OT: The Good Old Days

[Phanatikk]

ORIGINAL: robinsa

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

About 10,000 years ago our ancestors made some kind of "mistake" and now here we are paying for it. I agree that the intermediary steps from Paleolithic-Mesolthic-Neolithic-Metallic-Explosive-Atomic eras were generally a mixed bag, but based on what I know about Paleolithic peoples, I am quite confident life was pretty awesome prior to the decline into civilization . . . well, confident in a silly speculative and slightly wistful way!

Imagine you, your family, and all the other families in your group are all world-class naturalists, hunters and atheletes, mean body fat to muscle mass ratios that would make modern day triathletes envious, taller, stronger, more sturdy, healthier in many ways (low pop densities = most of the infectious diseases that have killed us in droves for the last 8 or 9K years would've been inconsequential; speculative, but many think no cancer, diabetes, obesity or related chronic degenerative diseases; no writing and no confusing written or recorded culture [apart from cave paintings, carvings, oral traditions]. About the worse thing back then would've been the preadators, physical injuries from accidents, the occasional intestinal parasite, and tooth decay.

So, I think there is some basis to the zeitgeist that "the good old days" were better. You just gotta go waaayyy back to be confident that they really were "better."

I don't believe this to be true. I remember reading somewhere that life expectancy at that time was around 18 years old, and even shorter before "modern" man came along. You might be correct that contagious deceases weren't as prevalent but people would still die from small scratches getting infected. I'm no expert on the subject so treat this as an opinion rather than a fact.

Edit: But I do agree that it does seem like some sort of utopia to walk around healthy and strong in the forest with you family.

Modern man has been around for about 200,000 years. We just know more stuff now.

[Anthropoid]

We do know more stuff, concerning a lot of topics about which our ancestors were completely ignorant.

However, how many of us are prepared to dropped off by helicopter 1000 miles from the nearest paved road in remote Alaska, Canada or Russia, wearing nothing but some skins and carrying some rudimentary stone, wood and bone tools?

That is what we used to know and the knowledge is effectively lost, though perhaps somewhat recoverable should anyone choose to attempt to do so.

[AW1Steve]

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

We do know more stuff, concerning a lot of topics about which our ancestors were completely ignorant.

However, how many of us are prepared to dropped off by helicopter 1000 miles from the nearest paved road in remote Alaska, Canada or Russia, wearing nothing but some skins and carrying some rudimentary stone, wood and bone tools?

That is what we used to know and the knowledge is effectively lost, though perhaps somewhat recoverable should anyone choose to attempt to do so.

Strangely enough , more people than you think. A great many veterans of militaries are. Certainly in the US , any graduate of a military or Naval SERE school has just that done to them. They are grabbed , stripped of most anything that would help them , then dropped in the wilderness , with a set of instructions to "find your way to point X". Unfortunately while you are struggling to survive mother nature , a group of people (affectionately known as "OPFOR") is out to catch you , and you must avoid them or they will do nasty things to you. So survival skills are alive and well, I'm more concerned with how many people know how to farm with a horse drawn wooden plow? Or build a working wind/water powered grist mill? [&:]

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: m10bob

I do not "yearn" for the "good old days"..I am just a nostalgia freak..I have a fantastic memory, can remember things since I was 2 years old..In detail with some areas skipped over...
The writer Jean Shepherd also enjoyed this gift.

I have clear memories from before I was 1. It doesn't seem all that strange to me, but I guess it's unusual. My SO can't really remember anything for long stretches of her childhood, but her mother was mentally ill. She has nightmares sometimes.

Of course I have the advantage of remembering things from my own life, not someone just "peeking in" via books, documentaries, etc.
For a child who had parents providing all the basic necessities, (including decisions), life was much simpler an a lot of time was freed up for playing cowboys and indians, etc.
Decades later I would learn some of my ancestors were Piankeshaw..Native Americans....
The Polio shots of my life were nothing to reflect on as an enjoyable thing..They were a necessity.
Everybody got measles,mumps,chicken pox..It was not an option.You just waited your turn.
Having 3 TV stations in lieue of what is available now cannot be imagined by folks who were not there to experience it, and aluminum foil on the rabbit ears was used to get those stations.
How can anybody think my memories of that might be construed as a "good thing".
Maybe someone with a very narrow imagination?
With the advent of computers, (not even available in my college years), I suspect an individuals "imagination" has been somewhat killed, and over-relaince of computers has taken many things from us.
"Original thought" is considered a risky proposition because we are now over-consumed with the concern of what others might think of OUR ideas..
Maybe that is something I miss.
The reliance on people, folks you actually know, and the confidence in oneself that only some of us seem to retain, rather than the rush to judgement that society seems to allow, "the lemming syndrome"..
I consider folks of my age walking museums of an earlier era..The air was the same breathed by the generation which fought WW2, and the memories of that terrible war were more a personal experience of the grown ups of my life, rather than "theories of how it might have been"
Today, we have countless revisionists, perfectly willing to look at the deeds/misdeeds of that prior generation and judge them, when it was those of that prior generation who were required to take the ultimate risks, the decisions which were forced on them by (then) current events.
The need on making those decisions,with all the tragedies which came with them,were forced on that generation by the events of the hour.

When I was maybe 10 years old...in a quiet afternoon on a smill hill overlooking Fall Creek, I asked my dad why he fought in that awful war?
He responded "So maybe you and your brother would not have to."

I am positive, for me, THAT is a major reason I look back on those days,(with all the problems that we did endure),as "good times"..
I had not had to be concerned about my own wars...........

I don't think the coming of the home computer has wiped away imagination, it has changed it. We still have the same mix of imaginative people, but they have different outlets now. As children, instead of coming up with the games the other kids play, they are on their home computers learning how to program them. The US has many tech incubators where young people with ideas go to try and turn their imagination into money.

At least in the US there have been changes that aren't for the better. Our culture has more of a focus on getting rich quick rather than producing products people want. The products are just a side show to getting rich in a lot of ways. I think the quality of the K-12 education system has also gone downhill.

40-50 years ago the pace of life was slower than it is now. There were fewer things hurrying it up. For people who are inclined to ponder things, it did offer more time to ponder. For those who are not wired to ponder, they were probably bored. That may have contributed to the higher crime rate and higher alcohol consumption levels.

On the other hand, life offers more to ponder these days. I have access to information in seconds that would have taken years, if ever, 40 years ago. It takes some discernment to sort the bad information from the good and that seems to be a skill some people lack.

Ultimately the world moves on. Some good, some bad, some neither, the only certainty is change.

Bill

[1EyedJacks]

The moon was closer. The surfing was better. The oceans and seas were saltier. The girls 2day wear less than when I was a young man. My Cubs still haven't won since before I was born but this year I have hope - by God! I now get up-2-the-minute information on subjects that I'm interested in. I remember back in the good 'Ol days I used to ponder, theorize, and conjecture with my associates. We actually had conversations. Now someone somewhere has posted answers to questions I never thought of before I've finished the thread topic I was reading.

My phone tells me things, reminds me of appointments, lets me look up facts and figures when I have a question, and has a tracker so I always know where I am and and where I've been. Sometimes it talks back to me... Sometimes I turn it off just to get away from the babble. But not for long.

I was a legend in my own mind. But now that I'm older I guess... I don't mind. I dunno if it was sunnier back in the day but the nights had less of them little dots, secret-spy & DISH satellites - and planes and such, all moving about as I look at the stars and moon.

Do you think Big Brother is up there, watching over me? I wonder what he wants...

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: 1EyedJacks

Do you think Big Brother is up there, watching over me? I wonder what he wants...

Less pondering, more burnt offerings? [&:]

[crsutton]

ABBA?

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ABBA?

warspite1

So we now have at least two reasons why the olden days were better:

a) they were sunnier
b) we had the glorious sound of those Swedish musical maestros ABBA [&o]
[&o][&o][&o]

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: warspite1
I Still say it was sunnier when I was younger though [;)]

It was sunnier when you were younger.

I am pretty sure that this has been statistically proven. [:)]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: warspite1
I Still say it was sunnier when I was younger though [;)]

It was sunnier when you were younger.

I am pretty sure that this has been statistically proven. [:)]

warspite1

It is my opinion - and therefore a fact..... [:D]

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: warspite1
I Still say it was sunnier when I was younger though [;)]

It was sunnier when you were younger.

I am pretty sure that this has been statistically proven. [:)]

warspite1

It is my opinion - and therefore a fact..... [:D]

Indeed. It is a fact. [:)]

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: warspite1
I Still say it was sunnier when I was younger though [;)]

It was sunnier when you were younger.

I am pretty sure that this has been statistically proven. [:)]

warspite1

It is my opinion - and therefore a fact..... [:D]

Uh oh, one of those.[:D]

[Lecivius]

My ideas for The Old days?

Cruzin [8D]

School sports, and activities.

Being able to go hunting or fishing on public lands.

Being able to DO something, without 40 brazillion politically correct opinions washed away the thought.

You could literally get away from it all, if you were so inclined.

Living in a world where you may have been seriously distrusted, but there was not a homicidal rage.

While there were a lot of weapons around, not everyone with said homicidal rage had one.

There are a lot more, but they start to tinge in politics.