Scientist Lewis Dartnell published in 2014 a book entitled The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch, which basically argued that if a collapse occurred quickly (e.g. another EMP Carrington event) where there was a rapid die-off of most people, there would still be adequate resources left to rebuild if enough people used the scientific method. If the scientific method survives, then so does civilization. Just the thing a science type would say.
Now, that argument holds only if its premises are true – in particular that the collapse is a quick death. But it could very well be a death by 7 plus billion cuts with numerous crises, dragging the misery out. There go the resources and Dartnell’s dream and here comes The Road Warrior, sans hot cars and sans homo-erotica.
The question though of preserving knowledge is an interesting one. Another scientist, James Lovelock, thought that a book of basic knowledge (e.g. how to start a fire etc.) would be good. Other writers, such as a recent (February 3, 2017) contribution on “Intellectual Survival” at
, support the idea of storing the great classic literature. The list given made me almost want to throw up, being primarily Christian books. One would hope that these books have high acid paper and would soon disintegrate, liberating what remains of the minds of the young.
It is far better to stockpile useful practical scientific and technological works, manuals on how to do things, of medical knowledge, herbal medicine and useful skills to pass on, to maybe one generation, before reading disappears and the human savage goes oral again.
Storing the classics is useless. As James LaFond said in a quotable passage in Taboo You:
“Most people, if shipwrecked with the Mona Lisa, would cling to it as they eked out a living, in hopes of being credited with or rewarded for preserving the world’s greatest masterpiece once rescued. I would use it for kindling to light my campfire.”
In the end, the “great” works of religion and philosophy, the piles of speculative scientific bullshit on multiverses and the like, the conflicting interpretations of quantum mechanics, not to mention the gigatonnes of politically correct feminist and socialist toxic rubbish, will all be burnt as kindling. No doubt for many barbarians burning such books it would be the next best thing to burning the authors of such works, for the authors will perish very quickly when the tit of Big Sister goes dry.
Taboo You: Deluxe Man Cave Edition
Terry Pratchett (as ever) has a suitable quote from Cohen the barbarian:
'Bonfire of books?'
‘Yes. Horrible, isn’t it?’
‘Right,’ said Cohen. He thought it was appalling. Someone who spent his life living rough under the sky knew the value of a good thick book, which ought to outlast at least a season of cooking fires if you were careful how you tore the pages out. Many a life had been saved on a snowy night by a handful of sodden kindling and a really dry book. If you felt like a smoke and couldn’t find a pipe, a book was your man every time.
Cohen realised people wrote things in books. It has always seemed to him to be a frivolous waste of paper. (LF)
From here:
chrisjoneswriting.com/cohen.html
(It helps if you have read some of the Discworld books but even if you haven't his jaundiced cynicism is refreshing).
I've got bookshelves full of this kind of stuff. Engineering books, wood engineering, all kinds of stuff but probably the best down to earth book on survival is "Dare to Prepare!" by Holly Drennen Deyo. I've got the 4th Edition, 2011 Edition. There's a 5th ed.
My God the stuff that's in that book. Lot's of food stuff, storing, common chemicals and what to do with them.
amazon.com/Dare-Prepare-2011-Holly-Drennen/dp/0972768890/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BTP6BMNWD1VBV0TH5HVS
Look at the reviews. In one there's the book index. It's amazing. This is a good book to have just to make your life easier as it has instructions for just about any kind of every day living need.
Here's some fantastic knots you can use that are easy to remember. Best of all you can do most anything with just these knots.
The Grapple hitch and the Zeppelin knot. The grapple hitch is fast and great to tie onto stuff and the Zeppelin is the best way to join ropes period.
skytopia.com/project/articles/knot/knots.html
Blake's hitch. Tree climbing hitch that you use to go up a rope while the hitch clasp the rope. What's so good about this is it's easy to remember, it's grasp is super, super strong, it won't slip at all if you set it and it's easy to move the hitch up by pushing on the coils from the bottom or the top. Pull on the rope to the left in the diagram to lock it on the rope.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake's_hitch
If you want to make a loop in the middle of a rope this is probably the easiest way that's simple to remember. Make a loop and twist it the same direction twice. Pull around and through the first loop twist.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_butterfly_knot
Here's a great video on the Truckers hitch to tie things down. I like the last one. Easy.
youtube.com/watch?v=tvgFyqFZK54
If you make several loops instead of one before you tighten you have a pulley system that can produce tremendous force to hold down the load. Look at these pictures of a versatackle to get the general idea.
onpointpreparedness.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/versatackle.jpg
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versatackle_knot
notableknotindex.webs.com/Versatackle.html
This is good for tying bottles, buckets or other containers you want to hoist.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Barrel_Hitch_knot.png
Nice video of barrel hitch. Hit the numbers and letters to advance.
animatedknots.com/barrel
Last but not least you need to be able to lash sticks together. This method uses the least rope and is fast and super strong, tourniquet lashing.
scoutingrediscovered.com/rediscovering-the-tourniquet-lashing
I made this because I wanted to find out what are the basic knots that I need for just about any situation. These knots are all as Trump would say,"Highly Rated", meaning the people who study knots give them high marks for being strong and easy to untie which is just as important as tying. I looked at all kinds of knots and these seemed to be easiest to remember. Some knots are really great but they're impossible to remember if you don't use them every day. You can tie these a few times and they're fairly easy to remember. They're kind of basic and you can mix and match them to do most anything.
Burn the degrees. Burn the upholstery in the cars. Almost all electronics are gone (including modern day cars as they fuel injected) if the Big one hits the ionosphere. Its gonna be funny watching grad students stumble around from a snipers roost.
Faraday bags are where its at techprotectbag.com. Probably best to stick some cameras in this to guard the brothel once its up and running.
The humanure handbook (humanurehandbook.com/) is gonna come in handy as well. Unless a man can raid a heavily armed farm no one is getting near livestock.
The next thing youll have to worry about is liberals and there social structures. No one is gonna listen to a big whig talking head when the waters out to the second floor (no more electric powered pressure to push it there), tankers cant refuel gas stations, and the police can shoot on site without consequence.