Is life today just super awesome?

[CheeseSlice]

It starts like something from a peace and love hippy movement, but ends with something sounding like a war drum beating interventionist would say before invading some oil rich country.

[suityou01]

It starts like something from a peace and love hippy movement, but ends with something sounding like a war drum beating interventionist would say before invading some oil rich country.

Fair point. Yes there are "good" interventions, but mostly bad, and some that should but never happen.

@Doogie :

I agree with what you say about luxury, but you miss my point.

If I get sick, I go to the doctor or hospital.
If I want to eat a weird shaped fruit I never heard of I go to Asda.
If I want to talk to someone in Germany I flick on skype.
If I want to visit the himalayas I get on a plane, and it's mostly likely it will get there.
If I want to socialise with people of xyz persuasion I go to xyx special interest group.

We are pretty much free to do what we want, and when we want to do it, with the widest range of choice in the history of mankind.

Which I think is kind of super awesome.

[d000hg]

Oh, OK. Yes the freedom and choice available to typical low-mid earning people is pretty astonishing. It's a little like when Bill Bryson talks about 50s America.

[nomadd]

I've long been a proponent that life today is so much better than say 100 years ago. And I truly believe this.

When I listen to people moan...

...And life 100 years ago was far better than life 500 years before:

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1348–50 CE. ...the Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60% of Europe's total population.

Some people today don't know they are born.

[suityou01]

Oh, OK. Yes the freedom and choice available to typical low-mid earning people is pretty astonishing. It's a little like when Bill Bryson talks about 50s America.

[mudskipper]

Fair point. Yes there are "good" interventions, but mostly bad, and some that should but never happen.

@Doogie :

I agree with what you say about luxury, but you miss my point.

If I get sick, I go to the doctor or hospital.
If I want to eat a weird shaped fruit I never heard of I go to Asda.
If I want to talk to someone in Germany I flick on skype.
If I want to visit the himalayas I get on a plane, and it's mostly likely it will get there.
If I want to socialise with people of xyz persuasion I go to xyx special interest group.

We are pretty much free to do what we want, and when we want to do it, with the widest range of choice in the history of mankind.

Which I think is kind of super awesome.

So why does everyone yearn for the good ol' days?

[suityou01]

...And life 100 years ago was far better than life 500 years before:

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1348–50 CE. ...the Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60% of Europe's total population.

Some people today don't know they are born.

Agreed, but its a curve not a line.

[d000hg]

?

I was going to say "to everyone" but really it's "to all educated middle class people".

[Old Greg]

Explain yourself or FOAD oh puppet made of socks.

Nothing like a sore head to take the gloss off of the world.

[d000hg]

So why does everyone yearn for the good ol' days?

Cos they're stupid.