The new Dark Ages are coming up. Peak oil, fascism, famine, bird flue are all here already, converging to the perfect storm. What books, ideas, philosophy, wisdom, proverb, wise sayings, etc. should we take with us? What might be lasting? I’ve read somewhere somebody put all the knowledge that was available at the time into a book to save during the last dark ages. We’ve humongous amounts of knowledge we stuff around all over the place, but what is most important? I’ve given up thinking we can turn the corner. At one site, http://www.fluwikie.com/index.php?n=Issues.Economic, it is proposed that we have a bunker mentality – figure out what we can use to barter, etc. That is so cold-war era stuff.
And we never needed all those stale crackers did we? But what will we need to sustain us in this next era?
Books won’t last too long, but we can painstakingly recopy them. (I say we, my handwriting is so bad we would never be able to read it again!) How about songs? Which songs would you like to remember and pass down? (Optimists among us might like “Tomorrow” and the pessimists might like “The sound of silence”.
I think herbals would be the ticket. Along with seeds and plants and perhaps a greenhouse or two.
What art work should we save? What plays? What how-to books?
typewriter ribbons?
Can you get rid of typewriters?
I think expecting the imminent collapse of civilization is wishful thinking at best, but if I was going to save anything, it would be a detailed guide to constructing printing presses using only simple hand tools. Given that much, rebuilding civilization would be much easier. The rise of the printing press and the mass literacy it enabled lifted us out of the last dark age. I see no reason it could not do so again.
Ah man, good question… Obviously my personal faves: Anything by Poe, Bob Marley, Sweet Potato Pie recipes, Pete Rock and Cl Smooth, a maryland crab cake, and taco salad.
Books: RL’s Dream (Walter Mosely), Motherless Brooklyn (John Lethem), 1984, Angel in the Whirlwind (about George Washington, very cool), Blue Highways
Music: Matisyahu (new fave), Ol Dity Bastard (the only person that the cartoon cliche “he’s either really dumb or a genius” works on), Maceo Parker, De La Soul, Frank Sinatra, DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison
Comic Book: Anything by Stan Lee, Kingdom Come, Dark Night Returns, Sin City
Commercials: the VW commercial with Gene Kelly breakdancing (http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2664042)
News: Democracy Now!, Daily Show, Countdown, Nightline
Movies: Shawshank Redemption, North Vs South, Kill Bill, 1984, memento, the dish
Beer: anything from Magic Hat, Guiness
Food: Swordfish Fajitas, sushi, deviled eggs
Plant: Marijuana =) er and a vermont maple
Gadgets: original Gameboy, ipod, imac, roomba
Computer programs: anything by Adobe, Final Cut Pro, itunes, microsoft office, and that turtle program where you could program the arrow to make neat lines on the old ass computer screens
People: Hopefully me so I can get jiggy before either the yellowstone super volcano blows the f up or the canary island super tsunami eradicates nantucket…
Man all my stuff is pretty current… Someone else please save the real treasures.
I’m tired now
“Tomorrow”? Which one?
I think we should keep the one by Joe Walsh; here’s a brief excerpt:
gives a rich flavor to procrastination and makes it feel useful.
Timely diary-I was just going through some books to give to good will and find I’m putting aside any with pagan or gay themes, because who knows if I’ll be able to find copies again after the book burnings? I hate thinking like that but I can’t help it.
To save: All the poetry we can-Audre Lorde springs to mind.Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass-can’t have a civilization without that and Wind in the willows, right?
All those “how to fix anything” type books that I buy in an emergency and use once then set on the shelf and forget. Same goes for food preserving books, canning and drying, etc.
Plant identification books, in case I have to Stalk the Wild for food.
Music-Mozart, Dir en Grey, I need my daily fix of Dir en Grey or life isn’t worth living,and of course, the Oyster Band and Boiled in Lead.
Compassion, love, integrity, hope, respect.
Every disaster is going to have a different result and will need different skills to survive. This list is as wide ranging as possible. A global disaster would seem likely but the divide is certainly the difference between just population depletion and wholesale infrastucture collapse.
Books on:
Plant Medicine
Horticulture
Livestock Rearing
Fish Farming
Survival Guide
How to Recycling Everything
Water Treatment Methods
General Health & Basic Medicine
Everything on Renewable self sufficient energy systems
Communication systems
19th Century Book on everything practical from making soap to how to prepare meat, to brewing medicinal alcohol
Maps, maps and more maps
Academic Books
Many libraries will survive most disasters
Information if things are really bad, like there’s no cavalry coming, ever.
Where the pollution hot spots are
Where wildlife numbers are highest
Where water sources are clean and regular
Where seed banks are to liberate all the original strains
Where sperm banks are in case of DNA destruction
Where pharma companies are for cholera and typhoid treatments
Where nuke plants are (to avoid those areas)
Where missile silos and military bases are (to avoid those areas)
Tools
As many as possible
going.
Can you imagine if we went to a government official and said “Hey listen, with all that is going on we need to be more self sufficient, we need to have renewable energy sources up and running now and we need to have DNA of all sorts saved in safe locations complete with information about how to use it to recreate life.”
Talk about freaking out. Who would the congresscritters get their money from if not from the energy folks? And creating life? Whoa! Wouldn’t their freaky wingnut partners just die?