Today’s post is kind of an all over the place kind of thing, but have fun with it and let me know what your favorite era in history is.
I’ve been out of touch with the news this week as I’ve been camping with the family (still am), but I did manage to get a local newspaper – the actual paper kind – and read through it. The most interesting thing on the front page was the discovery of the Higgs boson, which I thought was pretty cool. I’d link to it, but I don’t have Internet as I write this, so you’ll have to Google it yourself and check it out if necessary.
Anyway, it’s been fun without the Internet this week. You don’t realize how prevalent something is or how dependent on it we get until you don’t have access to it any more. Today I spent about three hours in the lake with my son and it was fun to watch him progress with his swimming.
Sometimes I wonder if we wouldn’t be better off in a more simple time. I was raised in the 70’s and 80’s and can remember rotary phones, no cell phones or other gadgets, personal computers weren’t even heard of and an electric typewriter was the business weapon of choice. Star Trek had just come out and I knew even at that young age that I was going to be a Trekkie forever.
Heck, I even remember at my grandparents house in Canada using a chamber pot, an outhouse, no running water, and a woodstove to heat on the coldest of winter nights and it didn’t seem like a hardship at the time, although I was pretty young at the time.
The Question
My question to you is: how far back would you go? The 40’s? 20’s? The 1800’s? Even further back? Roman civilization? Etruscan? Egyptian times?
Last weekend I went on a tour of an old house from the 1800’s and was struck by the sophisticated, yet simple, way they solved things like lighting, bathing, heating, and so on. It was an interesting tour and I learned a lot about how the people from that time period lived. If you have a chance I’d advise you to go to something similar to see how we lived back then.
One of my favorite times to read about in history is right around the time of Mesopotamia and the rise of the first civilizations in the fertile crescent. I often wonder how life was back then. I’m sure it was hard and even brutal at times, but damn it, it must have been interesting!
Would you go back to an earlier time than that? Back to the stone age and live as a hunter gatherer? Or maybe to the 1500’s in England?
So my question to you today is, if you had a time machine to what time period would you go? Do you think it would be good for the world if we had some kind of SHTF event that took us back to that time period to reboot our civilizations? Maybe start over with all the global warming and over population and whatnot?
C’mon, I know you have a favorite period in history. Let me know what it is in the comments below.
-Jarhead Survivor
I was at King’s Landing yesterday. North America in the middle to late 1800′s would be my era of choice.
Jarhead , I’m a reinactor Sooo. I’v tried liveing the lifestile of more than one era. 18th century? SMALLPOX YUM! siphilis, scalping, death by 30… 19th century smallpox ,TB , VD , civil war , bone saws. Nah , think i’ll stay right here long as I can, one day I may be forced to knap flint, work all day in the fields ,watch my kids die young , But for now I’m REAL happy with Kroger, water bills & modern meds.—ps your gandparents home sounds nice, sometimes I wake dreaming of the smell of grannys biscuts & gravy in the old wood stove.—–Ray in Ky
To live? 1940′s thru 1980′s America. When my parents grew up, and when I grew up. Oh, and I want to remember nothing ….. NOTHING.
As for interest. I’m with you. Early bronze age, possibly a little earlier. Not the real “caveman” depths of the stone age; but I’d be fascinated to see the origins of the first civilizations. Especially if they were either unknown to archaeology, or would somewhat pre-date the big-4 river vally civs. Maybe the earliest Minoans, early settlements in Afghanistan or Turkey, or what I (for some reason) imagine may have been around the Black Sea, Caucasus, and edges of the Caspian Depression.
Hmm… I’ve often said that our post peak oil future’s going to look like 1920, but with solar water heaters and cellphones.
Being Danish I’d love to go back to the age of Vikings. Some very sophisticated architecture, engineering, sea-going explorations (Discovering the Faroe islands, Iceland, Greenland, and the North America), trade and of course wars. They were also great farmers, tradesmen, engineers, and warriors.
I agree. As long as the Vikings didnt mind taking in a celt
Me too. Sail with Egil Skallagrimsonr, settle Iceland, or trade all the way tp the middle east. If not then, then Rome, at its height, near the end of the Republic, or when ruled by Aurelius, Vespasian, or even Claudius.
hmm…to visit? Always loved the 1940s era. But to stay? Uh-nuh. I love this time, even with all its challenges. Personally, I would have died in childbirth back then- so I love our medical advances. And even with its downfalls…I love technology that allows us to instantly communicate to the other side of the globe. And air conditioning. Yep, I love my air conditioning.
So the answer to your other question- NO! I do not think it would be good to “reboot”. Humans are humans, and lets face it- we would mess it up somehow (again) …we always have in the past. Seriously, some in the prepping community seem to think that only the good will survive?! Think of the dark ages. They are called that for a reason. Death, disease and constant fear is all I can think of for a post-shft event. And there was ALOT of that in “simpler” times. Go to an old cementary and note the many small graves…children *died* much more frequently then, heck..most people died much younger….and if society were to collapse? What would happen to the mentally ill, the sociopaths, and just plain evil people? They arent just going to magically disappear.
Personally, I want my children to be cleaning out my stores of supplies after I die of a ripe old age, shaking their head at how much mom worried over nothing….THAT is what I want. (but sadly, all signs point that we are going to need what I have prepped…in the coming years)
Loved your post! Like you, I would have died in childbirth, which means dying in agony, and while we ended up with six children, I would have died with any one of them without modern medicine. Also agree on air conditioning. My husband and I have each had heat stroke once and, obviously, lived to tell about it, but might not be so lucky in hot years to come. I majored in Medieval European History, and the more I learned, the more appalling I found it. It was a colorful period and so important, but dreadful people and dreadful circumstances. Same with pioneer America. Such hardship and such deprivation. We’re spoiled in creature comforts today, but I like it. Could do without Washington and the Kardashians (who are almost harder to avoid than DC) but we are living in what is probably the ONLY comfortable period in the history of the world. Also nice to know that the children you labored so hard (pun) to bring into the world, have a shot at living into adulthood.
Prior to about the late 60′s I would have died in a accident when I was 20. Between the late 60′s and the late 80′s I could have been permanently disabled from the accident. I was in that accident in 1989 and I’m fine. I got really lucky.
I’m a child of the same era (70′s / 80′s) with easy access of hunting and fishing within a 5 minute walk from our home – it was awesome! I didn’t know how good I had it, but at least I used the opportunities. I think an extra 10 years earlier would be plenty good enough for me. Things were way simpler and sleeping out was a canvas tent, and whatever food you could scrounge from the kitchen. Didn’t even use stoves, cooked right over a fire, no freeze dried nothing.
im part greek and native american between the two i would have to pick native american the time would be around the 1500s so i could do what i could to stop the europeans from comeing here
In order change the history of our country and save us from the directon we now take, would likely go back to 1913, and try to stop the passage of the Federal Reserve act. This would save us so much grief and trouble. It wold likely have kept us out of several wars, it would have kept us from having this commie president, it would have kept so many things from happeneing to our country that have brought us full circle to where we are.
GREAT choice, spook45. That’s probably the best answer I’ve read yet.
Joe
Although I wasn’t alive during the time depicted in the television show, the simpler times shown in the Andy Griffith Show really call to me.
Thinking about to other times, such as era of Davy Crockett, or the Bronze Age, I have a tendency to romanticize it. To think of it in terms of a man and his family living in the wilderness, making their way by the sweat of their brow. That would be great!
But in reality life was hard back then. Many died due to infections brought on my minor injuries. Women died in childbirth. Lots of kids never made it to their 5th birthday, etc. 45 was considered a ripe old age. Etc.
So, while I’d love to have the liberty offered by prior periods, it must be balanced with the downsides, too.
The ’50′s. Those were really the happy days – Cold War and all. Life was simple.
I am a bit divided on two time periods for 2 widely different reasons but both time periods here in San Diego, Ca.
I would have liked to have been born in 1935 in downtown SD. I would have loved to live thru the 40′s, 50′s & 60′s as a young adult here because it was such a sleepy town & area & one of the most beautiful places on the planet. I would have purchased land on the coast for dirt cheap & would never move. Of course later, I would have invested $20,000 each in little known IPO’s like Microsoft & Apple.
Next & may sound bizarre, I would love to be born in the late 1980′s, early 1990′s. I am absolutely fascinated with & have extremely high interest in technology & would love to be able to spend much time as a child exploring it.
I watch my 2 older kids (18 & 19) whip thru things & make presentations, websites, blogs & live in the birth of a technology revolution & am jealous. They went to a smaller high school that is on the leading edge of education styles with a model that incorporates modern completely – in fact they use no books.
It may surprise you (ha, ha) that it is called High Tech High & was founded by the original owner/developer of Qualcomm who sees the future quite clearly. Bill Gates visited the main campus, examined the model & is donating a considerable amount to help expand this style of education across the US. What is interesting is well over 95% of the graduates end up going to college because of desire.
I have invented things that went to market in my 20′s & would have a an absolute field day in today’s world because it is such a target rich environment & a wide open opportunity – it is truly unparalleled to any other time in known history.
Dream on baby, dream on …..
good answer – I had a grandad who lived from the log cabin to the space shuttle, and he wasn’t interested in the past history he had made – he was interested in the possibillities of the future.
Hmmm 1870ish. No cell phones, email…and less stupid people.
Fewer.
You know, it’s funny. In my youth, I’d have gone back to change things – make things right. Destroy Hitler, Mussolini & Tojo. Save all the Jews in the war. Gotten us to stay out of Vietnam (how I don’t know.) Made Papa Bush press on and finish off Hussein.
As I’ve grown older it’s changed to just visiting people: All the scientists on the Manhattan project, Einstein, interact with men whose work changed the course of U.S. history. Lincoln, to soak in the sound of The Great Orator. Washington, to listen to the the general that declined being monarch. Jefferson, to see how far off the Constitution’s path we have come and maybe a way back.
After thinking and feeling about it, really there’s only one person I really would want to see, talk to, bask in his presence. (Ignore me if you don’t believe. I do and that’s why I say this.) Jesus. To walk in the shadow of God. To touch the face, to feel the breath as people are healed, brought up from the depths of despair. To hug him. To cry my thanks for his coming sacrifice. To maybe get a piece of woodwork from his hands – not to sell but to have a little bit of the Son of God with me, always. I couldn’t stay for the crucifixion. Even though I know it was necessary, how could I let God do that for me? No one else means so much to me and millions of people, past and present and future.
I don’t think other times were more interesting. In fact I believe they, for the average person, were boring as all get out. Get food. Get water. Worry daily about security in fear of losing those around met at any second’s notice. Worry about disease and war and … Sure you would have the knowledge that you are actually accomplishing something concrete, but really it’s like today, just a tiny cog in the clock of time. The average man toils in mediocrity making a path for the great people to do great things. What was that saying, ‘The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation’?
lateToTheParty,
I fully agree – to be in the presence of Jesus & witness His teaching, watching miracles happen & the transformation of people – to have been present for the Sermon on the Mount would have been awesome.
I too agree, I would NOT have wanted to see the crucifixion or the torture prior to, imagine the crowds screaming to Pilate to crucify Him, even after Pilate said He was innocent, several times to the crowd – it was the innocent lamb being led to slaughter.
A long tome favorite quote of mine is from Macbeth:
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.”
Whoops “The mass of men LEAD lives of quiet desperation.” Henry David Thoreau.
I give. Every time I write it disappears and now the short correcting comment appears but not the reply?
Ok, trying again. When I was younger I wanted to go back and right wrongs. Destroy Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo. Save the Jews. Force George Bush Sr. to press on and finish the job. Keep us from Vietnam.
Later it became just to visit and interact a bit with the great people of Western Civilization. George Washington, to meet the general who declined the monarchy, Abraham Lincoln, to hear and talk to The Great Orator, Thomas Jefferson, to interact with the architect of The Constitution, and maybe find a way back from this madness. To meet and interact with the scientists on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos who changed the course of a war: Oppenheimer, Feynman, Fermi, Manley, Bradbury, Groves, Lawrence.
But, on thinking of it more deeply (mind and heart) – only one thing really interests me; to see and interact with my Lord. (Ignore if you don’t believe, I do.) To touch the face of God, to watch the miracles as he brought people out of the depths of despair. To hug him. To cry my thanks for his coming sacrifice. Maybe get a small handcarved item, he was a carpenter’s son after all. Not for sale, but to have a tiny piece of God to hold onto. I couldn’t stay for the crucifixion, it was what was needed but I couldn’t bear to let him take my place on that cross.
I don’t think any place in time is truly exciting for the average person. Those who were lucky to be in the right place at the right time saw amazing things, but they rarely last, and we hardly ever see their true importance at the time. Average men lead mediocre lives to pave the way for great people and things to happen. “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
This is so cool. I’m a history major, born just after WWII, so can remember more “primitive” times. Except for lack of air-conditioning, they were better times. A good sense of community and a great sense of HOPE. I especially see that lacking today. My choices would be, in descending order:
1. Victorian England but only if I were rich. The Victorians weren’t always stuffy and they were so interested in science, nature and the beginnings of social science.
2. 1920s-30s, but only if we were reasonably well off. Am sure I could have done some good things for some people, and I love the clothing and architecture. It was an exciting time and the beginning of so many technological advances.
3. Medieval/Rennaisance Europe, but only if I could keep my mouth shut. Would love to have seen Europe while it was still relatively pristine, except around the cities. The English and French courts were a nightmare walking. Would also have to have good teeth, good health and be a guy because I have trouble giving birth.
4. 1950s USA. Such excitement, such enthusiasm, such HOPE. I don’t think of it as a dark gray, conforming time, but a time when you felt safe and the whole world ahead of you wasn’t scary but was filled with promise. It would also be better to be white, although my home state was relatively non-prejudiced, while my home town was totally integrated and never had any “race” problems. After the 50s, came the 60s and the beginning of the long decline. It was fun and tremendously exciting, but today’s problems began then. We thought it was innocent, but it wasn’t.
I would go back to the 1980s.
In my opinion that had what a person needed as true necessities, air conditioning in cars and houses that needed it, easy travel by car and air and mobile phones and faxes were available to those that really needed it.
I just came back from vacation with the family off the north carolina outer banks and the kids spent half of the time inside and playing video games on the tv and phones and most of the adults spent some time on the internet, their phone’s apps or keeping up with their work email. They did this when they were a 5 minute walk from the atlantic, the bay with daily sunrises and sunsets outside on the deck. I’m sorry, but my facebook status will always take a backseat to a sunset.
I also like the 1980′s as society’s problems like violent crime, violent gangs, widspread drug use and lack of respect for elders seemed to be in the extreme minority.
Unfortunately, the big problems of the 1980s like teenagers being caught with weed or the report of a stabbing in a rough area of town wouldn’t make it to the cutting room floor as news stations these days. Only God knows if we’ll turn back the tide.
1920. You could still do fundamental science on a tabletop w/0 the resources of a government, university, or industrial campus megaplex.
…..oh, and life made sense then.( I guess the same could be said for 1947).
1947 sounds good. they had some really cool looking cars back then too.
either the turn of the century about 1910 or the 1950s .
65,000,000 BC, 1 t-rex and you would have jerky for a life time.
Don’t forget Rachel Welch in the loin cloth!
Imagine being the first human to walk thru North America! I am reading The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper. It is the about life in pre revolution America. To live in the wild with the skills and knowledge they had would be something. We need the holadeck or whatever it was on Star Trek. Then again to live in
” a universe long long ago and far far away” with full jedi powers…….
After you finish reading deerslayer you should read Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses
by Mark Twain
Sartain, …. That’s ag’in usage— and some people say ag’in manhood, though I hold to no such silly doctrine. – the Deerslayer. With all this time travel stuff I wonder how we would even communicate. Even 2 – 3 hundred years ago our modern engish would probably make us sound like morons. LOL! It’s been said when you graduate from public HS today you know as much as a 12 year old farm girl from the 1800′s. The people on this forum could have a good shot at surviving. But most others would not be like “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”. ………” In one of the best known critical essays in English, Mark Twain comically attacks the renowned author of The Deerslayer for his poverty of invention, ‘inaccurate observations, and ‘ a word-sense that is singularly dull.’ ” -Richard Nordquist Excuse me while I go reread “Patriots – a Novel of the coming collapse. (A literary gem). If I knew how to make one of those snarky sarcastic em icons ——I would. Anyway this is a nice week-end topic Jarhead Survivor, lots of intersting comments.
Woops…..get it right! “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away……
I wish that I was an unemployed laborer in the ‘dirty thirties’ waiting my turn at a church soup kitchen. Then I’d be able to look back on the future at how life was/will be in 2012 and appreciate that those crappy times weren’t so bad after all. ;-)
Joking aside, I’d like to go back to the pioneer west (1840-1880) for awhile and experience what it must feel like to be truly a ‘free’ man and know what it was like to live in an era where an honest man’s handshake was his bond.
Both great comments.
It occurs to me that throughout most of mankind’s history it would have been possible to live as a truly free man, provided you lived outside the more controlled territories of more ‘civilized’ places.
But with freedom comes danger.
“But what more oft in Nations grown corrupt,
And by their vices brought to servitude,
Than to love Bondage more than Liberty,
Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty.”
– John Milton, Samson Agonistes, 1671
The real trick is to remove the danger (by living within society) without losing the freedom. Clearly, that ain’t easy.
“Where an honest man’s handshake was his bond”. Preach it Bro! Imagine how that one thing would change our lives and society.
the problem with choosing is that we have the luxury of knowing what we know. i’m currently recording music with technology that wouldn’t be available with earlier technologies. what are we willing to give up, what is acceptable in the effort to get back to basics?
I am not sure. I am 31, a 90′s child. My dad however should have been a mountain man. Maybe the 50′s, for me npt really sure. I have read alot of history and though I hate what some modern technolgy has done I am thankful for others.
I can’t pick a time or place since I’m one f those wo would have died without help having my kids. I do know that if I were to pick a time for a life style, I would think the early 1900′s would be good, followed by the early 1800′s. We tend to romantasize so many time periods! The adventures and the opportunities early Americans had make many long for those times.
I would think though, that if the shtf, we would probably be in an early 1900′s type of life but with more knowledge. I grew up before maor technology advances and wonder how todays young folks would handle it.
in past times, i might possibly have lost my wife and son in the childbirth process. the prospect of that alone makes me glad to be alive now. (and i agree with all the favorable comments about air conditioning)
historians all want to be the “spin doctor” of record, regarding the events of the past. the facts can’t always be trusted to speak for themselves. for the rest of us, we need to preserve the “KSA’s” (knowlege, skills and abilities) that have made “modern times” possible. (especially the knowlege of right and wrong, and the skills to maintain our personal freedoms)
@JL. What is it with us 30-35 year olds? We grew up in the beginning of the “heavy” computer use age and we know how to use all the new tech, but we hate it!? I know I am the same way and many of my friends are like this as well. I have no Facebook page or other “social media”. If all cell phones, computers and other “10101010110″ crap vanished right now I would not shed a tear!
1830′s to be part of the mountain man era or during the Western Expanansion in the latter half of the 1800′s.
I don’t think, we’ll like to go back to the Stone Age. We simply won’t be able to manage ourselves without all that technological help.
what we give up in tech, we make up by knowing to wash our hands, FULLY cook our food and easy ways to make fire.
I wold recommend the movie The Man from Earth it can be found on netflix. Based this post I think you would find it interesting. Thanks for all the great info.
I forgot to answer the question, if given the choice I would not go back to any time I am certain in 200 years people will long for the good old days of 2012. If given no choice but to go but I could pick when it would most likely be Western United States early to mid 1800′s