Is modern era comfortable, but empty?

[The Grand Nudger]

Why do you think that human life has ever been some other way?  Do you think that the tribal people of wherever/whenever didn't shape the thoughts of their children and prepare them for the tedious humdrum of whatever their lives, by necessity..caste..or class, would be?  That things were...somehow, less set in stone then, than now, and the world was filled with more opportunity for those people than it is for people today?

I don't personally think that our lives are more comfortable and more empty today, no.  If you do, though, I'd suggest trading some comfort for some meaning..if that's how things work?  If that's not possible for you, today, imagine how much more difficult it would be to trade comfort for meaning if you had much less comfort to trade in the first place.

Indeed there has always been indoctrination on our society. Up to what level I guess it depends on the situation.

I wasn't talking about our society.  We've been engaged in the items you mentioned for far, far longer than our society has existed.  We didn't come up with the idea, it was a continuation of what we were already doing.  To some extent, it's a necessary part of the organization of any group of people no matter the size, time, or circumstances.  We prepare ourselves for the roles we'll play, these roles largely not having been chosen by ourselves.  

But my point goes beyond this. Take for example renting nowadays. You have to hire a real state agent, who will then contact the landlord, and then you will have to pay a bunch of fees you don’t even know what they are about. So after paying for the scam (do you have other option?), you end up living in an apartment which design was not decided nor chosen by you. All this according to the capacity that your salary allows it. Through this whole process you as individual have had no input on any of the process besides paying the fees.

Sure, you have plenty of other options.  There is no law - here at least, stating that you have to do any of that, nor is that the only way to find a place to rent, as you note in the very next sentence, then shifting your ire to the design of a rented place.  There's a way to live in a place you design.  You build it, or have it built.  Yes, you'll have to pay for that to be done, unless you choose to learn how to do some part of it - which many people do...most often to cut costs on the build.  What's the alternative? Hereby order it to be built with other peoples skills and labor...for free?

Wouldn’t it be better if I could choose where to live, and choose the design of my house? Yes, maybe hundreds years ago I would’ve died of cold, or be murdered by a thug, but at least I had the freedom to choose where to live.

You can do both things, and.... unless you're incarcerated, you also get to choose where you live. You may imagine there was some time where you could just plop your ass down in the dirt somewhere..and if you dial the clock far enough back that may be so. OFC, someone would just come along and murder you for having squatted in their territory, but them's the breaks. I think you may be suffering from the myth of a golden age, in addition to some novel ideas about what a golden age would look like. Have you considered life as a hobo? You could do that if you wanted, and still have less risk of being murdered or being eaten by a wild animal. There are things like soup kitchens and homeless shelters to get you through rough spots. You could have the percieved benefits of that life without many of the historic risks of the same.

Would this bring meaning to your life?