Born in the Wrong Time Period

[Joke_Master_Mandy]

Longing for the past is called medievalism. It might have a more scientific name but it means that you don't want to walk along with the future. You are content with the way things are. Hard core medievalismists desire to live in the past. Such personalities rarely buy new books. They buy old ones. They hardely ever watch new movies. They only watch old ones. You will never see them in a mall buying new clothes either. I am actualy one of these people. But im the kind who gets comfortable in the present which lasts for a few years and then i finally change my ways a little to adjust to the way things are now if you know what i mean.

That's pretty much me, 'cept for the whole buying new clothes part. It's good to know I'm not alone with this feeling. I probably get it from my mom constantly screaming "technology will be the end of us!" coupled with all the depressing things you hear about on the news, about how it's the end of the world and we're getting taken over by 20 countries who are gonna kill most of us and keep the rest of us as slaves. Like I said I just really feel such a strong connection with Victorian era England. I guess it's probably because I'm a more laid back person who likes a simple life. I would never like to live in a place like a big city with a high stress fast paced lifestyle. I just like to keep things simple. I guess you could say I like to kick it old school. I'm just strange like that.

[Fluffybunny]

I think that it all depends on your station in life in your given time frame... Victorian life would be great if you were one of the priveledged few that only had to worry about entertaining and keeping control of the house staff, it would be an entirely different matter if you worked in a coal mine for pennies a day, lived in a hovel without running water and rarely bathed. Right now you have access to most of lifes good things and in the grand scheme are priveledged. Imagine being in India as the lower caste who make mud bricks 14 hours a day 7 days a week for pennies and are always on the edge of starving. Times change, but the spectrum of poverty to priveledge always remains...

[cladking]

I'd have fit right in in pre-history especially living near the edge of civilization

and having a foot on each side. My strenghts would have been far more important

and my weaknesses insignificant.

There's great change about to broadside the species. Perhaps I can be useful yet.

[m. Moe]

Actually we are very lucky to live in a time like this. But I also do feel the same way as you sometimes.

[undersquiggle]

sometimes i feel like i was born way to late. i wish i lived in Feudal Japan. My reasons are because there was so much more emphasis on being honorable, and i don't mean for this to some off weird but i like the spiritual beliefs of that era as well. the physical aspects also attract me to that specific time period because war in that time period was a personal matter. if you were a soldier you had to be close enough to smell their sweat in comparison with today guns. the ways that battles were fought were different as well. i would rather live in that time than have to walk down the street with some of these kids who dress like "Gangsters"(no not gangstas you grammatical butchers) and think that its cool to carry a gun, or rob some one. no honor is left in todays society except for a very few people, and it makes me a little depressed sometimes.

Edited February 11, 2007 by undersquiggle

[Joke_Master_Mandy]

i would rather live in that time than have to walk down the street with some of these kids who dress like "Gangsters"(no not gangstas you grammatical butchers) and think that its cool to carry a gun, or rob some one. no honor is left in todays society except for a very few people, and it makes me a little depressed sometimes.

I couldn't agree with you more. I can't stand when people talk with that yo, yo, yo dis is ma hood bullcrap. They act like it's cool to be unintelligent and talk like a foul-mouthed 4 year old. One of my teachers made a comment that the average teenager today has a vocabulary of about 10 words and 5 of them curses. Which scarily enough is somewhat true. You just don't know how bad it ticks me off seeing the way todays culture embraces stupidity. Seriously, this country just keeps getting dumber and dumber. We just keep lowering education standards further and further to accomodate unintelligent people. I remember watching George Carlin perform one night and he said "The way our education system is going all you'll need to get into college is a ****ing pencil!" Sadly, he speaks the truth.

[cladking]

I couldn't agree with you more. I can't stand when people talk with that yo, yo, yo dis is ma hood bullcrap. They act like it's cool to be unintelligent and talk like a foul-mouthed 4 year old. One of my teachers made a comment that the average teenager today has a vocabulary of about 10 words and 5 of them curses. Which scarily enough is somewhat true. You just don't know how bad it ticks me off seeing the way todays culture embraces stupidity. Seriously, this country just keeps getting dumber and dumber. We just keep lowering education standards further and further to accomodate unintelligent people. I remember watching George Carlin perform one night and he said "The way our education system is going all you'll need to get into college is a ****ing pencil!" Sadly, he speaks the truth.

Getting a handle on our educational system needs to be a very high priority.

We need to stop teaching things as fact that are mere supposition and this

especially applies to the rantings of the "father of psychology". We need to

instill personal responsibility. Subjects need to be taught not as discreet

fields of learning but part of a greater whole. Specialization should complete-

ly give over to generalization before about 10th grade and very few children

should be encouraged to specialize. Every student should take every class

but they can be split into two levels to accomodate the needs of different

students in higher grades.

Large schools should abandon the whole "grade concept". It makes no sense

to split an education into 12 separate grades when you have 100 teachers.

With the current system everyone is passed on no matter how poorly they do.

With learning broken down into smaller units it would no be traumatic to hold

a student back to repeat the 3 week long grade 56. If kids know they have to

learn the material, they'll try harder and it will help learn responsibility.

Machine intelligence is going to change the human race. It will help to prepare.

[undersquiggle]

i totally agree. i had a problem in my architectural classes as well as most of my science classes. i would do all my work, then get bored with it because i knew most of what he was already teaching. i wanted to be in a higher class in both areas (physics, and architectural drafting) but they wouldn't let me even take the needed tests to prove that i knew it. they really need to change that.

[Skeet Ulrich]

I feel like I should have been born a little earlier to experience the early to mid 90s as a teenager or adult.

[Cadetak]

I should have bin born in the future...can't be a space pirate in this day and age. ::sigh::

[MUM24/7]

Yeah I know we romance it a lot, I watch a lot of old movies. And I know we have a lot more medicine now than we did back then, but I just don't like the way the world is now, just turn on any news channel and look what you see: Terrorists blowing up people, drug addicts running amock, our country being taken over by like 5 different countries. The 1800's had it's share of problems, but it wasn't a madhouse like it is today. If I could be born anytime, anywhere I wanted, it would have to be Victorian era England, like I said, whenever I read books or watch movies that happened in that time period, or when I studied it in history class, I just get this strong feeling like I belong there, not here. Life was just a lot simpler back then, and that's what I really want.

PS: I would still shower!

Good luck in trying to find a fully functioning hot/cold water running from shower head , shower cubicle in the 1800's.......

Plus trying to find a toilet, like the one you've got at home, in the 1800's......

I for one love my amenities and delight in being able to flush away whever I get the need .....

[Bebi]

I feel like I should have been born a little earlier to experience the early to mid 90s as a teenager or adult.

Do you know, reading your post I actually feel lucky to have been 13/14 in 1990... I've never really thought about it before lol you're right though, the 90s were a great time to be a teen

[msadventures]

I feel sometimes like I belong on an alternate earth; in a present day that never was here. If hyperrealistic dreams counted for anything, I've shared episodes experiences from a parallel life on the other side.

[Princess Serenity]

I said this before. But I think I should be in the Middle Ages/Resistience era. >.< The time of kings & queens. I just feel that way.

Cool, Ms. Adventures.

[HAJiME]

I should have been born 10 years erlia. I am beyond gutted about missing most of the 80's. =/

[Nephthys]

I feel it too. I remember being 8 / 9 years old, walking to school and prodding and poking myself, saying "this isn't me, this isn't where I should be".

People of this generation make me sad. Where people 30 / 40 years ago were greeting a revolution, fighting for equality, "waste not, want not'ing", and looking to change the world. These days, you're lucky to see a 16 year old without a 6 month old baby in toe.

I thrive in the knowledge one day I'll start a revolution. I think I was best described when my partner called me an "Idealist monkey of a hippy". I hate working for the man. I will "Stick it to the man" and revolt wherever possible. I can't get my head around technology. I'm 20, and can't stand CD's, MP3's, DVD's ... anything small and shiney that can be shortened to less than three letters. All the records I own are on vinyl, and I do all of my essay writing on a typewriter. I opened a door for an elderly woman the other day, with one hand behind my back. All she could say was "What?! Do you think I'm some (expletive) idiot that I can't open a door on my own?"

A woman asked me directions, and I told her, using my arms to gesture directions. A youth thought I was attacking the woman and backed me into a corner. I offered to carry a struggling elderly woman's carrier bags, and she started screaming that I was trying to rob her. What kind of great era do we live in that we have to fear other humans so much, that when aiding another, we assume generosity, mannors and general kindness can't possibly exist publically?

Do I think I was born too late? Deffinately. Maybe I'm just old fashioned. But old fashioned in comparison to what ? I'm only 20 afterall.

[Sheath]

I have always wished i could be born in a time when i could become a professional theif (so.. renaisance or earlier?)

[msadventures]

Nephthys,

I agree with you about your dismay with human nature. People seem to hate each other's presence, full of negativity. I don't think that something changed with the generations, I have a long memory of human behavior never being much friendlier, even back during the times when you think they were better. I feel a sense of wrongness from almost everyone.

I feel like all I can do is fall asleep to an old 45 record of the Beatles singing "A little help from my friends" (Leguin reference )

Edited February 27, 2007 by msadventures

[Nephthys]

But they were much more innocent times. You could leave your house with the door open, and you could let your children ride their bikes in the street. I know for one I check the door twice before sleeping and honestly don't think I could ride the bike to work for fear of being run over / having it stolen. I just think the time of appologise, sympathy and mannors is long gone, and I wish I had been around to whitness it.

I love my collection of 45's. I guess I crave educating people and letting them know we can make the world a better place, and genuinely, "all you need is love". Everything else is a luxury . I guess I miss a time when people would think outside the box and dare to imagine.

I'm so greatful I found UM forums.

[Bebi]

Nepthys, I know where you're coming from. When I was less than 10 years old my brother and I used to go out and stay out all day playing over the fields behind our house with our friends. When I think of allowing my own kids (9 (almost 10) & 8) doing the same my blood freezes. Maybe there were paedophiles around in the 80s, but we never heard of them... My brother in law has a good point - we educate children far too much for their own good nowadays. Take these 16 year olds with kids/ASBOs - they're explained their rights regarding the law at such a young age, and know exactly what they can/can't get away with. Nothing holds any awe for them, the magic of childhood is slowly being chipped away by overinformation.

Oopsie, rant over

[Nephthys]

...Nothing holds any awe for them, the magic of childhood is slowly being chipped away by overinformation.

Couldn't agree with you more. I long for a time of 10 inch snow and faries at the end of the garden. My little cousin's only 8, and he's not allowed to believe in Santa, as the other children pick on him. Modern world scares me far too much. Where greed, lust and corporations rule what we think, believe and imagine. I guess, I suppose I belong in an era of innocents.

[Siara]

I'm glad to be living now. I've seen many amazing things and am likely to see many more.

I've been here for when man first set foot on the Moon. I saw the Berlin wall crumble. I saw Nelson Mandela sweep apartheid from South Africa. I've seen Mars displayed in such detail as we couldn't imagine. I saw the start of a new millennium (well, if you follow the Christian calendar) and global celebrations of such.

Yes there have been terrible things as well, we still have ignorance and intolerance displayed in many ways, but I can see us finally starting to realise we have a natural place on the planet and that we have to act responsibly towards that.

I agree with a lot of what Leonardo wrote. These are fascinating times-- things are changing so rapidly that we can see big change during our lifetimes. Also, we have the media so we can see the entire world and ourselves as part of its story.

Most people who lived in past centuries didn't know much about what was happening outside their immediate communities. When I fantasize about living in the past, I always fantasize that I am reasonably well off and in perfect health (I guess if I'm going to fantasize, why not go all the way and make myself beautiful, healthy and rich?). I also tend to ignore the fact that in most centuries, being a woman would have sucked.

The thing about contemporary life that I don't love is the fact that it's so easy to feel like a cog in a giant piece of machinery. This is probably wrong, but it seems like in the Middle Ages people had clear-cut roles in their communities. Like, if you were a shoemaker you'd start out apprenticing and eventually go on to become an independent craftsperson. You'd have the security of being good at something necessary (assuming that you weren't a clutz!). Nowdays we spend huge amounts of time shuffling paper. Lots of us have jobs that are intensely repetitive and don't culminate in the production of a well-defined product. Walking along the main street of your town and thinking, "Wow, those boots I made for Joe have held up well" seems like it would have to be more rewarding than walking along thinking "Wow, I've been sorting forms for 15 years and I've never even met my boss".

[Reality Shift believer]

I feel like I was born twice. One 2000 years ago and now. I come up with this one on accident. And boy do I feel fustrated. I just mysteriously wanted to know why my birthmark was where Jesus was stabbed. I regret researching it. I got scientifical proof. It Sucks! First, the plantary alignments match up, then my birthmark placement, then my appearance being handsome, then my intelligence was high. Do I need anything else? I stood there with my jaw dropped about a foot for 10 seconds and fell back on my chair. Or am I his brother? I don't know and wish it weren't true. Will someone tell me that I'm missing something here...please, with proof. Don't just sit there and tell me because I want to hear it.

[Reality Shift believer]

Hey Siara

I agree with a lot of what Leonardo wrote. These are fascinating times-- things are changing so rapidly that we can see big change during our lifetimes. Also, we have the media so we can see the entire world and ourselves as part of its story.

Most people who lived in past centuries didn't know much about what was happening outside their immediate communities. When I fantasize about living in the past, I always fantasize that I am reasonably well off and in perfect health (I guess if I'm going to fantasize, why not go all the way and make myself beautiful, healthy and rich?). I also tend to ignore the fact that in most centuries, being a woman would have sucked.

The thing about contemporary life that I don't love is the fact that it's so easy to feel like a cog in a giant piece of machinery. This is probably wrong, but it seems like in the Middle Ages people had clear-cut roles in their communities. Like, if you were a shoemaker you'd start out apprenticing and eventually go on to become an independent craftsperson. You'd have the security of being good at something necessary (assuming that you weren't a clutz!). Nowdays we spend huge amounts of time shuffling paper. Lots of us have jobs that are intensely repetitive and don't culminate in the production of a well-defined product. Walking along the main street of your town and thinking, "Wow, those boots I made for Joe have held up well" seems like it would have to be more rewarding than walking along thinking "Wow, I've been sorting forms for 15 years and I've never even met my boss".

People end up in places where they don't and sometimes do want to be. Look at me, I'm 18 and a supervisor of a full-fledge power equipment repair and retail center and afraid of success because the overwhelming feeling makes me screw up. www.mowerdoctor.com It's kind of fun, we have funny workers, but are productive. The place I don't want to be in, is a person without a female in my life, 18 yrs and not even a peck on the cheek. So I'm sure there are qualities in your life that you enjoy. If I was a poor, lifeless person, I'd end my life when I got the chance.

"Wow, I've been sorting forms for 15 years and I've never even met my boss" that sucks. I certainly wouldn't want to work for someone I don't even know.

My mother always told me, take what you can get. Well , I never followed that because that would mean I'd be the rest of the keyfood workers. In my eyes, I take what I want and earn what I want. Education gets you 70% there, you just figure out the rest, just as I did.

[Siara]

Hey Siara

"Wow, I've been sorting forms for 15 years and I've never even met my boss" that sucks. I certainly wouldn't want to work for someone I don't even know.

My mother always told me, take what you can get. Well , I never followed that because that would mean I'd be the rest of the keyfood workers. In my eyes, I take what I want and earn what I want. Education gets you 70% there, you just figure out the rest, just as I did.

Hey R. Shift,

I wasn't saying that I myself am in that position (I'm not), just that modern life makes it hard for people to quantify their accomplishments. I think this is a bad characteristic of our times, and it makes many people wish they were living at another time.