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Not really. Life isn't much at all without modern amenities. It is a ton of work with more work to look forward to and watching as you and your friends and family succumb to the realities of the extremely brutal universe we live in.
Not really. Life isn't much at all without modern amenities. It is a ton of work with more work to look forward to and watching as you and your friends and family succumb to the realities of the extremely brutal universe we live in.
Well, let's see... our species lived for how long without smartphones and ipads? Tens of thousands of years? You are of course free to decide you don't want to live any time you like--it is a choice each of us should be free to make. We all have our "breaking point." But, please, don't assume that people who lived before electric lights or automobiles had any less enjoyable a life as you have today. Some did, some didn't. And that is still the case today, no?
Seriously, read some history on lifestyles from the past. I don't know where the last couple of generations got the idea that everyone's life was hell before Edison and Bell came along. If that were the case, our species would have disappeared thousands and thousands of years ago. There is some serious revision of history going on these days--and this is one of the points that is getting distorted beyond belief. Is it just a corporate or governmental drive for dependency on technology or what? My god, there are people who actually have a nervous breakdown if they lose their cell phone.
It was hell. The only difference is that they didn't know any better. Go back to the days where 30-40% of all childbirths resulted in death. Where common illnesses and scrapes would kill people quite readily. Back to the days of a hard scrabble life constantly because you are dependent upon the vagaries of the earth to eek out a meager existence of just meeting your needs daily. Back to a life where you had very few rights and little in the way of improving your station in life because there were a select few with an iron grip on the world's power. People got along because they didn't know better. It was life to them. It was the way it had always been and would always be. Think of how provincial people are now and imagine them being much, much worse.
And this is before the rape of the world for its resources. Now resources are far less abundant than they were back then. There won't be any clawing our way back up. It will be a constant fight for what remains among the ruins of greatness. A constant reminder of what was and could have been. Life is barely worth living as it is now. It wouldn't be worth a damn after a collapse.
It was hell. The only difference is that they didn't know any better. Go back to the days where 30-40% of all childbirths resulted in death. Where common illnesses and scrapes would kill people quite readily. Back to the days of a hard scrabble life constantly because you are dependent upon the vagaries of the earth to eek out a meager existence of just meeting your needs daily. Back to a life where you had very few rights and little in the way of improving your station in life because there were a select few with an iron grip on the world's power. People got along because they didn't know better. It was life to them. It was the way it had always been and would always be. Think of how provincial people are now and imagine them being much, much worse.
And this is before the rape of the world for its resources. Now resources are far less abundant than they were back then. There won't be any clawing our way back up. It will be a constant fight for what remains among the ruins of greatness. A constant reminder of what was and could have been. Life is barely worth living as it is now. It wouldn't be worth a damn after a collapse.
Wow, what a bleak outlook on life. I guess the screen name says it all doesn't it
Most preppers/survivalists/self sufficent folk know that the first thing necessary to survive is a posative mental attitude. If you give into dispair, you will lose and die.
Personally, I don't find the attraction of smartphones or most electronic garbage. I do use a desktop computer, and it is 6 years old, (I know, how un-hip and un-cool ) and I still fell, skid, buck and split my own wood for my only heat, I use a lot of lanterns that are powered by animal fats, raise most of my own meat or hunt/fish for it, raise my own vegetables and fruits or collect them from the wild, I don't see this as drudgery, but rather an expression of my capability to provide for my family.
I don't see new cars or I-phones or the latest hip gizmo as status symbols, but as useless garbage cluttering up the world.
I would much rather work with my forge making a new tool than go to a trendy club. Money to me is a tool to pay taxes and such to keep the government off my back, not as a way to "get ahead" or "improve my station" in life.
I am very happy living my way because I choose to do it. I can give my family great wholesome food that I didn't buy at "real foods" it is real food because I raised it, or stalked it, butchered it myself and cooked it, or planted it, weeded it, harvested it. I know exactly what is in it. I can give them security in nearly any situation. My joy in life is making sure the ones I love are protected and provided for, that they are secure and don't have to worry about being cold or hungry, or even sick as I married a Nurse and I was trained as a First Responder so medical (outside of major disease or surgery) is pretty well taken care of.
However, for those that can't live without having every service at the flip of a switch, yeah you probably would be better off checking out in an emergency. It would mean that the remaining resources wouldn't be wasted on you, so the folks that actually want to live and thrive under any circumstance would have it easier and not have to put up with your bleak attitude.
If you feel so low already, why wait for a disaster to check out? Your tone seems to suggest you want to anyway.
It is sad to think that there are people out there with so little to live for or look forward to that death seems like a goal.
I guess I don't fit in the modern world at all....
It was hell. The only difference is that they didn't know any better. Go back to the days where 30-40% of all childbirths resulted in death. Where common illnesses and scrapes would kill people quite readily. Back to the days of a hard scrabble life constantly because you are dependent upon the vagaries of the earth to eek out a meager existence of just meeting your needs daily. Back to a life where you had very few rights and little in the way of improving your station in life because there were a select few with an iron grip on the world's power. People got along because they didn't know better. It was life to them. It was the way it had always been and would always be. Think of how provincial people are now and imagine them being much, much worse.
And this is before the rape of the world for its resources. Now resources are far less abundant than they were back then. There won't be any clawing our way back up. It will be a constant fight for what remains among the ruins of greatness. A constant reminder of what was and could have been. Life is barely worth living as it is now. It wouldn't be worth a damn after a collapse.
And in 200 years, will our lives be considered hell?
I have a feeling they will, but not because of the revisionist history you are dutifully reverberating, but because, despite all of our technology, we are still fools.
You really need to read the words of the people who lived at the time, rather than reading words written by modern-day historians who present their version of history as viewed through whatever their particular social/political lens may be. It's very rare to find a transparent historian these days. I'd say nearly impossible. And when I say read the words of the time, I'm not talking about historians or politicians or rulers or aristocracy or great writers of the times... I'm talking about common, everyday people of the times from all classes and walks of life. Some of it is written very crudely, and some of it is written in an eloquence that is impossible for us to match today--what does it say about the current state of the "common man" (or woman) when the words of a common Victorian woman (even a domestic servant) today looks like it were written by a professional poet or orator? And I won't even get into the typical appearance and demeanor of someone from 150 years ago compared to that of today.
My family has a long tradition (unfortunately I don't, but then I don't see that there is anything worth writing about in our day) of keeping journals and diaries--lot's of letters written back and forth as well. I don't recall reading in any of the journals and letters dating back sometimes over 150 years, any of the "hell" you refer to. I read of life, both good and bad. Joy is supposed to be a part of life; there is plenty of that within the writings. There is also heartache and illness. And death is part of life, as well. Every one of us must face it, just as they did.
And I'll tell you something else: when I read those old journals and diaries, along with the trials and hardships, I find a joy of life in those words that seems to have become extinct in our time. We're a hollow facsimile of a society. We're too busy rallying around biases, and painting banners like some two-bit snake oil salesman, to actually live life.
Oh, some people will enjoy it like yourself. Some people won't even notice a difference. Some people will be catapulted to great power because of it. No disaster goes by without someone profiting from it.
Anyway, if it really all goes down, I bet you'll be quite a bit more hardened by the experience than you contrive here. It won't be some wholesome picture of Lonesome House on the Prairie. There will be a lot of suffering, including those of your friends and family. And even those that you think that you protect. You cannot protect them from the wiles of the universe.
I'll check out when I have squeezed out what joy remains in my life.
Not long. Life wouldn't really be worth living. What's surviving if life sucks?
I can see, where for some people it might become burdensome. Though that is due entirely to individual choice.
If you think that you have no options, then, I disagree.
If you choose to live a lifestyle where you are 100% dependent on society providing you things, then for society to collapse, life could become extremely burdensome.
However we have choices.
Today we can become mostly self-sufficient. We can produce our own power, our own heating fuel, our own foods, etc.
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) and I still fell, skid, buck and split my own wood for my only heat, I use a lot of lanterns that are powered by animal fats, raise most of my own meat or hunt/fish for it, raise my own vegetables and fruits or collect them from the wild, I don't see this as drudgery, but rather an expression of my capability to provide for my family.
