I see two unsupported assumptions made here. First, that the “building climax of insanity” is survivable at all. What evidence supports this assertion?

Secondly, that it is possible for anyone, especially a heads-down quiet-islands-of-sanity/monastery type program, to “preserve enough resources” to be able to “pick up the pieces” afterwards. I find far too many fail to understand just how vulnerable and fragile so much of our critical infrastructure is. Nor do they realize how little need be destroyed before what is left is too small to maintain itself, thereby putting this planet unshakeably on course to permanent, irreversible deindustrialization. If nothing else, “enough resources” is so large as to provide an irresistable, impossible-to-hide target for both the rapacious maw of a failing Cathedral desparate for any bit of capital to stave of its end, and for the lootings of the zombie/mutant dysgenic hordes.

In the mid-19th century, a number of biological and social scientists came to believe that the genetic quality of the populations of the Western nations was deteriorating due to the relaxation of natural selection, the process by which nature eliminates the unfit in each generation by reducing their fertility and by early death. This view, and the idea that steps needed to be taken to correct the situation, came to be widely accepted by the first half of the 20th century.

Cochran is unquestionably one of the best living biologists. He still can’t hold a candle to pre-war scientists.