To All,
I am relatively new to the survival idea. I've loved post holocaust books, movies and even played a few RPG's about it in the past. I have not given it much credence until lately. The more I become aware of severe economic strain we are going to be under in the near to moderate future the more I worry.
That said, I have yet to cross the Rubicon of normal living to the "I've got a bunker and 200 years of supplies" mindset.
One thing I think might be overlooked for survival of a large, long term disaster is knowledge. I am not talking about the obvious short term survival skills such as first aid, canning, hunting, storing food. All of these are well and good, but they are also very goal oriented and designed to survive only.
I have been keeping all of my college level books for the classes I am taking. I think that anyone who may face the difficult road of long term survival will need skills to survive, but it would also be useful to have skills to trade. Medical books, engineering books, physics books, biology, philosophy, political science, and so on.
Some of these may seem a bit erudite and unnecessary, but consider how much knowledge was lost from the fall of the ancient Greeks. Or consider how long the Dark Ages lasted from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance.
What pulled Europe out of the Dark Ages were the centers of trade and learning. Colleges, universities, and liberal arts studies along with science helped Europe become the dominant world culture for hundreds of years.
If you search Ebay or other sites you can pick up college level books that are only a few bucks if you buy them a year or two behind the current edition.
I know that if faced w/ a SHTF scenario we will all be short sited trying to survive day to day, but after those days are gone, then what? A good library could be the spark for a center of learning that will help pull us out of whatever new dark age we will face.
Just a thought...
Doug
I am relatively new to the survival idea. I've loved post holocaust books, movies and even played a few RPG's about it in the past. I have not given it much credence until lately. The more I become aware of severe economic strain we are going to be under in the near to moderate future the more I worry.
That said, I have yet to cross the Rubicon of normal living to the "I've got a bunker and 200 years of supplies" mindset.
One thing I think might be overlooked for survival of a large, long term disaster is knowledge. I am not talking about the obvious short term survival skills such as first aid, canning, hunting, storing food. All of these are well and good, but they are also very goal oriented and designed to survive only.
I have been keeping all of my college level books for the classes I am taking. I think that anyone who may face the difficult road of long term survival will need skills to survive, but it would also be useful to have skills to trade. Medical books, engineering books, physics books, biology, philosophy, political science, and so on.
Some of these may seem a bit erudite and unnecessary, but consider how much knowledge was lost from the fall of the ancient Greeks. Or consider how long the Dark Ages lasted from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance.
What pulled Europe out of the Dark Ages were the centers of trade and learning. Colleges, universities, and liberal arts studies along with science helped Europe become the dominant world culture for hundreds of years.
If you search Ebay or other sites you can pick up college level books that are only a few bucks if you buy them a year or two behind the current edition.
I know that if faced w/ a SHTF scenario we will all be short sited trying to survive day to day, but after those days are gone, then what? A good library could be the spark for a center of learning that will help pull us out of whatever new dark age we will face.
Just a thought...
Doug
Besides, at 46, I'm still interested in learning as much as I can and had really not thought about the availability of learning materials down the road. I've been collecting survival books, but as originally stated, once we've survived the fall, we'll need some way to start climbing back out of the hole. A shelf full of older text books could help that along.
