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I posted this on another board that is about prepping and survival. They were talking about how people will deal if the power were to go off and people were isolated into small areas. I believe that a library is crucial but others are old school and think that reading is a waste of time. Many in the prepper community are of a belief that hermitage is the best way to survive. I am a builder and believe that if things were to fall that we would need to reconnect and reorganize first into clans and then tribes and then nations.
Another wandering rant from Dan...
Modern people are actually poorly prepared for true solitude. In the past, people spent many hours alone in their heads doing various menial repetitive jobs. Most of those have been replaced with machines. People used to get together to "visit" and talk. Now if you watch in a restaurant people all sit at a table looking at their phones. At home, they sit and look at a TV and even when they are driving the radio is going. There is a reason that putting someone in solitary confinement is a punishment. In the past it was hard, now it drives people totally crazy because they don't have the mental tools to deal with a lack of input to keep their minds alive and moving.
In the past, there were people that made a profession of traveling around and telling stories. This is where the various "Mythologies" of oral traditions came from. At night when their day of work was done, they go together and someone would look up at the stars and tell them stories about the things that they saw in the shapes made by the constellations. They told stories of the ancestors and the great people of the past.
In the long winter nights, people often had what was called night day. They would go to sleep and then wake in the night and have a social time then go back to sleep for a while before again starting their day. Without modern lighting, they went to bed early but couldn't sleep the entire night away. In the northern places, the nights can be 16 to 20 hours long and there is just so much that you can do in the dark. Modern lighting has changed the world. They could use candles and oil lamps for some small amount of time but in the end, there were many hours of dark and little to do.
When the machines stop talking to us the silence is going to be endless and deafening to our minds trained to constant noise and input. In the past, one person could lay near the fire and read to many when there were no storytellers available. Now most people, even those that do read, are changing over to the Ebooks and Ereaders that will be useless without power.
People used to have friends that they often got together with. My parents kept coffee gong from 5 am to 8pm every day and if the weather was good they would set up outside and people would come over after dinner to "visit". They played bridge several times a month and were active at Church, the PTA, the Scouts and other organizations. Social interaction was important when you didn't have a TV to worship.
I was raised reading. They read to me until I learned to read and then after that fed me books as fast as I could read them. The ability to read and absorb information has been instrumental in my life. I have very little in the way of school learning. I have taught myself trade after trade from books. I have licenses in several areas and can talk intelligently in many areas. I read about 18 magazines a month covering things like astronomy, science, archeology, psychology, hunting, fishing, Fossils, rocks and gems, Mechanics, history, religions of all kinds, and weird stuff having to do with cryptozoology and the paranormal.
Books are what allowed people to advance and not have to reinvent the wheel with every generation. As long as we have books we can, when we need to, retrain people to do the things that we need to do. You can't just reinvent trigonometry, metallurgy or chemistry over and over and get anywhere. The making of some metals was made and lost several times because the techniques were taught master to apprentice and because of war or plague all that knew the secret were lost.
When the library at Alexandria was burned we went into a dark age where people were again little more than slightly advanced and enslaved animals. Even today many faiths still try to prevent any advancement of knowledge and if given the chance would again burn all the libraries and eliminate knowledge.
Kids now are not encouraged to read and even if they are, it is hard to get them to read enough to make it so that their ability to read can compete with watching and passively a machine. Honestly, a lot of these kids, if you took away their machines, are little smarter than a toddler. They know how to let a machine tell them what to do but actually KNOW almost nothing. Many can't even do basic arithmetic now!!
With books and reading, you stand on the shoulders of giants. Without those books, you stand on your bare feet and only can do the things that YOU or someone that you know can figure out THEN.
Another wandering rant from Dan...
Modern people are actually poorly prepared for true solitude. In the past, people spent many hours alone in their heads doing various menial repetitive jobs. Most of those have been replaced with machines. People used to get together to "visit" and talk. Now if you watch in a restaurant people all sit at a table looking at their phones. At home, they sit and look at a TV and even when they are driving the radio is going. There is a reason that putting someone in solitary confinement is a punishment. In the past it was hard, now it drives people totally crazy because they don't have the mental tools to deal with a lack of input to keep their minds alive and moving.
In the past, there were people that made a profession of traveling around and telling stories. This is where the various "Mythologies" of oral traditions came from. At night when their day of work was done, they go together and someone would look up at the stars and tell them stories about the things that they saw in the shapes made by the constellations. They told stories of the ancestors and the great people of the past.
In the long winter nights, people often had what was called night day. They would go to sleep and then wake in the night and have a social time then go back to sleep for a while before again starting their day. Without modern lighting, they went to bed early but couldn't sleep the entire night away. In the northern places, the nights can be 16 to 20 hours long and there is just so much that you can do in the dark. Modern lighting has changed the world. They could use candles and oil lamps for some small amount of time but in the end, there were many hours of dark and little to do.
When the machines stop talking to us the silence is going to be endless and deafening to our minds trained to constant noise and input. In the past, one person could lay near the fire and read to many when there were no storytellers available. Now most people, even those that do read, are changing over to the Ebooks and Ereaders that will be useless without power.
People used to have friends that they often got together with. My parents kept coffee gong from 5 am to 8pm every day and if the weather was good they would set up outside and people would come over after dinner to "visit". They played bridge several times a month and were active at Church, the PTA, the Scouts and other organizations. Social interaction was important when you didn't have a TV to worship.
I was raised reading. They read to me until I learned to read and then after that fed me books as fast as I could read them. The ability to read and absorb information has been instrumental in my life. I have very little in the way of school learning. I have taught myself trade after trade from books. I have licenses in several areas and can talk intelligently in many areas. I read about 18 magazines a month covering things like astronomy, science, archeology, psychology, hunting, fishing, Fossils, rocks and gems, Mechanics, history, religions of all kinds, and weird stuff having to do with cryptozoology and the paranormal.
Books are what allowed people to advance and not have to reinvent the wheel with every generation. As long as we have books we can, when we need to, retrain people to do the things that we need to do. You can't just reinvent trigonometry, metallurgy or chemistry over and over and get anywhere. The making of some metals was made and lost several times because the techniques were taught master to apprentice and because of war or plague all that knew the secret were lost.
When the library at Alexandria was burned we went into a dark age where people were again little more than slightly advanced and enslaved animals. Even today many faiths still try to prevent any advancement of knowledge and if given the chance would again burn all the libraries and eliminate knowledge.
Kids now are not encouraged to read and even if they are, it is hard to get them to read enough to make it so that their ability to read can compete with watching and passively a machine. Honestly, a lot of these kids, if you took away their machines, are little smarter than a toddler. They know how to let a machine tell them what to do but actually KNOW almost nothing. Many can't even do basic arithmetic now!!
With books and reading, you stand on the shoulders of giants. Without those books, you stand on your bare feet and only can do the things that YOU or someone that you know can figure out THEN.
