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A Disease of Prosperity
zamphir66
Posts: 582 Member
in Debate Club
I've been thinking lately about how so many of our poor lifestyle choices -- and the chronic conditions that stem from them -- are made possible in large part by the immense luxury we enjoy in the developed world.
I'm thinking of:
* routinely eating 500+ more calories than your body needs
* alcoholism, substance abuse
* extremely sedentary lifestyles
* creature comforts that would boggle the mind of someone in, say, sub-saharan Africa
My question is: are we in the developed world becoming "soft"? What would happen if there were a large meteor impact, or a volcanic eruption that dwarfed anything in living memory? In other words, could most of us get by if we were suddenly plunged back into the middle ages?
Is this "softness" a threat to the long-term health of humans as a species? Can we do anything about it?
Are we destined to end up like the movie Wall-E?
Just some showerthoughts.
I'm thinking of:
* routinely eating 500+ more calories than your body needs
* alcoholism, substance abuse
* extremely sedentary lifestyles
* creature comforts that would boggle the mind of someone in, say, sub-saharan Africa
My question is: are we in the developed world becoming "soft"? What would happen if there were a large meteor impact, or a volcanic eruption that dwarfed anything in living memory? In other words, could most of us get by if we were suddenly plunged back into the middle ages?
Is this "softness" a threat to the long-term health of humans as a species? Can we do anything about it?
Are we destined to end up like the movie Wall-E?
Just some showerthoughts.
3
Replies
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You're not wrong It's even infected our legal system. Remember "Afluenza" ? Pretty sad state of affairs imo.4
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Oh, we're definitely screwed if modern society suddenly collapses back a few centuries. The funny thing is, even the most active of us aren't ready for something like that.2
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My dad and I had this discussion not too long ago. As he said, when he was young, people ate at home unless it was a special occasion. They simply couldn't afford to eat out and there weren't many options to begin with. Dad said desserts were a rare treat.
And if you think about it, people were more active in their daily tasks as well. My grandmother hung laundry out to dry, washed dishes by hand, cultivated her own garden, canned food from the garden, and the list goes on and on. Movement was a part of life. And now we sit. And sit and sit!6 -
Absolutely; there are indications this also impacts our psychological conditions due to the fact many people aren't challenging their brain or body in the ways we were evolved to, due to the fact that we just have it way too easy now-a-days.
Supermarkets, Refrigeration, Combustion Engines, Electricity, Structured Healthcare, Advanced Agriculture (owing to combustion + electricity) are all recent advancements if you think about it.
Population has boomed since the early 1900s and ultimately, much smaller percentage of roles entail physical work these days.
Food is one aspect of it, but it's a whole bunch of thing.0 -
Bikes are one of the few things humans have invented for convenience, that make us healthier the more we use them.1
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Could we grow enough of our own food in our backyards with a few chickens to subsist? Could we heat our homes without electricity or gas delivered effortlessly to us? Could we provide ourselves with drinkable water? Interesting to think that moving even in small steps toward these could make us more fit and able to self-rely.
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I've been thinking lately about how so many of our poor lifestyle choices -- and the chronic conditions that stem from them -- are made possible in large part by the immense luxury we enjoy in the developed world.
I'm thinking of:
* routinely eating 500+ more calories than your body needs
* alcoholism, substance abuse
* extremely sedentary lifestyles
* creature comforts that would boggle the mind of someone in, say, sub-saharan Africa
My question is: are we in the developed world becoming "soft"? What would happen if there were a large meteor impact, or a volcanic eruption that dwarfed anything in living memory? In other words, could most of us get by if we were suddenly plunged back into the middle ages?
Is this "softness" a threat to the long-term health of humans as a species? Can we do anything about it?
Are we destined to end up like the movie Wall-E?
Just some showerthoughts.
If we were suddenly plunged back by a cataclysm, we would have trouble achieving even a medieval level of society. Crude as it seems to us, the Middle Ages were a time of marvelous technological advances brought about by a robust, moral, interconnected, civilized, hardworking, sustainable society where the majority if people were experts at producing food, in addition to other extremely challenging skills that required a vast foundation of practical knowledge. Few people today could even properly construct a stone wall to protect a town.
On the bright side, we would all become a lot fitter and leaner in a hurry. I have 25 plus years of gardening experience, and despite my skills it is hard to grow enough to supply 100% of my calories just for the gardening seasons, let alone a surplus to carry my family through winter. A ten hour day of solid work is 3000 calories on top of my base calories...that is a crapload of parsnips and cabbage, which can't be harvested for 100 or so days after sowing.
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I've been thinking lately about how so many of our poor lifestyle choices -- and the chronic conditions that stem from them -- are made possible in large part by the immense luxury we enjoy in the developed world.
I'm thinking of:
* routinely eating 500+ more calories than your body needs
* alcoholism, substance abuse
* extremely sedentary lifestyles
* creature comforts that would boggle the mind of someone in, say, sub-saharan Africa
My question is: are we in the developed world becoming "soft"? What would happen if there were a large meteor impact, or a volcanic eruption that dwarfed anything in living memory? In other words, could most of us get by if we were suddenly plunged back into the middle ages?
Is this "softness" a threat to the long-term health of humans as a species? Can we do anything about it?
Are we destined to end up like the movie Wall-E?
Just some showerthoughts.
Not becoming soft, already are.5 -
I read a lot of post-apocalypse fiction and yeah we're doomed5
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cdavison2014 wrote: »Could we grow enough of our own food in our backyards with a few chickens to subsist? Could we heat our homes without electricity or gas delivered effortlessly to us? Could we provide ourselves with drinkable water? Interesting to think that moving even in small steps toward these could make us more fit and able to self-rely.
In situations like pp mentioned we'd be raiding and fighting to the death for necessities like food and weapons. Having chickens and a garden would paint a big bullseye on you
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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.3
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I personally believe that man is a survivor. There would probably be a few bumps along the way, but mankind in our first world bubble would overcome.1
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I've been thinking lately about how so many of our poor lifestyle choices -- and the chronic conditions that stem from them -- are made possible in large part by the immense luxury we enjoy in the developed world.
I'm thinking of:
* routinely eating 500+ more calories than your body needs
* alcoholism, substance abuse
* extremely sedentary lifestyles
* creature comforts that would boggle the mind of someone in, say, sub-saharan Africa
My question is: are we in the developed world becoming "soft"? What would happen if there were a large meteor impact, or a volcanic eruption that dwarfed anything in living memory? In other words, could most of us get by if we were suddenly plunged back into the middle ages?
Is this "softness" a threat to the long-term health of humans as a species? Can we do anything about it?
Are we destined to end up like the movie Wall-E?
Just some showerthoughts.
I live in Sub-Saharan Africa and we have all of the problems you mention. While there is poverty and malnutrition it is a gross generalization to think it is the standard state of affairs.5 -
I lived in two different small towns in Italy, one a mountain town on the east and earthquaky side of the Appenines, another in the south near the Adriatic sea in Calabria. Both towns were organized in such a way that the majority of houses had access to large areas of land which were planted with grapes, nut or fruit trees, gardens and stone sheds for chickens and goats. The women were out everyday, managing the garden, hqnging the daily wash out, and tending milking etc the animals, rain, snow or sun. Their houses, even in winter had the windows and shutters open to the air a good part of the day amd smoke coming out of the chimneys. So my take away to you is, move to a small medieval town in modern Italy? No, no, I left. Too backward, there is a lot of superstition and strangeness that goes with that way of life which, trust me, none of us would be prepared for either that goes right along with not being physically tough enough to endure that life. I don't have the solution to centralization of food products, long distance shipping of food products, mechanization of everything, and the delocalization of products, or that families no longer take care of one another and neither do governments care. Sorry to end this on a dark note.
edited with an apology.2 -
My thoughts:My question is: are we in the developed world becoming "soft"?What would happen if there were a large meteor impact, or a volcanic eruption that dwarfed anything in living memory? In other words, could most of us get by if we were suddenly plunged back into the middle ages?Is this "softness" a threat to the long-term health of humans as a species?Can we do anything about it?Are we destined to end up like the movie Wall-E?0
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cdavison2014 wrote: »Could we grow enough of our own food in our backyards with a few chickens to subsist? Could we heat our homes without electricity or gas delivered effortlessly to us? Could we provide ourselves with drinkable water? Interesting to think that moving even in small steps toward these could make us more fit and able to self-rely.
With so much of our population living in cities growing food and chickens would not be feasible without a mass migration. How much food do you think could be produced within say 50 miles of Manhattan? No where near enough to feed the population of the area.2 -
I personally believe that man is a survivor. There would probably be a few bumps along the way, but mankind in our first world bubble would overcome.
Here's the issue with that. Mankind *might* survive, but would you want to live in that world? Here's where I draw that outlook from.
I've been extremely fortunate in that I've traveled a good deal and lived in places an awful lot of Americans only read about.
I have, in civilized countries mind you,
-been offered sex by a woman who had to be in her 80s, in exchange for a loaf of bread to feed the 8 people living in her single room, unheated home with no running water (Ciudad Acuna, Mexico)
- Seen starvation in the middle of a reasonably well to do metropolitan city while people walk by in their 3 piece suits (Kunsan, SK)
- 2 older women (Mid 70s?) literally trying to gouge each others eyes out over a few yuan, again Kunsan SK)
- Worked with (and still do) children who have been repeatedly raped and beaten by their own fathers/brothers/mothers (Good old US of A)
I could continue this citing both personal experiences as well as far too many vetted news stories of mankind's atrocities committed against mankind to C&P here....
Keep in mind this happened and is happening in an age where technological and medical and psychological knowledge, and in some areas quality of life, is at a fairly high point in our relatively short history.
With the above in mind, with so much available to humans today in terms of welfare/jobs/food/shelter (inclusive of gov't assistance and all) with all this available - What will this world look like if society devolves to a "Survival of the fittest" type model?
Mankind can overcome any obstacle in the world but for our own propensity for self destruction.
edited for corrections5 -
Just here to point out that back many generations when managing a household and feeding your family was an all-day affair of physical work, people died earlier and suffered more with illness. Obesity was a sideshow act back then, but the general population wasn't living longer.3
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fittocycle wrote: »My dad and I had this discussion not too long ago. As he said, when he was young, people ate at home unless it was a special occasion. They simply couldn't afford to eat out and there weren't many options to begin with. Dad said desserts were a rare treat.
And if you think about it, people were more active in their daily tasks as well. My grandmother hung laundry out to dry, washed dishes by hand, cultivated her own garden, canned food from the garden, and the list goes on and on. Movement was a part of life. And now we sit. And sit and sit!
Some of us grew up this way...many people even in the western world still live this way. There are pockets of people all across the US that don't have automatic dishwashers...still grow their own food...and still hang their clothes out.
I grew up in an area where 95% of the people lived the way that you described. I can remember my mother owning a washing machine that you had to turn the handle to wring the clothes out. We gardened, canned, froze almost everything that we ate. Raised our own chickens...had cows and pigs. Our sitting down time was usually to shuck corn or snap beans.
Regardless of this way of life...there were still many over weight and obese people. We worked hard...we ate hard. Sometimes that was our only form of pleasure. Food tasted really good after a long hard day. There was a lot of fat...in everything!4 -
NorthCascades wrote: »Bikes are one of the few things humans have invented for convenience, that make us healthier the more we use them.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
1
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