may have convinced himself that he is the King of Moscow, but these unfortunates will soon discover that is quite untrue.
A question I’ve always asked but never had answered by people who hoard gold because they believe the economy will crash:
If an event wiped out the economy to the point where the dollar was worthless, why would people trade goods for gold? If this apocalypse happened, wouldn’t people be trading for necessities like, I don’t know, food, water, and the direct means to get those two necessities? You can’t eat gold, and it means as much as the paper the dollar is printed on to a person who is starving.
People who hoard gold are not the brightest bulbs in the lamppost.
Look at Venezuela right now. Their currency is worthless, but having gold would allow them to buy currency like US dollars or Euros which are not worthless to them right now. Having obtained stable foreign currency, they can then proceed to buy food or a plane/bus/coyote ticket to a country that isn’t on the verge of starvation and civil war. There’s nothing magic about gold, but it can be useful at times if you know what it’s useful for. Like you say, in a grid down or Teotwaki scenario, gold will be less useful than bottled water until trade is reestablished.
While he does recommend hard currency like real silver, Rawles has made clear that if you have to choose, it’s better to stock up on tradeable goods that can be used to barter with.
Hey, has anybody been by St Maries recently to see how the walled, armed-to-the-teeth “Citadel” is getting on? A recent (5 minutes ago) look at their website reveals they plan to purchase the property in 2013/2014 and break ground soon after!
http://www.discussionist.com/1016115106
I normally avoid commenting on these very progressive hit pieces, but for some reason I am motivated to comment on this one. It continues to demonstrate the deep prejudice some people from the “left” display for their more conservative neighbors when I read articles like this. Like what whites use to do to blacks by making them look like buffoons, liberals try to make their conservative neighbors look horrible. In the same Wikipedia article this author quotes it starts with “The American Redoubt is a political migration movement…” Yet he chooses not to even mention that. It is the bigoted behavior they claim not to like.
The term political migration and self sufficiency better describe the American Redoubt concept. It is not a simple “survivalist” theory. It comes from the same feeling that say very progressive people like homosexuals demonstrate who want to move to places like San Francisco which are much more welcoming to their lifestyle, and they don’t feel so isolated. Next, we in the American Redoubt movement have shared many thoughts one what we are doing financially. What I am doing (and shared) is investing in a well balanced portfolio of investments and doing everything I can to get out of debt. We have written about that many times. I have noticed that if you simply purchased silver and gold in 2010 you have lost 40% of your money. Yet this author yet again doesn’t cover that. The approach many of use try to follow is simply based upon thrift and savings, not debt and consumption.
We want to be as self sufficient as possible including financially.
And the Citadel project is not in any way associated with the American Redoubt movement. It actually has many theories that are against the Redoubt movement. The Redoubt movement which is completely separate but is similar to the Free State Project is just conservative Christian libertarians (the FSP is more liberal libertarians) who want to live in a place that has more liberty than where they may be from. We want the option of living as independently as possible.
I’d get along with the FSP then. True Libertarians are nice people.
@The Bard:
I do not dispute any of your points and I meant no offense. I primary sourced SurvivalBlog.com twice up front and used Wiki for definitions, for better or worse. The American Redoubt movement is secondary to the post; the primary point is Douglas Wilson’s very public endorsement of a TAR candidate. In private Wilson mocks anything with the word survivalist in it; but in public he now courts those whom he privately ridicules. I would not be surprised if he has contacted James Wesley Rawles to coordinate efforts, only because he desperately needs bodies to stay afloat. He speaks TAR language and puts on a good act, but ultimately he’s a self-serving mercenary in his own employ. Carl Berglund and everyone else associated with TAR should give Wilson a wide berth.
Ulysses,
Interesting statement. Do you have demographic data to back it up?