Do You Feel Like You're Living In The Wrong Century?

[RandyS]

That's an all too popular misconception...that modern times are too complicated, that earlier eras were better/simpler/happier times. That's not true. Things were always fucked up.

Have you ever heard the saying "one person's perception is another's reality"?

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I already know which post is coming....

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I wish I lived in a time where there were much fewer people. A time where you could just pick anywhere you wanted and start to build your own house. A time where you could plant your own fields of crops or just walk through some trees picking fruit off them and eat at your leisure, a time where you traded things rather than buy things. A time where you did no need to worry about paying gas bills, or electric bills or rent or council tax.

Wow, it's like you read my mind...













I also wish you were living in that time.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

^ When my time machine is completed i'm outa here, don't you worry about that.

 

[Deckerd]

I do.

I wish I lived in a time where there were much fewer people. A time where you could just pick anywhere you wanted and start to build your own house. A time where you could plant your own fields of crops or just walk through some trees picking fruit off them and eat at your leisure, a time where you traded things rather than buy things. A time where you did no need to worry about paying gas bills, or electric bills or rent or council tax.

Do You Feel Like You're Living In The Wrong Century?

I live much like that now. Okay buying the land was expensive and we pay council tax for some of our services but now? More or less exactly as you describe.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

^ When my time machine is completed i'm outa here, don't you worry about that.

What's wrong, you haven't achieved your desired density in preparation for ascension in 2012? Best get cracking on that.

 

[Deckerd]

I achieved my desired density about 20 years ago. Unfortunately I didn't know how to stop it.

 

[Ward Fowler]

I believe I'd choose to come of age right after the end of WWII here in America. The years 1946-1975 were the Golden Era for the average U.S. citizen. They were literally the most prosperous humans in the history of the planet. Jobs were plentiful, wages were high, pensions were common and standards of living were excellent.

If you were a white male, though, and did not get drafted into Vietnam.

If one turned 18 in 1946, then Vietnam wasn't a danger. Women didn't have it bad as long as they enjoyed being a housewife. There's no doubt, however, that they have a lot more opportunities now. As far as being white, yeah. I wouldn't want to be black while living in that time. It was a shameful time as far as how people of color were treated.

 

[An Officer]

I would never want to go back in time. I am far too in love with mod cons. What would I do without my iPhone, and advanced transportation? A simple trip to the continent to visit relatives might take weeks or months, of hardship and discomfort. No more ambulances at the the end of a phone. No magic pills or injections for killers diseases. Crikey. No no no. I love it like this, complicated but simple.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I achieved my desired density about 20 years ago. Unfortunately I didn't know how to stop it.

Yeah, there's a lot of that going around.

 

[FordSVT]

I'd probably choose Britain in 410AD

Well, certainly the whole "lack of scientific understanding and progress" would suit you just fine.

Oh, and here's to you not getting killed by the neighbouring clan just because they felt like having your apple tree and two pigs.

Yeah, I'm one of those people who thinks that the past is better off left there. There were certainly some good things about days long gone but they're far outweighed by the negatives, IMO. I have no desire to be a settler living in the 1700s, a peasant in ancient greece, or someone living in Europe in the 1500s throwing shit out of their window into the street. I have no desire to live on the plains 10,000 years ago throwing spears at wild game and picking berries either.

Doesn't the pursuit of knowledge tickle anyone else like it does me? We live in a fantastic time!

 

[john titor]

I wish it was the 90s again.

 

[Mr Awe]

I do.

I wish I lived in a time where there were much fewer people. A time where you could just pick anywhere you wanted and start to build your own house. A time where you could plant your own fields of crops or just walk through some trees picking fruit off them and eat at your leisure, a time where you traded things rather than buy things. A time where you did no need to worry about paying gas bills, or electric bills or rent or council tax.

Do You Feel Like You're Living In The Wrong Century?

I'm a history buff, but no, I don't want to live in any other century. At least not in the past. The life you describe sounds idyllic but you'd find that life was generally brutish, short, and full of misery. Lots of death all around.

Sometimes I think a future century would be nice. More technology to ease your pains, etc. But, hard to say when you don't know what the future will be like. It could be an environmental disaster for all we know.

I'm happy with the 21st Century, at least for now.

Mr Awe

 

[Count Zero]

The past sucked man, that's why nobody lives there anymore.

I'm quite content with the present, but like most Sci-Fi fans I sometimes wish I'd live in the future. Then again, reading about recent inventions, seeing the technological progress made in the last 20 years I sometimes feel like I already am.

 

[Deckerd]

The future is just a second away.

 

[nevermore]

I do.

I wish I lived in a time where there were much fewer people. A time where you could just pick anywhere you wanted and start to build your own house. A time where you could plant your own fields of crops or just walk through some trees picking fruit off them and eat at your leisure, a time where you traded things rather than buy things.

I don't want to do any of those things, ever. Not even for like a weekend.

Also, I'm a woman, so living in the past would have fucking sucked in every conceivable way.

A time where you did no need to worry about paying gas bills, or electric bills or rent or council tax.

I would rather worry about all those things every day than have to go outside to take a shit.

I wish we could live in peaceful version of the present day. I kind of "Brady Bunch" version of the present day.

Women didn't have it bad as long as they enjoyed being a housewife.

Yeah, they didn't have it bad as long as they enjoyed having no choices in life. What an awesome way to live!

Of course, if one managed to make it to the 60's without blowing one's brains out, there would at least be valium a-plenty to ease the agony.

 

[Ward Fowler]

Women didn't have it bad as long as they enjoyed being a housewife.

Yeah, they didn't have it bad as long as they enjoyed having no choices in life. What an awesome way to live!

Of course, if one managed to make it to the 60's without blowing one's brains out, there would at least be valium a-plenty to ease the agony.

Don't misconstrue what I'm saying. I'm not taking up for the rigid gender roles of the time, I'm just saying that women who enjoyed being housewives could usually count on the fact that their husbands had decent paying jobs and could make ends meet. There's no guarantee of that today even with both parents working. However, there is no doubt that the career-minded women of that time faced many difficulties, to say the least. Even in this day and age women have to deal with sexism and can't make as much as men in comparable jobs.

 

[Mistral]

From our pampered vantage point its hard to remember that for 99% of human history life was short, painful and hard. That simple survival was all most people could focus on. When my dad was a child getting a glass of ice water was a chore. You had to chop at a big block of ice with a pick-and you couldn't bet the ice was pure H2O, either. When my grandma was born the average life expectancy for an American male was 42. 42! Screw that-I want to live forever. You can keep the past-it's a nice place to visit but i wouldn't want to live there!

 

[iguana_tonante]

I do.

I wish I lived in a time where there were much fewer people. A time where you could just pick anywhere you wanted and start to build your own house. A time where you could plant your own fields of crops or just walk through some trees picking fruit off them and eat at your leisure, a time where you traded things rather than buy things. A time where you did no need to worry about paying gas bills, or electric bills or rent or council tax.

Do You Feel Like You're Living In The Wrong Century?

Dude, you can't do anything useful. You will be dead by the end of the day. And so will I, probably, but maybe I could pass off as an astrologer and make my days.

That's an all too popular misconception...that modern times are too complicated, that earlier eras were better/simpler/happier times. That's not true. Things were always fucked up.

This.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I'd probably choose Britain in 410AD

Well, certainly the whole "lack of scientific understanding and progress" would suit you just fine.

I don't quite follow?