Cultural preservation post y2k

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

I have pretty much done my personal preps and now I am thinking about how we get back up on our feet if we get socked. One thing I am going to do is expand my collection of musical scores to include some of the rarer stuff. Libraries may be very important, especially for education, if we can't get new textbooks. Some of the old books are still the best, for instance Palestrina's Gradus Ad Parnassum is still the best book for teaching specie counterpoint.nd it was written in the 17th century. I also have things like collections of National Geographic (my favorite magazine!) However, I think that the most important books to keep will be books on history. History is the most politicised of academic subjects, which makes it imperative that the future scholar have as many sources as possible. We have all seen how various regimes in our time have attempted to alter or rewrite history. This is always done by destroying altrenative sources of information, i.e. bookburning. Imagine a stash of Britannicas! All of the technical people out there might want to add some manuals and technology books to the cache so we can reconstruct or repair things when we can't call tech support anymore.

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), July 29, 1999

Answers

I have heard that many times you can just ask at thrift stores to let you know when encyclopedias come in. Many just throw these away.

-- (nobody@nowhere.com), July 29, 1999.

I have a complete set of the organ works of J.S. Bach, and numerous other composers (my day job is as director of music in a Catholic church). We have a tracker organ, but unfortunately the wind chest was electrified. I ask the tuner how much electricity was needed to run it, he said, "not more than 300 watts" BUT he said the power supply is probably hard-wired. He's going to be doing some work on some of the pipe ranks, and so i'm going to badger him until he shows me exactly where the power supply is connected. If I remember my dates correctly, next year will also be the 250th anniversary of the death of J.S. Bach and George F. Handel, and I intend to give a concert (organ and choral) of both next year, y2k or not.

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), July 29, 1999.

One of the nuclear war experts-Dr. Bruce Clayton, I believe. once recommended stocking a few books in your bugout bag-two textbooks related to your profession and two others, chosen from literature, poetry,art or history. There was the comment that whole civilizations have been founded on a single book. Not a bad "insurance policy" for the future when you think about it. If everyone made a deliberate effort to acquire as much knowledge as possible in their area(s) of expertise (or passion) with the idea that you were assuming a custodial role and one day you might be in a position to teach that knowledge to others...

-- Greg Lawrence (greg@speakeasy.org), July 29, 1999.

I was thinking about post millennial music today, while I was singing celtic songs to my chickens. (They all line up on their perch like Hitchcock's "The Birds" when I sing. Half wonder if they're going to start an attack - lol.)

I believe I saw a little battery operated single CD player somewhere online. May even have been solar rechargeable. I think music is a lot like light. It will go a long way in shaping your attitude. I would hate to give up my music.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), July 30, 1999.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ