Are we better off than our ancestors?

Is everyone happy with their life and modern society? is modern life what you people really want?

For instance the native american Indians knew perfectly good water falls from the sky. That foods grow on trees. That light was free. That a horse farm is better than a Detroit factory. That a brain was better than a computer. That friends are better than a TV show called friends. That some plants are better than some pharmaceuticals. That buffalo trails are better than paved highways (a lot of highways are old buffalo trails). Goods to trade instead of money. Tribes instead of neighborhoods and politics. Trading posts instead of stores. Sharing land instead of taxes. Leather Moccasins instead of pleather shoes. Plants like blue cohosh instead of abortion clinics. A free do it yourself teepee instead of an apartment or house you struggle to pay every month. A campfire instead of central heat. Shade instead of air conditioning. Story telling like here on ATS instead of tv. Bow and arrows instead of drive by shootings. Organic instead of chemically treated. A guy who went to the bathroom in the wrong place (near a water source) instead of Fukushima. A stable earth instead of global warming. It was like the flintstones instead of mad max. Is this progress?

"new ways things can go wrong"-Stephen hawking on science and technology.

Emails instead of postcards...
Toilet paper instead of leaves...
Forensics instead of mob rule...



Let's take the good with the not so good.

ATS instead of GLP.

a reply to: SpecialSauce
Yes, but our mindset determine how we experience it.

Build a time machine and jump back a few thousand years and live there for a week. I would be very interested in hearing your report.

a reply to: SpecialSauce

Absolutely not.

Things are worse than ever, now, in fact.

History repeats itself--and things just keep on getting worse and worse.

a reply to: SpecialSauce
Simply answer: quantity < quality.

Do we have a greater quality of life now than our ancestors did? I argue absolutely not. With some few-ish exceptions, our society has substituted style over substance, quantity over quality. Dominion (or the false perception thereor) over balance and harmony.

We might PRESENTLY be living much longer - but hell, look at quality of life indexes/etc. in comparison. We're prolonging "life" while minimizing its worth.

As Bilbo said, we're becoming like ":too little butter scraped over too much bread" or whatnot.

About time for me to say burn it all. Pardon me for not posting the relevant lyrics (OK, forgive me one from Meatloaf - Life is a lemon and I want my money back!).

Grace and peace.

Yes, we have things better. At least, in Western countries that are not creaming with war.

And for those that would insist upon glorifying the past, when "times were simpler", well you see, in our happy modern world, you don't actually have to live in a city and use technology. You are free to actually f*ck off, and live in the wild, if you want. Or if you do not wish to isolate yourself because you gotta get all you want, just cut your house off from the electric grid. No more bills, and you can enjoy the simplicities of a bygone era in the light of candles. It's not crap, it's Vintage!

In the past, people have not had the freedom of choice we have now.

We chose luxury over labour, but nobody signed a contract. You want labour over luxury? That's your choice to make and you are free to make it. Not always have people had such a choice. Do you see my point?

No we're not.

We're totally lost.

We're acting like monkeys everyone. We are thinking with our ego and not with our higher sense of being.

Our science is total nonsense, it's reductionism in a world of character and context.

We destroy our own history for personal gain.

We need to wake up and cut the #.

a reply to: Volchitsa

The government comes after people who go off the grid, don't you read the news? And if you have solar you are required to buy expensive equipment to hook up to the grid to sell excess power for very little money. The Amish make so many goods because they have to pay property tax with money.

a reply to: SpecialSauce

I think that rather depends on ones construction.

Personally speaking, I feel stifled by the modern world sometimes. I dislike being surrounded by concrete, paperwork, electronic banking, and commercials fed directly to my personal devices. I dislike the coldness, remoteness, and staggering power of governments, and the fact that one cannot make ones fate for oneself, without interference from bodies, organisations, and individuals who buy into every part and parcel of what our species has become in the modern age.

On the other hand, I like the fact that if my mother gets seriously ill, she will have a better chance by far than her ancestors. I like the fact that she will not have to walk to town on aching feet and hips, to do simple tasks that can now be done more locally, or over the wire.

I have often said, that if it were not for the people I love in this world, I would live differently, that I only adhere to the modern way of life, so that I can continue to interact with those I love, and be useful to them. I feel this way because I do not require four walls and heating bills. All I need to get by is rudimentary shelter and a fire started the old fashioned way, something to cook in, and land to live off. If I had my way, I would spend my whole life making and breaking camp, fishing, hunting, gathering, cooking, eating, and indulging in some other entirely natural pursuits, should the opportunity arise. The idea that a mobile phone is more use in this day and age than a good knife, upsets me on a primal level.

But as it is, there are people I love in this world, my son, my mother, sister, brother in law, friends both locally and remote from my location, that I would not be able to interact with, if I was living that life, and who would not enjoy trying to live the one I would prefer. Given the option of indulging myself by way of just hoofing it into the nearest wooded area of significant size, or continuing to be there for the ones I love, I choose responsibility over preference every time.

That said, if things ever go to crap, major collapse of society style, burning cities and total chaos, then perhaps my preferences may become useful to those I love. At the moment though, it is hard to avoid feeling obsolete, when one is constantly aware of the absence of a sword at ones hip, a bow across ones back, and the smell of woodland in ones nostrils.

a reply to: SpecialSauce

Here is a thought for you,, we have just reached the state, that our ancestors enjoyed in the neolithic era,

Just go back in history, say 100-150 years, you have people roaming in their own feces, and suffocating from pollution.

we are living in a lie.

No packs of wolves, no witch finders, no Black Death or plagues, no conscription to fight wars, no poor houses or satanic mills. No child labour.indoor toilets and showers with hot or cold water.

shaved women

As a woman, who can choose her own husband, not be raped or beaten by said husband, have a good chance of myself and my child surviving childbirth and infancy, I say yes lots better off.

a reply to: TrueBrit
That's because most men aren't real men anymore. They have no hunter, gatherer, protector and provider instincts in them.

When paying bills, reading the news, being annoyed at celebrities or social media, or when my husband's alarm goes off at 4:45am each morning, it makes me wish life was simple and free. We should all be frolicking naked in the sun, playing with our babies, eating ripe fruit right off the tree, and sleeping under the stars. That's what we were meant to do...

a reply to: WilsonWilson
Women in Pakistan still get buried alive for marrying outside their tribe. Rich People nowadays pay large amounts of money to meet a husband through a matchmaking service like women of old times did. That's probably where matchdotcom got its name. Women still get raped and beaten. The American Indians were pro gay marriage and abortion, the women were medicine women, cookers, craftswomen.www.indians.org... what makes you think they were anti women's rights? Natives were free to inter marry between tribes inamerica.blogs.cnn.com...

In recorded history there were many female native american Indian leaders. en.m.wikipedia.org...

More than I can say for most modern governments

a reply to: SpecialSauce
I'm sure some societies were enlightened, however native American societies also had their darksides. It wasn't all communing with nature.
However I live in the UK and having had 3 children I cam say I am much happier with the survival rates these days.

a reply to: SpecialSauce

living standards are better now. But better isn't better when it comes to human life. We crave, adventure, challenge, stress, the unknown, the struggle. Modern life is so much less of that that it becomes nearlly a pointless existance. I'd rather live now though than back then. But life can sure get dull. Plus I guess back then people had freedom. Today we have none.