this is the hardest time to be alive in the history of humanity.

[Insomniac]

I'm not kidding.

At least, their suffering looked like it had meaning.

 

[conflagration]

Each times have different challenges. Like Tyler Durden says in Fight Club - our great war is a spiritual war.

 

[Insomniac]

Each times have different challenges. Like Tyler Durden says in Fight Club - our great war is a spiritual war.

we just keep swapping problems but not a single one has ever actually been solved ever.

pathetic.

 

[pauly1963]

The world is going downhill at an alarming rate. People are struggling to feed themselves, pay extortionate rents, pay for fuel etc. And it is going to get worse-much worse. There has been a huge shortage of nitrogen fertilizer this year meaning that a famine next year is imminent. This will be all over Europe, USA, Canada, UK and a few more countries. Russia exports 30% of the world's grain produce, so we won't be seeing any of that. A massive gas, diesel and petrol shortage is on the way due to a war brewing in the middle East with Israel. We also have war with Russia that is definitely going to involve conflict with Europe, UK, USA. The diesel shortage will also mean that food deliveries will be severely impacted. There is also the Boston virus, that killed 80% of the mice that had human genes inserted into them. Will this human engineered virus escape into the general population ? Who knows. There is also the imminent collapse of the current financial system. Stagflation, hyperinflation etc. In other words, we are fucked.

 

[Insomniac]

@Someone123 I get what you meant but I disagree.

 

[pauly1963]

Each times have different challenges. Like Tyler Durden says in Fight Club - our great war is a spiritual war.

Love fight club. One of my favourite films

 

[Insomniac]

The world is going downhill at an alarming rate. People are struggling to feed themselves, pay extortionate rents, pay for fuel etc. And it is going to get worse-much worse. There has been a huge shortage of nitrogen fertilizer this year meaning that a famine next year is imminent. This will be all over Europe, USA, Canada, UK and a few more countries. Russia exports 30% of the world's grain produce, so we won't be seeing any of that. A massive gas, diesel and petrol shortage is on the way due to a war brewing in the middle East with Israel. We also have war with Russia that is definitely going to involve conflict with Europe, UK, USA. The diesel shortage will also mean that food deliveries will be severely impacted. There is also the Boston virus, that killed 80% of the mice that had human genes inserted into them. Will this human engineered virus escape into the general population ? Who knows. There is also the imminent collapse of the current financial system. Stagflation, hyperinflation etc. In other words, we are fucked.

and do people even give a fuck about how 400millions of sub saharian Africans are experiencing water scarcity because of climate change engeneered in their opposite side of the world.

all you hear about is how they're all illegal immigrants. And some dumb african tiktokers obsessed with proving that "there's water in africa"

 

[pauly1963]

and do people even give a fuck about how 400millions of sub saharian Africans are experiencing water scarcity because of climate change engeneered in their opposite side of the world.

all you hear about is how they're all illegal immigrants. And some dumb african tiktokers obsessed with proving that "there's water in africa"

So true. You also rarely, if ever, see anything about this in western media. You do however see advertisements for water aid charity's asking for money. But most of these charity's are a scam, and the money rarely goes where it's really needed. Everything is corrupt. It's disgusting.

 

[Doom]

there have been ages much worse than modern times, especially in the middle ages. Back to the old days, depending on how you were born, you were condemned to a life of slavery, being tortured in an extremely brutal way and even if you belonged to royalty remember that a avarage civillian nowadays already lives better than kings of that era. I guess I was born in the wrong time anyway, I wish I could see into the future what kind of technology awaits us.

It is also interesting to note that suicide rates were lower as well, there seems to be a correlation between comfort and depression. People who live in primitive situations are too focused on surviving and therefore they don't have time to think about higher meanings and are less likely to have existential crises.

 

[Himalayan]

I am not exactly sure if comfort is what causes suicide. Today you need to be sociable, manage to get a good job, otherwise you will live in misery.
Who can you rage against about our life, ourselves, unless you start blaming your country.
Not even gonna go into isolation and uncertainty of contemporary times.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I'm not sure any era had it easy- in every era you are going to get people who have harder lives than others.

I think the peculiar thing about this era is we SEEM to have it all. (At least those of us 'lucky' enough to have been born in a more wealthy country and from reasonably wealthy backgrounds.) I think it tends to make older generations frustrated with us- my Grandma used to get annoyed with me that I complained about doing the washing and she was right... In some ways we are pretty spoilt. In her memory, it was all hand washing, using the mangle and hanging out to dry with no central heating all while worrying a bomb might be dropped on you. SOME parts of our lives HAVE been made easier by machines. Yet we all face other challenges now I suppose.

The other thing seems to me is- for better or worse, we are all more able to talk about our struggles and there are a whole myriad of mental illnesses identified. I went on a tour of a WW2 submarine once. The guy leading us round had worked on one. Honestly, the conditions would have been incredibly claustrophobic, likely very dark, smelly and frightening. Someone asked him about whether they were able to contact their families- very rarely. We started talking about depression, SAD syndrome etc and he said- none of those things were even recognised back then- you just had to get on with it.

I suppose that's the biggest difference I can see between my Dad's generation and mine. They seem very much of the opinion that you DO just get on with it. While I love my Dad very much, he doesn't have much time for 'mental illness.' People MUST have gotten depressed in the past- I guess they just were slung in mental asylums then.

I think now, a lot of us feel at least like we can see the monstrous system we are working for. We don't trust our MP's or leaders. We don't trust the system and a lot of us feel like WHY should we just get on with it? Again, I don't know whether that's good or not. Maybe not- if it never leads to social reform...

Just out of interest then- what era would you most like to have been born in?

 

[Mashedout]

If there ever was locked in a bubble perspective, this is it. Read more on history. Human history is HORRIFIC.

 

[Gustav Hartmann]

Living conditions seem to be perfect for our species, otherwise we would not reproduce like the rats. Of course life on this plant is a self-regulating system. The simpelst model are the Lotka–Volterra equations, also known as the predator–prey equations, we are the predators and the rest of the planet is our prey. With other words it will become much worse.

 

[Pluto]

People of bygone generations - particularly the generation that survived the Great War, Spanish Flu, the Great Depression and WWII - survived vastly worse physical conditions than we could imagine, but the fact that they did so together made them incredibly warm and communal, yet tough as nails. Those amazing people were the 'old farts' back when I was young and the world would be a better place if they were still around.

Today's conditions are the opposite, with relative security and material abundance, yet the notion of 'every man for himself' having become so engrained that nobody can remember any other way of being. Our modern era of hollow narcissism and gloating/flexing on social media means that instead of dying from Nazi bombing raids, we are instead dying of despair with humanity and SN poisoning.

 

[Rounded Agony]

If there ever was locked in a bubble perspective, this is it. Read more on history. Human history is HORRIFIC.

Yeah this. I think the only things unique to this time are that we're actively fucking up the planet in so many ways that it is fucking us back in so many ways - but of course, its not proportional.

I personally think what makes it seem worse for anyone living above poverty level in industrialized society is that 1) there is rampant isolation of a kind heretofore unheard of and we are a social species that tends to fare far better in groups, and 2) meeting the basic requisites of life without modern tech and global infrastructure took a lot of constant fucking work. You didn't have time to think about how miserable it was to be completely at the whim of the forces of nature (whether it decides to obliterate your crops, house, town, whatever) or that a minor bacterial infection could straight up kill you very easily, because you usually were hungry or were taking hours to prepare food or hunt food or make/mend clothes or rebuild/repair your house or literally everything. "Convenience" or lack thereof were not concepts. The vast majority of human life was laborious toil, save for some rituals, festivals, or whatever other rare occasion you had to not be making sure you didn't die of anything whenever.

Unlike now, where I can literally not leave my house for days, lie in bed with enough food in my kitchen to sustain me, and consequently have my psyche fully attuned to the hell that is my unique existence, why I want it to end, so on and so forth. Also @Pluto nailed it.

 

[Insomniac]

Today's conditions are the opposite

whose conditions though

Living conditions seem to be perfect for our species,

whose conditions

I think the peculiar thing about this era is we SEEM to have it all

who is "we".

Guys, let's not even mention the millions of people who're dying rn bc of famine, water scarcity and climate change.

Even the people in the West are miserable slaves rn.

Working conditions are terrible. Also nobody seems to care that we're losing our sight (too many people wear glasses wtf) and everyone pretending like it's not happening. Well, I hate to break it to you but our sight is in terrible danger.

Also, working to buy useless objects and collect mental illnesses along the way in exchange of destroying everything? We're just as vain as ants.

buy If only we could only be vain. we're just plain evil.

 

[Pluto]

whose conditions though

This is a fair point. My comment was biased from my Australian perspective, though the attitudes of nationalism were what caused a lot of the historical disasters I mentioned in the first place.

There was a famous water shortage in Cape Town, South Africa a few years ago. It was caused by political infighting and while the population had to make do with severe rations, the wealthy class could simply change location or access bore water. It seemed a perfect metaphor for what the climate change era will bring if the majority do not start to pull together.

That said, it's worth remembering that if there are 8 billion people, there are 8 billion worlds. Some are vastly happier than others, and varying material surroundings doesn't fully explain it. But I haven't figured out the formula either.

 

[Insomniac]

Some are vastly happier than others

and varying material surroundings doesn't fully explain it. But I haven't figured out the formula either.

Peace and prosperity are more important to us than happiness I guess those things are the same for some people.

Like you say, it's hard to explain but I have my idea.

The way I see it, for example, Scandinavian countries of Europe (Norway, Denmark etc) are doing just fine. They're not as extreme and deep in industrialisation as Chinese or Japanese or Americans are. They're not deep into mindless social issues either. They're just keeping to themselves.

And then right next to that you have.. France.

Idk, maybe it's because Scandinavians were significantly less involved into colonisation and other horrors. Unlike France or Belgium. Also, they seem to have an actual culture, unlike Americans.

For Australia, I think it's because it's too far away (if it even exist). You're lucky to be Australian, I think it's the actually the best place to be born on earth. Thought I wouldn't want to be called an "australian", especially after I heard that australian don't care about the fact that indigenous people want "Australia day" to go away.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

People of bygone generations - particularly the generation that survived the Great War, Spanish Flu, the Great Depression and WWII - survived vastly worse physical conditions than we could imagine, but the fact that they did so together made them incredibly warm and communal, yet tough as nails. Those amazing people were the 'old farts' back when I was young and the world would be a better place if they were still around.

Today's conditions are the opposite, with relative security and material abundance, yet the notion of 'every man for himself' having become so engrained that nobody can remember any other way of being. Our modern era of hollow narcissism and gloating/flexing on social media means that instead of dying from Nazi bombing raids, we are instead dying of despair with humanity and SN poisoning.

The thing is though that we judge by our milieu and the standards that surround us. If everyone around us shares the same advantages or disadvantages then those are what we naturally take for granted when assessing things. And it makes me feel so shitty for being born in a developed place in a modernity and still failing at life. Still, no around me lacked those same advantages and I know that my life isn't truly desirable for anyone of any time or place.

 

[Pluto]

Idk, maybe it's because Scandinavians were significantly less involved into colonisation and other horrors. Unlike France or Belgium. Also, they seem to have an actual culture, unlike Americans.

Scandinavian culture is some of the best in the world in terms of setting minimum standards of care for all citizens. They routinely top surveys for quality of life. Having a relatively small population helps, along with solid industries and, as you say, a less tragic history. Suicide rates are still a bit on the high side, perhaps due to the harsh weather conditions.

Australia is a very mixed bag. It can be far from the dramas of the world, and a lot of average people with reasonable families and careers enjoy a high quality of life. The obsession with sport (in contrast to Scandinavia's tradition of exporting fine music) and similar traditions of racial issues to other ex-British colonies (South Africa, USA) kind of suck. Now, housing prices are high as well which makes for wage slavery. I find it hard here being a non-mainstream type, whereas in the US I tend to find a niche since weirdos are accepted.

The thing is though that we judge by our milieu and the standards that surround us.

Yes, that's the broader point. If we compare our lives to kings and queens of a couple of hundred years prior, we might feel like we live in a utopia. But compared to someone across the street, we can feel down in the dumps.

The other point I was trying to get at is that the internal state of an individual's mind is a huge factor that can override material issues to a significant degree.

 

[Darkover]

this is the best we ever had it and yet life is still terrible and horrible in this hellhole

 

[never mind me]

It is also interesting to note that suicide rates were lower as well, there seems to be a correlation between comfort and depression. People who live in primitive situations are too focused on surviving and therefore they don't have time to think about higher meanings and are less likely to have existential cr

I think there's plenty of truth in this statement. Plus I think the fact that in most developped countries more and more people have office jobs and as a consequence don't move a lot also has to do with it. There are various studies showing that regular physical exercise can alleviate depressive symptoms and in every other era in human history humans had to do more physical work and move more than they do today (at least in developped countries). The lack of movement is certainly not healthy for humans, both physically and mentally.

Determinung which era was the best or worst in history depends a lot on the place you were born in and the person you are. For example I'm pretty sure that the early 1940s were a much better time for some tribes still practising hunter and gatherer lifes in the Amazonas or moving from one place to another with their animals in search of food in some African countries as they were not yet disburbed as much by outsiders destroying nature and taking away their ressources. And back then there was no global warming. However, for most Europeans the early 1940s were a much worse time to live in than the current time due to a war going on in their country, including regular bombing, famine and atrocities comitted by soldiers passing through.
But even, if you are born in the same country or even the same town your perspective which era is the best or worst to live in might be different depending who you are. For example in many of the former Central Asian Soviet Republics and (to a lesser extent) the European countries associated with the Soviet Union in the warsaw pact some old people complain about life being much harder now than during the times of the Soviet Union as they now have little or no social security and have to worry about somehow making ends meet and possibly facing eviction, if they can't pay rent. In the days of communist rule everything was provided for them, everybody had work, the government allotted apartments to the people, so you didn't need to worry about these things yourself. On the other hand there are also lots of people (especially the young and talented) who are glad they don't live under communism any more as there is now much more personal freedom (at least in the European countries) than there ever existed under communist rule. Plus it's possible to travel and move abroad into richer countries which was almost impossible under communist rule.
It's probably a similar thing for males vs females in many Western countries. For women in Western countries life has generally become easier over the last decades as they nowadays are guaranteed equal rights by law (even if equal possibilities for men and women are not yet achieved in many societies). Whereas for some men life might actually have become harder due to the fact that women nowadays are much more indepentent. In the past an ugly and shy dude might still have succeeded in finding a partner, because a woman had a hard time living by herself, because of social stigma attached to women living by themselves and/or it not being possible (or at least extremely hard) for women to access higher education and a job that paid enough to support herself. Nowadays men who are not outgoing and/or handsome enough may have a much higher chance of never finding a girl-friend or wife.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

As far as having to navigate complexities in life, I would agree. But as far as just living, as in being alive and keeping one's self alive, I think any time in the 19th century or before would fit the bill of being the hardest time to be alive. Hell, even the beginning of the 20th century wasn't without lots of hardships. It was hard back then. There were diseases with no cures or treatments. Just getting food was hard work. Water was dirty. It was hard to live before the modern comforts of life came into existence. But, it was a simpler time and more effort was available (and extended) toward the basics of just sustaining life.

 

[dreambound]

i recall seeing some old newsreel black & white footage of the invasion of russia by germany
during the winter campaign in ww2, it was terrifying, & left you wondering how that could ever
possibly happen.
as for this part of history, i'm really not sure about, what is apparent though is the alarming amount
of greed that seems to infiltrate every part of society, & how nothing is as it seems. .....
the further that society travels down this path the sadder the outcomes will be.

 

[makethepainstop]

People of bygone generations - particularly the generation that survived the Great War, Spanish Flu, the Great Depression and WWII - survived vastly worse physical conditions than we could imagine, but the fact that they did so together made them incredibly warm and communal, yet tough as nails. Those amazing people were the 'old farts' back when I was young and the world would be a better place if they were still around.

Today's conditions are the opposite, with relative security and material abundance, yet the notion of 'every man for himself' having become so engrained that nobody can remember any other way of being. Our modern era of hollow narcissism and gloating/flexing on social media means that instead of dying from Nazi bombing raids, we are instead dying of despair with humanity and SN poisoning

Remember those old farts fought WW II. Some of the hardest bloodiest fighting occurred on Iwo Jima. 18,19 and 20-year-olds took Iwo Jima! These kids now, are too damn weak, spineless, out of shape, and on so many street or mental health drugs, they couldn't fight their way out of a dam paper bag. God how I loved 1940's dudes! ❤Clean cut, tough as cold rolled steel, and as loving as any man could be. What a boyfriend or husband those guys must have been. Seems to me we lost something. There have always been gay people, wish I could have been a young guy back then. They danced so coolly, their music was real music, not someone chanting while someone else keeps time on a log. Cars were real....I was born too late. DAMN IT!

 

[Silent.Tears]

Sometimes I do feel that way and wish I were born in different times but again I'd only be surrounded by human beings. The judgement, criticism would still have been there, so mostly I feel like I should have never been born.

 

[makethepainstop]

Sometimes I do feel that way and wish I were born in different times but again I'd only be surrounded by human beings. The judgement, criticism would still have been there, so mostly I feel like I should have never been born.

With my luck I would have been a hot red-haired sailor in the USN, looking good in my uniform.
But I have no doubt I would have been stationed on the USS Arizona on 12/07/1941 and blown to pieces when the Japs dropped bombs. Still, I greatly prefer those real dudes! Those were men, even the skinny 18-year-old kids were more manly than a lot of 40-year-olds now.

 

[Silent.Tears]

@makethepainstop I think what is "manly" is as debatable of a question as "what to do with suicidal people".
I just wish I could make everyone happy including myself.

 

[Himalayan]

Not sure if this is the best either. At least not on a personal level.
Diseases, predators, low life rate, none of this matters if you just stay in bed depressed, because your life is going nowhere.
I would rather suffer physically than live in this constant uncertainty.

 

[makethepainstop]

@makethepainstop I think what is "manly" is as debatable of a question as "what to do with suicidal people".
I just wish I could make everyone happy including myself.

Those were real people the ladies too, they acted like ladies. The dudes weren't scared of crap, they were hard-working, no-nonsense guys. I have a deep affinity for tough dudes.

@makethepainstop I think what is "manly" is as debatable of a question as "what to do with suicidal people".
I just wish I could make everyone happy including myself.

When a commercial aircraft drops oxygen masks, make sure your own oxygen mask is securely in place, before helping others with their oxygen masks. (In other words, take care of yourself FIRST)!