A surprising amount of apparently long standing traditions are actually anglo-adjacent inventions from the last 150 years
The weekend is 100 years old
81–90 of 171 posts
Re: The weekend is 100 years old
#82For the elders here, what are the actual ways to not live under the rule of an industrial clock? I’m not talking about starting your own company get rich quick scheme or moving into the woods (unless..), but really, I don’t see many ways about it. You could move somewhere rural, lower expenses, but then you are socially isolated to an extent. So, move to where people are, oh but then the only way to support the lifes…
Don't live for the weekend. Why 2 out of 7 days when you have another 5. Don't put off til the weekend. Don't put off til annual vacation. Don't put off til retirement. Live life every day.
As for each day, organize around living your life. For me, that means working a schedule from the other coast so I sleep when my body craves it, and not fighting it to be productive when I simply am running on reserves
Re: The weekend is 100 years old
#83A surprising amount of apparently long standing traditions are actually anglo-adjacent inventions from the last 150 years
it wasn't much more than 50 years ago before being able to go to the ER to be saved in an emergency in the us was a right without having to show proof of payment/insurance.
a lot of what we take for granted are very recent things.
Re: The weekend is 100 years old
#84The lack of understanding about the change in day-to-day life over the last 200 years is truly unfathomable - I fully do not understand it but the little that I appreciate is absurdly profound in the differences It’s like we’re living on an entirely different planet than the people who existed prior to the industrial revolution Bertrand Russell’s grandfather was alive during napoleon’s rule and he speaks about the di…
It once came up whether my grandmother went to music festivals in her youth. Of course not, she said, they hadn't been invented yet! They didn't have electronic music, because they didn't have electronics. And nobody was playing guitar on stage for 12 hours. You could hold a short small concert in a hall, but you couldn't hold a big rave.
My mom was around when different races couldn’t use the same water fountain and women couldn’t have bank accounts.
I used to turn a wheel a bunch of times to call a friend.
Her grandkids have never known a world without fortnite on ipads and real life dick tracy watches.
It’s a weird world. Makes you wonder how things will look in thirty years.
Re: The weekend is 100 years old
#85Also, the week itself as a 'hard' delineator of time also appears to be fairly recent: > Henkin treats the seven-day week as a social and cultural institution, focusing primarily on the nineteenth-century United States. Unlike years, months, and days, which have astronomical foundations, the week is an entirely historical and social construct with no scientific basis. The study argues that the early American republic…
while the seven day week is arbitrary, it is also worth noting that the French Revolution had experimented with a metric ten day week, which ended up being a total bust because laborers only got one week in ten of rest rather than one in seven.
That seems like an implementation issue rather than a systemic one.
There's no reason you couldn't do off 2 on 8 or off 3 on 7 or off 2 on 2 off on 2 off on 2 or off on 3 off on 2 off on 2 or off on 4 X2 or...just about anything...
We see this today where people's schedule's aren't really in sync with the week where they'll do 4 on 3 off or split days off or 21 on 7 off (regardless of days in the month).
There are also a few people who do 6 28 hour days in a week claiming that it boost productivity because their days are longer.
Re: The weekend is 100 years old
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Also, in ancient Rome, coinage with Caesar's face on it was traded above its bullion value. They'd kill 1/10th of your population repeatedly until you agreed to this (such was the origins of the word "decimation") Decimation has it's origin in a military punishment for insubordination or cowardice. Where did you get the fiat currency idea from?
I learned it in latin class. It looks like I may have gotten it a bit wrong. It's not that they killed every tenth member of whatever village they were adding to the roman empire that day, but rather than they conscripted some of them as soldiers and then killed every tenth of those who didn't obey. I think the currency point stands though: value the money our soldiers carry, tax collectors will be along for it short…
>I think the currency point stands though: value the money our soldiers carry, tax collectors will be along for it shortly, welcome to the Roman Empire.
Well OK but a decimation was no small thing, it was documented to have happened just a few times in Roman recorded history.
I'd hesitate to think they employed such measures just to push the ur-Euro, especially since it doesn't seem like it would be a very effective incentive compared to the utility of the currency itself.
"I fished for a few weeks and got these coins that last forever and are easy to carry and now I can buy a horse at the horse market!"
So the currency decimation thing smells like a myth/exaggeration to me, but I admit it's just a hunch.
Re: The weekend is 100 years old
#87If you enjoy learning about the history of labor and free time, I highly recommend the book Free Time by Gary Cross.
Re: The weekend is 100 years old
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You could move somewhere rural, lower expenses, but then you are socially isolated to an extent. I got more social interactions the first week I moved to my house built in the middle of nowhere eastern europe than in my 10 years in a western EU capital. Small communities are much more alive than gigantic ones. You do lose some convenience, but it's not as bad is it used to be, for exemple there is a 24/7 automated…
> Small communities are much more alive than gigantic ones. My experience is that after a point it gets annoying, and then oppressive. The proximity in smaller communities can help when everything is right. Neighbours can check on you, bring your kids to school, this sort of things. But at some point personal issues arise, and then it’s impossible to get out of them. That’s how you end up with family feuds over centu…
>That’s how you end up with family feuds over centuries because at some point someone did not like someone else.
This is a take it or leave it issue that will come down to personal preference.
The small town mentality knows that this is a possibility, and give it due deference. This is why everyone smiles and nods at almost everyone, almost always. Never cut anyone off. Accept gifts graciously. Mow the elderly neighbors' lawn, put the neighbors' trash out and bring it in if they forget. Do not mention sports, politics, religion, or intimacy unless you are in familiar company, and certainly not if said familiar company holds opposing views.
It does make for a bit of stagnation in that new social trends will always be more slowly adopted, if at all, due to the desire not to offend.
Imagine driving for years on end without anyone ever cutting you off, and people letting you cut if you look to be in a hurry. People offering comfort when you look down. Relative strangers cooking for you when you're sick. All done because they know you to be the kind of person who'd do the same if the situation were flipped because you've shown yourself to be that kind of person.
It's great if you like it, but if it's not for you, it's definitely not for you.
Re: The weekend is 100 years old
#89Also, the week itself as a 'hard' delineator of time also appears to be fairly recent: > Henkin treats the seven-day week as a social and cultural institution, focusing primarily on the nineteenth-century United States. Unlike years, months, and days, which have astronomical foundations, the week is an entirely historical and social construct with no scientific basis. The study argues that the early American republic…
Christianity gets its seven day period from Judaism, and it may well hearken back to Babylonian astronomy (seven planets, including the sun (Sunday) and moon (Monday)). The Romans, on the other hand, had an eight-day week with market days every eighth day (ninth counting inclusively, hence their name nundinae). In the middle ages, market towns had market days on fixed days of the week, every week, providing a commercial rhythm that had to give some rise to weekly consciousness before the twentieth century.
Re: The weekend is 100 years old
#90Can I have a 4 day work week?