WAYNESVILLE — It would take “something profound to make the Internet go away,” but given recent efforts by the United States government to erode individual liberty, the possibility is there, an author who goes by the pen name of Angery American said during a conference for preppers May 17 at the Haywood County Fairgrounds. 

Angery American, the keynote speaker at Heritage Life Skills III Weekend and the author of the post-apocalyptic fiction series, “Going Home,” also noted that he has another book coming out June 24 — and yet another in December — and teased the crowd about “a rumor of a possible movie deal.”

The three-day event, which emphasized primitive survival skills, was sponsored by Carolina Readiness Supply in Waynesville. No crowd estimate was available by the Daily Planet’s deadline, but last year’s event officially drew about 225 people.

“If we have an ‘American Spring’ in this country, who’s to say the government wouldn’t slow it (the Internet) down or turn it off?” Angery American asked, rhetorically.

He lamented that “the children on (television’s) ‘Little House on the Prairie’ have more (survival) skills than the average American now.”

The Angery American spoke of a “de-evolution of humans,” wherein people generally are “getting fatter, slower, dumber. We’re only going to turn that around... if we do it” on an individual basis, rather than looking to the government.

“Society doesn’t want self-reliance. When something happens, somebody’s supposed to come.” With a wry chuckle, he added, “Until then, we’ve got to rely on ourselves.”

Coupling the general lack of survival skills and knowledge with what he termed the real possibility of the government turning off or slowing down the Internet, Angery American said, “We need to be thinking about those things” more thoroughly and begin “storing information on devices....

“We live in a wonderful world right now, where anything you want to know you can find out through a ‘magic box,’” referring to the Internet on a computer.

“Take the time now to learn things. and start putting that stuff into place now. And save that knowledge.”

Given a possible extended grid-down situation,” he emphasized that “your printer can be your friend. Print that stuff out and keep it,” in the event that computers no longer work.

“Print it. Save it to a disk. Save it to a tablet. Even if there’s a grid down (scenario), there’s still going to be the trappings of technology. That stuff’s not going to disappear.”

At the conference, Angery American observed, “We focus a lot on primitive skills. While they’re important, they’re your last-ditch resort.

“In nature, animals take the easiest route. With all the stuff we’ve created in this world, which will still be here, we need to use that (technology) to our advantage.”

For example, he asked, “What about chlorine and brake fluid? If you’ve got to start a fire, that’ll do it.”

He added, “Use the things that are available in mass quantity and use them to your advantage. When the Internet goes away, there won’t be any more ‘looking it up.’”

He praised last year’s keynote speaker Bill Forstchen, author of The New York Times bestseller “One Second After,” but said the characters in that book were in “amateur hour... Those people don’t have anything” in the way of preparations in the aftermath of a collapse of the electrical grid as the result of an electromagnetic pulse attack.

“I often say the ‘Going Home’ series is written by ‘us’ for ‘us,’” Angery American said in pointing to his credentials as someone who has been prepping since the 1990s. He noted that in his books, some of his characters actually are preppers who are depicted dealing with catastrophes, such as deadly epidemics, electrical grid collapses and other calamaties. 

Later in his talk, Angery American asserted, “With the way the government’s acting.... I think we’re facing ‘1984.’ Now there’s college campuses banning the word ‘bossy.’ But they’re training us slowly that way. They’re indoctrinating us slowly and taking these things (freedoms) away incrementally.”

On a lighter noted, he prompted laughter when he added, “Getting back to the skills ...  they say the more you know, the less you need. I find the more I know, the more I need.”

“Your phone may be useless in a collapse. If you have a smart phone, you still can use other aspects of it, including the flashlight function. Pull the battery out and use that.”

After a pause, he said, “I think we get too focused on ‘Grab your backpack and head for the hills.’ I ask those who say that, ‘Where are you going to go?’”

In Western North Carolina, for instance, “We’re already where everyone else wants to bugout to... You’re going to hit the road — with everyone else — and go where?

“I’m not a huge fan of bugging out. I am a huge fan of networking where you are and developing resources” through relationships with amenable neighbors, Angery American said.

“I’ve got a wife and three daughters... Could we provide security with five people? But if you network with people and you build relationships now...  It’s too late to find the exit to the building when there’s a fire. You need to know beforehand” where the exit is.