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You're going to feel
a little pressure...
posted
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
 
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Brave New World by Huxley.
 
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The Joy Maker
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Only 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.
 
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The FoxFire series of books on ways of living in the Appalachian mountains before technology and industrialization.
 
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1984

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.
 
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Striker in waiting
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Bastiat’s The Law

Hazlitt’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
 
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You're going to feel
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quote:
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. Wink

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
 
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Human Action
Conceived In Liberty


———————————————
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Psalm 14:1
 
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So let it be written,
so let it be done...
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Boy Scout Handbook



'Live long and prosper'
 
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Still finding my way
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The 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.
 
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A 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.
 
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quote:
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
 
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Medical Encyclopedia.

Almanac

Atlas with Topo

Animal Care-Breeding

Preserving food type books


美しい犬
 
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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? Big Grin

On a more practical note, Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” and Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations”



 
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The Joy Maker
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quote:
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? Big Grin

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.
 
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Fighting the good fight
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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. Big Grin
 
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Ammoholic
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Couple of nudie mags and survival books.



Jesse

Sic Semper Tyrannis
 
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Doing my best to shape
America's youth
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The 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
 
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Dont 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.
 
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You're going to feel
a little pressure...
posted Hide Post
quote:
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. Big Grin


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
 
Posts: 4245 | Location: AK-49 | Registered: October 06, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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