Now or then?

[captainBeaky]

Sometimes I think I should have been born in a simpler time. I love nature and picnics and the outdoors, and pretty much the simple things. I know there would be more diseases and possibly highwaymen and beheadings so all was not rosy. I also know I am completely generalising here as there are so many lifetimes to imagine. Would you please tell me, do you like life now? Do you have a favourite historic time. I would have loved to live in a forest at the bottom of a mountain near a lake. We would need to forage, but it would never be desperate. We would have seasonal rituals and no modern stress or techno;ogy. I know I'm on here, but it would be quite nice if it had never existed. Would sincerely love to here your thoughts and insults to the hippie freak of the week!

I have often thought I would like to have been young and rich in the 1920s. But living off the earth and weaving clothes out of yogurt.. nah.

then. when everything was slower and took more time.

I like nature and picnics and outdoors. Then, when I've had enough of them, I like to go home to my nice brick house with central heating and comfy chairs, have a hot bath or shower, cook convenient (safe) foods in the gas oven and Mumsnet on my modern, shiny PC.

The outdoors is lovely for a holiday but you wouldn't want to live there.

I would like to live in an era when a family of 6 could survive on one salary so I could have a decent shot at being a decent SAHM instead of doing a shitty job of being a WAHM. Alternatively, in an era when most people were self-sufficient.

Now - I like toilets, electricity, hair straighteners, anti-biotics and having the vote.

I like central heating, electricity, running water, proper toilets, and all mod cons way too much to romanticise another era. I'd prefer to live in the future if we had flying cars, trips to outer space, colonies on other planets and cures for everything including age.

I was born in a simpler time - the 1950s. When women knew their place (in the kitchen usually).

We had no microwave, fridge, freezer, washing machine, telly, computer, central heating.

Would I go back? Not on your life.

I could easily romanticize the past as I love my history, I'm in a living history group where we live as dark ages people.

However, I think the reality would not be so great - no rights for women, high infant mortality, no healthcare, no pensions, no heating, probably not enough food...

I'll take the present thanks.

I've have been... dead whilst being given birth to, dead of appendicitis, dead from complications in my pregnancy, dead during childbirth. I can't work out if I would have been dead from dengue because presumably I couldn't have been in Cambodia to get it without air travel. Thank you modern medicine! And, I like the vote too.

Now, definitely.

You do realise you could still do those things now?

I wouldn't go back to any period that pre-dates Tampax. Or tights.

but privacy, spirituality, a connection to the earth... to me these outweigh mod cons (and I am not disputing modern medicine). Have you watched TOWIE or seen the complete apathy around you? Take Me Out, Take-A-Break, Jeremy Kyle, Channel 4 letting you think they expose the other side? Conspiracy theories vs the Daily Mail? I honestly believe we are completely shallow fuckwits at times. Victoria Beckham's postnatal depression, woman aged 56 has baby, footballer we've never heard of has heart attack! Come on, what bollocks are we being fed? I read these things too, but really. They are not important. We are just brainwashed into thinking this is news? What is really going on when we are wrapped up in this trivial, contrived nonsense? I think we all need to open our eyes a little. Not meant to be rude, patronising, idiotic, just my thoughts. And I am so far from being a conspiracy theorist.

But you can go and live in the forest, close to the nature, hunting for your own food. Why not, if this is what you want?
And stop reading Daily Mail!

Same as picnicbasketcase would love to have been one of the Bright Young Things in the 1920s, or, maybe a Hollywood star in the 1930s. Love all the glamour. As for being an ordinary working person probably best off here and now. Life can be simple if you want it to be.

But you are presuming that your vote actually counts? Hmmm...

Why choose?
We can have both. It's quite easy, even in a big city, to structure ones life to having picnics and getting outdoors with your family. I live in central London, work ft yet do this. Depends what you choose to prioritise in life.

I understand yearning for a simplier time and being more connected to the earth, but it's not impossible in this day and age. We made a significant move to a very rural area, where we have to chop wood and haul coal to get heating and hot water, where ther's fantastic wildlife and beautiful scenery. There's downsides too, of course - the power lines go down every couple of weeks so we have no electricity for a few days, it gets cold even with the stove going, I commute an hour each way to work in the nearest city. But I love it and it's the right life for us.

I suppose I'm trying to say that it's possible to get the things you're looking for if you want to.

captain people being fed "bollocks" is not a modern thing at all. In fact we are in a better position than ever to get the facts thanks to education for all and modern technology.

endoftheday that sounds wonderful, I would love to hear more x

thankgod, it all just worries me...

One word, OP...

...toothache.

What about a back to basics camping holiday? Would something like that give you a taste of the life you want?

well, I guess I have the best of both worlds. I live on a farm. The majority of our food comes from the farm. Before dinner I get to go out and pick the veg. Nothing really goes to waste here and its brilliant. (have just moved here from city, am living with FIL)

agree with attheendoftheday

Annpan I would love to live on a farm. I am harbouring a secret ambition to own a smallholding and keep goats. Living on a farm sounds glorious.