Is modern era comfortable, but empty?

[Macoleco]

Lately I have been thinking about the kind of lives that most people lead nowadays, and can’t help but thinking that we are living in such a way that is fundamentally incompatible with our nature.

Nowadays most of our necessities are satisfied, and there is a lot of entertainment available, nowadays pretty much 24/7 thanks to our phones. Work is another factor that comes into play, since we spend most of our day, and perhaps life, working usually meaningless jobs.
Add to that an education that only exists to brainwash us, and teach us a lot of meaningless things.

I think this environment has made us forget what is of most importance in life, and stops us from exploring ourselves, and the world around us. There is more to life than this.

Now I am not romanticizing the past. I know there was a lot of awful stuff around. But those who managed to live (and not be slaves), many lived very fulfilling and adventurous lives, achieved great things. And I think that living through hardships leads to a more fulfilling life and wisdom than scrolling through Tik Tok or Instagram.

Many examples can be mentioned. Writers such as Dante Alighieri, Miguel de Cervantes, scientists such as Galileo, artists such as Da Vinci, philosophers such as Spinoza, and the list goes.

Nowadays too many institutions control how we live, the state and companies together dictate how we live, how we socialize, how we think, where we work, where we live, etc.

Yes modern medicine and anestesia is nice. But there must be more to life than the avoidance of pain (which in some cases is still not possible nowadays).

[Anomalocaris]

Lately I have been thinking about the kind of lives that most people lead nowadays, and can’t help but thinking that we are living in such a way that is fundamentally incompatible with our nature.

Nowadays most of our necessities are satisfied, and there is a lot of entertainment available, nowadays pretty much 24/7 thanks to our phones. Work is another factor that comes into play, since we spend most of our day, and perhaps life, working usually meaningless jobs.
Add to that an education that only exists to brainwash us, and teach us a lot of meaningless things.

I think this environment has made us forget what is of most importance in life, and stops us from exploring ourselves, and the world around us. There is more to life than this.

Now I am not romanticizing the past. I know there was a lot of awful stuff around. But those who managed to live (and not be slaves), many lived very fulfilling and adventurous lives, achieved great things. And I think that living through hardships leads to a more fulfilling life and wisdom than scrolling through Tik Tok or Instagram.

Many examples can be mentioned. Writers such as Dante Alighieri, Miguel de Cervantes, scientists such as Galileo, artists such as Da Vinci, philosophers such as Spinoza, and the list goes.

Nowadays too many institutions control how we live, the state and companies together dictate how we live, how we socialize, how we think, where we work, where we live, etc.

Yes modern medicine and anestesia is nice. But there must be more to life than the avoidance of pain (which in some cases is still not possible nowadays).

Indeed there was more to life back then.   They had grinding poverty, overarching iniquity, numbing ignorance, General illiteracy, and early grave to enrich most of their lives,   These have all been sadly lost in the modern world and we now survive for no purpose without them.

[LinuxGal]

Yes, there was more to life back then.   They have iniquity, ignorance, illiteracy, and early grave which have all been sadly lost and we now survive for no purpose without them.

Personally, I am willing to trade all those meaningful things and live in a century that has soap and warm water and the total knowledge of mankind at my fingertips.

[Macoleco]

Lately I have been thinking about the kind of lives that most people lead nowadays, and can’t help but thinking that we are living in such a way that is fundamentally incompatible with our nature.

Nowadays most of our necessities are satisfied, and there is a lot of entertainment available, nowadays pretty much 24/7 thanks to our phones. Work is another factor that comes into play, since we spend most of our day, and perhaps life, working usually meaningless jobs.
Add to that an education that only exists to brainwash us, and teach us a lot of meaningless things.

I think this environment has made us forget what is of most importance in life, and stops us from exploring ourselves, and the world around us. There is more to life than this.

Now I am not romanticizing the past. I know there was a lot of awful stuff around. But those who managed to live (and not be slaves), many lived very fulfilling and adventurous lives, achieved great things. And I think that living through hardships leads to a more fulfilling life and wisdom than scrolling through Tik Tok or Instagram.

Many examples can be mentioned. Writers such as Dante Alighieri, Miguel de Cervantes, scientists such as Galileo, artists such as Da Vinci, philosophers such as Spinoza, and the list goes.

Nowadays too many institutions control how we live, the state and companies together dictate how we live, how we socialize, how we think, where we work, where we live, etc.

Yes modern medicine and anestesia is nice. But there must be more to life than the avoidance of pain (which in some cases is still not possible nowadays).

Yes, there was more to life back then.   They have iniquity, ignorance, illiteracy, and early grave which have all been sadly lost and we now survive for no purpose without them.

This is the kind of answer which I was expecting which is disappointing really. It is not much worth to reply to your post, but early grave I addressed on my post, and ignorance take many forms. Modern society is hardly wise.

[Macoleco]

Yes, there was more to life back then.   They have iniquity, ignorance, illiteracy, and early grave which have all been sadly lost and we now survive for no purpose without them.

Personally, I am willing to trade all those meaningful things and live in a century that has soap and warm water and the total knowledge of mankind at my fingertips.

Glad that you spend everyday studying the knowledge of mankind. You must be an erudite.

[Anomalocaris]

Yes, there was more to life back then.   They have iniquity, ignorance, illiteracy, and early grave which have all been sadly lost and we now survive for no purpose without them.

This is the kind of answer which I was expecting which is disappointing really. It is not much worth to reply to your post, but early grave I addressed on my post, and ignorance take many forms. Modern society is hardly wise.

The answer you expect is vapid confirmation that your futile idiocy is somehow seed of penetrating wisdom

[Macoleco]

This is the kind of answer which I was expecting which is disappointing really. It is not much worth to reply to your post, but early grave I addressed on my post, and ignorance take many forms. Modern society is hardly wise.

The answer you expect is vapid confirmation that your futile idiocy is somehow seed of penetrating wisdom

Thanks for the deep insight. Very modern.

[Mister Agenda]

Lately I have been thinking about the kind of lives that most people lead nowadays, and can’t help but thinking that we are living in such a way that is fundamentally incompatible with our nature.

Nowadays most of our necessities are satisfied, and there is a lot of entertainment available, nowadays pretty much 24/7 thanks to our phones. Work is another factor that comes into play, since we spend most of our day, and perhaps life, working usually meaningless jobs.
Add to that an education that only exists to brainwash us, and teach us a lot of meaningless things.

I think this environment has made us forget what is of most importance in life, and stops us from exploring ourselves, and the world around us. There is more to life than this.

Now I am not romanticizing the past. I know there was a lot of awful stuff around. But those who managed to live (and not be slaves), many lived very fulfilling and adventurous lives, achieved great things. And I think that living through hardships leads to a more fulfilling life and wisdom than scrolling through Tik Tok or Instagram.

Many examples can be mentioned. Writers such as Dante Alighieri, Miguel de Cervantes, scientists such as Galileo, artists such as Da Vinci, philosophers such as Spinoza, and the list goes.

Nowadays too many institutions control how we live, the state and companies together dictate how we live, how we socialize, how we think, where we work, where we live, etc.

Yes modern medicine and anestesia is nice. But there must be more to life than the avoidance of pain (which in some cases is still not possible nowadays).

I think people imagine that they would be in the class of Dante, Cervantes, Galileo, DaVincie, Spinoza, and so on; rather than in the 90% who lived in serfdom, slavery, or subsistence farming, as was the case up until about 200 years ago. And all we have to show in the way of thinkers despite getting the absolute poverty rate more like 10% are people like Baldwin, Bohr, Butler, Chomsky, Curie, Dali, Einstein, Fermi, Hawking, Hemingway, Huston, Kurosawa, Matisse, Orwell, Picasso, Planck, Steinbeck, Vonnegut, and so on.

[Anomalocaris]

The answer you expect is vapid confirmation that your futile idiocy is somehow seed of penetrating wisdom

Thanks for the deep insight. Very modern.

Look, fullness of life depends on what you fill your life with.   In any of the past ages there were far less with which to fill anyone’s life, and yet far more people had far less access to even what had been available, compared to now.   This you in your self pitying funk willfully ignore.

You live in an age where there are far more with which to fill any life, and you have access to far more of what is available.     Yet instead of proactively filling your life with more you just bitch and moan about how empty you’ve left your life,  and by way of justifying the effete fruitless self pity you stand up some fantasy idealized vision of the age past that ridiculously generalizes what perhaps 1/10000 of 1% of those who live then had been able to achieve. 

Well, make yourself into an apple so you can compare apples to apples.   Be the modern version of that 1/10000 of 1% of the people, and i guarantee your life will not be empty.   No one is stopping you from trying to be a modern Dante, or modern Galileo.     But no one will wrap Dantehood in a gift package and deliver it to your door and insist you put down your smart phone to receive it.    During Dante’s age no one wrapped it up and delivered it to him either.

[arewethereyet]

Thanks for the deep insight. Very modern.

Look, fullness of life depends on what you fill your life with.   In any of the past ages there were far less with which to fill anyone’s life, and yet far more people had far less access to even what had been available, compared to now.   This you in your self pitying funk willfully ignore.

You live in an age where there are far more with which to fill any life, and you have access to far more of what is available.     Yet instead of proactively filling your life with more you just bitch and moan about how empty you’ve left your life,  and by way of justifying the effete fruitless self pity you stand up some fantasy idealized vision of the age past that ridiculously generalizes what perhaps 1/10000 of 1% of those who live then had been able to achieve. 

Well, make yourself into an apple so you can compare apples to apples.   Be the modern version of that 1/10000 of 1% of the people, and i guarantee your life will not be empty.

Bold mine - this....so much this.

People now have the opportunity to choose what their life is filled with.  Not like in the past where the main thing was simply survival of self and family.

Of course, it's not true for everyone but much more so now than 100 years ago.