SIGforum
Books for rebuilding society: What books go in the box?
February 13, 2020, 03:03 PM
RNshooterBooks for rebuilding society: What books go in the box?
Hey all-
I am spending some time today thinking about the ideas that make America what it is. It got me thinking: What if all of this was gone? If there was an EMP and then a protracted war that killed most of the leaders, thinkers, and philosophers, what paper books would be needed to reseed our society?
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are easy picks but what about the books that discuss them and how they came about? So the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers go in the box. Also, Locke's Second Treatise on Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration plus Adam Smith's On the Wealth of Nations.
F.A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged would serve to keep them on the path, once they found it.
Maybe a copy of Night by Elie Wiesel to remind them of hiw wrong it can go, if they do lose their way.
What else would you put in an "after-TEOTWAWAKI" time-capsule?
Bruce
"The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with." -Douglas Adams
“It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to try to enslave a people that wants to remain free."
-Niccolo Machiavelli
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. -Mencken
February 13, 2020, 03:11 PM
ibexsigBrave New World by Huxley.
February 13, 2020, 03:32 PM
airsoft guyOnly put "Atlas Shrugged" in that box if you want to make sure the survivors kill themselves out of boredom.
quote:
Originally posted by Will938:
If you don't become a screen writer for comedy movies, then you're an asshole.
February 13, 2020, 03:40 PM
bryan11The FoxFire series of books on ways of living in the Appalachian mountains before technology and industrialization.
February 13, 2020, 03:43 PM
Sig2091984
Animal Farm
Starship Troopers
The Holy Bible
a complete set of Encyclopedia
The Art of War
Infantry Attacks by Erwin Rommel
The Prince by Machiavelli
----------------------------------
Proverbs 27:17 - As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
February 13, 2020, 04:00 PM
BurtonRWBastiat’s
The LawHazlitt’s
Economics in One Lesson-Rob
I predict that there will be many suggestions and statements about the law made here, and some of them will be spectacularly wrong. - jhe888
A=A February 13, 2020, 04:27 PM
RNshooterquote:
Originally posted by airsoft guy:
Only put "Atlas Shrugged" in that box if you want to make sure the survivors kill themselves out of boredom.
You may be right. The Fountainhead is a quicker read.
Bruce
"The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with." -Douglas Adams
“It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to try to enslave a people that wants to remain free."
-Niccolo Machiavelli
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. -Mencken
February 13, 2020, 04:34 PM
PowerSurgeHuman Action
Conceived In Liberty
———————————————
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Psalm 14:1
February 13, 2020, 04:37 PM
DzozerBoy Scout Handbook
'Live long and prosper' February 13, 2020, 04:50 PM
Ryanp225The excellent books One Second After and it's sequel One Year After go into that exact subject.
A library of engineering patents and schematics would be helpful.
February 13, 2020, 04:51 PM
sig2392A copy of the constitution and the federalist papers.
If you can find an old set of the Encyclopedias
A set of books on woodworking
One of the many books on living without electricity.
A good survival book like Northern Bushcraft.
February 13, 2020, 04:56 PM
sigfreundquote:
Originally posted by BurtonRW:
Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson
► 6.4/93.6
“Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.”
— Plato February 13, 2020, 05:37 PM
Sunset_VaMedical Encyclopedia.
Almanac
Atlas with Topo
Animal Care-Breeding
Preserving food type books
美しい犬
February 13, 2020, 05:39 PM
tannerquote:
Originally posted by RNshooter:
I am spending some time today thinking about the ideas that make America what it is.
A few MAD Magazines?
On a more practical note, Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” and Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations”
February 13, 2020, 07:00 PM
airsoft guyquote:
Originally posted by tanner:
quote:
Originally posted by RNshooter:
I am spending some time today thinking about the ideas that make America what it is.
A few MAD Magazines?
On a more practical note, Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” and Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations”
Well, if playing Fallout has taught me anything, it's that reading comic books will make me more resistant to lasers, at least for an hour.
quote:
Originally posted by Will938:
If you don't become a screen writer for comedy movies, then you're an asshole.
February 13, 2020, 07:49 PM
RogueJSKCool, so judging by the majority of responses, we can look forward to sitting around and debating political theory and economic doctrine while dying of starvation, exposure, and dysentery.
February 13, 2020, 08:20 PM
Skins2881Couple of nudie mags and survival books.
Jesse
Sic Semper Tyrannis February 13, 2020, 08:27 PM
MooneyP226The Tommyknockers, Stephen King
The Boy Scout Handbook
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Where the Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstein
The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
Clarior Hinc Honos
BSA Dad, Cheer Dad February 13, 2020, 10:28 PM
Cous2492Dont forget a Bible (preferably with the deuterocanonicals for the Catholics and Orthodox). So much of American ideology is based on the Bible.
....If you dont like it, don't read it. But its got to be in there.
February 13, 2020, 10:41 PM
RNshooterquote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Cool, so judging by the majority of responses, we can look forward to sitting around and debating political theory and economic doctrine while dying of starvation, exposure, and dysentery.
Good point. I was focused on rebuilding society, politically and ethically. I was assuming that we had already taken care of the food and shelter part, if we are looking at things like writing a new Constitution.
Bruce
"The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with." -Douglas Adams
“It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to try to enslave a people that wants to remain free."
-Niccolo Machiavelli
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. -Mencken