Life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed
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Re: Life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed
#2[dead]
Re: Life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed
#3And it would be extremely naive to think that people 100 years from now won't think our lives were dirty, difficult, and dangerous too.
Re: Life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed
#4And it would be extremely naive to think that people 100 years from now won't think our lives were dirty, difficult, and dangerous too.
On the other hand, this may be the cleanest we will ever be
Re: Life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed
#5[deleted]
Re: Life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed
#6"We really did have everything, didn't we?"
Re: Life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed
#7And it would be extremely naive to think that people 100 years from now won't think our lives were dirty, difficult, and dangerous too.
On the other hand, this may be the cleanest we will ever be
Sure, if civilization collapses, it may take us a while to get back to this point.
But my point is, essays like these assume we are peak humanity. We're not. Given enough time, we'll look like primitive barbarians too.
Re: Life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed
#8> the ballpoint pen, invented in the 1930s, saved many clothes and tablecloths from spilled ink
I used an inkwell and dip pen for a couple years to take class notes. Don’t really know why. Spilling the ink was never a problem, but really they are just worse than pencils in every way. Can’t erase, the nib doesn’t want to go backwards, and ink smudges.
Re: Life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed
#9So what, we should just sit back and not try to improve things? I’ve never understood this perspective. It just seems like a way to try for people who have done well in the current system to justify to themselves the fact that in reality people in wealthy countries do still struggle with poverty. There are millions of people living hand-to-mouth.
Not to mention the fact that the reason wealthy countries have got to this stage of development is often because they are exporting the negative externalities associated with this lifestyle to poor countries.
Re: Life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed
#10When you're an empire being supported on the labor of a couple billion people in other parts of the world, yes, life for you and yours can be pretty okay.
Not as okay for the imperial periphery, the sacrifice zones, but they don't really count.
> You can amass a closet full of outfits, in a variety of styles and colors, with no knowledge of the spinning machines, the dyeing vats, the automatic looms, the sewing machines, or the tremendously efficient factory system they are a part of—the system that has turned this kind of product from a luxury for the rich into a commodity available to the average worker.
When I read things like this, I really understand how the lack of a liberal arts education has crippled a lot of people. I want to post that angry goose meme: "Who made the outfits, buddy? WHO MADE THE OUTFITS?"