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A Disease of Prosperity
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I think humanity would adapt. I, however, would be dead so I wouldn't care one way or the other. Personally I probably am "soft" if by "soft" you mean "kept alive by modern medicine," but I tend to be in favor of that, since I like living (not to mention being relatively pain free) better than the alternative.
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Are we destined to end up like the movie Wall-E?
When I began reading your post, this is the first thing I thought of. My husband and I have a theory that the imagineers at Disney were inspired by the red carts that obese people rent to ride around on in the parks because they can't handle the walking when they created that movie. So, in a sense, we are already there.
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I'd just try to find the nearest Twinkies storage.
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Tacklewasher wrote: »I'd just try to find the nearest Twinkies storage.
Be on the lookout for Woody Harrelson when doing so.4 -
snowflake954 wrote: »What I fnd really strange in our luxury world of today is the unhappiness and depression everywhere. Everytime I go home to the States more and more people among family and friends are depressed. It's an epidemic. It always leaves me puzzled. People that have much more than I had as a kid and it doesn't make them happy or serene. Very sad. For the OP--what are people that can hardly walk goning to do if catastrofie hits? Not a pretty picture.
I have pondered on the topic also. Recently I watched a brief documentary were young people ,who immigrated from an impoverished country, were asked what shocked them the most about modern countries. They said they saw far more unhappiness, less ability/willingness to share, and emotional distress than the poorer places they had come from. It's a peculiar paradox that deserves serious attention.1 -
I'm always very glad to learn how to do lots of things from scratch. Pretty sure I could have a cow on my land, and make/ milk/butter/cheese and sell or trade it. Would just have to sit out with my bow and protect her from savage carnivore looters. Lol
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snowflake954 wrote: »What I fnd really strange in our luxury world of today is the unhappiness and depression everywhere. Everytime I go home to the States more and more people among family and friends are depressed. It's an epidemic. It always leaves me puzzled. People that have much more than I had as a kid and it doesn't make them happy or serene. Very sad. For the OP--what are people that can hardly walk goning to do if catastrofie hits? Not a pretty picture.
I have pondered on the topic also. Recently I watched a brief documentary were young people ,who immigrated from an impoverished country, were asked what shocked them the most about modern countries. They said they saw far more unhappiness, less ability/willingness to share, and emotional distress than the poorer places they had come from. It's a peculiar paradox that deserves serious attention.
I'm pretty sure that it's just something inherent to the human condition. When we face fewer natural environmental dangers and stressors, we'll create our own to compensate.2 -
Gallowmere1984 wrote: »snowflake954 wrote: »What I fnd really strange in our luxury world of today is the unhappiness and depression everywhere. Everytime I go home to the States more and more people among family and friends are depressed. It's an epidemic. It always leaves me puzzled. People that have much more than I had as a kid and it doesn't make them happy or serene. Very sad. For the OP--what are people that can hardly walk goning to do if catastrofie hits? Not a pretty picture.
I have pondered on the topic also. Recently I watched a brief documentary were young people ,who immigrated from an impoverished country, were asked what shocked them the most about modern countries. They said they saw far more unhappiness, less ability/willingness to share, and emotional distress than the poorer places they had come from. It's a peculiar paradox that deserves serious attention.
I'm pretty sure that it's just something inherent to the human condition. When we face fewer natural environmental dangers and stressors, we'll create our own to compensate.
I thought human beings, by nature, will always look for easier ways of survival and comfort? Wouldn't there be fewer people in the world and little motivation to prosper if humanity "creates" suffering due to it being "inherent to the human condition"? For example, a small farming village in a developing country does not have the same ratio of youth suicides (over school grades/achievements) as in first world countries. I'm not saying that stress and depression does not exist in the populations of lesser developed places, but that more modern countries could learn more healthy thinking and living from them.0 -
Gallowmere1984 wrote: »snowflake954 wrote: »What I fnd really strange in our luxury world of today is the unhappiness and depression everywhere. Everytime I go home to the States more and more people among family and friends are depressed. It's an epidemic. It always leaves me puzzled. People that have much more than I had as a kid and it doesn't make them happy or serene. Very sad. For the OP--what are people that can hardly walk goning to do if catastrofie hits? Not a pretty picture.
I have pondered on the topic also. Recently I watched a brief documentary were young people ,who immigrated from an impoverished country, were asked what shocked them the most about modern countries. They said they saw far more unhappiness, less ability/willingness to share, and emotional distress than the poorer places they had come from. It's a peculiar paradox that deserves serious attention.
I'm pretty sure that it's just something inherent to the human condition. When we face fewer natural environmental dangers and stressors, we'll create our own to compensate.
I thought human beings, by nature, will always look for easier ways of survival and comfort? Wouldn't there be fewer people in the world and little motivation to prosper if humanity "creates" suffering due to it being "inherent to the human condition"? For example, a small farming village in a developing country does not have the same ratio of youth suicides (over school grades/achievements) as in first world countries. I'm not saying that stress and depression does not exist in the populations of lesser developed places, but that more modern countries could learn more healthy thinking and living from them.
I'm not saying it's intentional.
Using your example: that small farming village is likely too worried about producing enough yield to either eat, or trade/sell for other commodities, keeping animals from wrecking their harvest, etc. to stress about the stupid *kitten* that leads to youth suicide rates being so high in the developed world.
When you've never had to endure real hardship, everything negative can feel like the end of the world. It's how we can look at the modern Western poor, many of which have access to things that millionaires didn't have a century ago, and think that their life is so hard.4 -
Gallowmere1984 wrote: »Gallowmere1984 wrote: »snowflake954 wrote: »What I fnd really strange in our luxury world of today is the unhappiness and depression everywhere. Everytime I go home to the States more and more people among family and friends are depressed. It's an epidemic. It always leaves me puzzled. People that have much more than I had as a kid and it doesn't make them happy or serene. Very sad. For the OP--what are people that can hardly walk goning to do if catastrofie hits? Not a pretty picture.
I have pondered on the topic also. Recently I watched a brief documentary were young people ,who immigrated from an impoverished country, were asked what shocked them the most about modern countries. They said they saw far more unhappiness, less ability/willingness to share, and emotional distress than the poorer places they had come from. It's a peculiar paradox that deserves serious attention.
I'm pretty sure that it's just something inherent to the human condition. When we face fewer natural environmental dangers and stressors, we'll create our own to compensate.
I thought human beings, by nature, will always look for easier ways of survival and comfort? Wouldn't there be fewer people in the world and little motivation to prosper if humanity "creates" suffering due to it being "inherent to the human condition"? For example, a small farming village in a developing country does not have the same ratio of youth suicides (over school grades/achievements) as in first world countries. I'm not saying that stress and depression does not exist in the populations of lesser developed places, but that more modern countries could learn more healthy thinking and living from them.
I'm not saying it's intentional.
Using your example: that small farming village is likely too worried about producing enough yield to either eat, or trade/sell for other commodities, keeping animals from wrecking their harvest, etc. to stress about the stupid *kitten* that leads to youth suicide rates being so high in the developed world.
When you've never had to endure real hardship, everything negative can feel like the end of the world. It's how we can look at the modern Western poor, many of which have access to things that millionaires didn't have a century ago, and think that their life is so hard.
Intentional or not, the matter is clear. As I also stated that people from both sides of the spectrum suffer depression. It was only an example and I don't get the "the stupid *kitten* that leads to suicide" (?) part but oh well.
Going back to my original comment, I think it's very interesting that foreigners from a poorer country would comment being shocked at witnessing the amount of unhappiness and the less ability to share in modern societies. I still think that their opinion matters.
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About half the people would turn into blubbering piles of jello and lose their will to live as soon as the the cell phone network went down. The rest is all downhill from there. The shooting and looting would wipe out major urban areas and they'd turn into chaotic hellholes that would make Mad Max look sane by comparison.
The survivors would be the people in rural areas who have learned how to be self-sufficient. And have lots of guns, lots of ammunition and a few like-minded neighbors who don't like strangers in the 'hood.
Sounds like I'll be surviving then.
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