Best Time Period in History

[Sprite]

Going to a music store and trying to find cool stuff - that experience is completely redundant now.

I still do this (when I can prior to CV19), nothing better than digging through piles of records and CD's. I also frequent book stores and sit covered in dust as I grab piles of old books and try and find something interesting. These are still options open to everyone, I guess you just have to work a little harder to find the places to go and do it.

I personally don't mind the "Now" apart from what other have pointed out about Social Media, this is to me one of the biggest cesspools on the internet. As such I still use Instagram to chat to other Record Collectors, Music Artists and Label Owners etc. FB isn't used as much apart from connecting with Family and close friends, I tend to stay away from news or other trash found there.

I love the 80s 90s as I grew up then, so I have rose tinted glasses when it comes to that time period. I'd love to go back to the 40's through to the 60's as a visitor but I don't think I could live in those times.

Technology and its pervasion on our lives doesn't really bother me, I still have a choice to not pick up my phone or turn on the TV etc.

 

[UKMikey]

I personally don't mind the "Now" apart from what other have pointed out about Social Media, this is to me one of the biggest cesspools on the internet. As such I still use Instagram to chat to other Record Collectors, Music Artists and Label Owners etc. FB isn't used as much apart from connecting with Family and close friends, I tend to stay away from news or other trash found there.

I only use Facebook to catch up with family and friends as well. That's something I couldn't do so well before. I'm not sure social media has made us all worse persons. I suspect that instead it's shone a light on the worst aspects of human behaviour and given them a platform. I'm not going to blame the media for the message it reveals about society.

 

[Sprite]

I only use Facebook to catch up with family and friends as well. That's something I couldn't do so well before. I'm not sure social media has made us all worse persons. I suspect that instead it's shone a light on the worst aspects of human behaviour and given them a platform. I'm not going to blame the media for the message it reveals about society.

I agree, it has given the worst of people a platform to espouse some absolute trash. Most of the comments and posts which are in poor taste can be blocked, or just ignored but I do think FB, Twitter and Google etc need to do more with managing some stuff.

I flagged a post because a friend of mine was being called (n word) however they used an ! 66 £ to represent letters in the word. FB found nothing wrong with the post and it remained. So they still have some work to do.

For all the bad modern internet sources and Social media has given it has also provided good in equal measure. As for making us bad people I agree the person in question has to have some kink in their personality already to be triggered into action, that’s the same for any media really, Games, Movies or music etc.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I think for anyone who is posting to a forum like this, there's little to dispute the fact that we are living in the best time to be alive. Yup, some things suck for sure, but to off-set all the good things we get to take for granted against stuff like social media is crazy.

Having said that, really, we're still in the infancy of the digital era or internet age. We're reaping lots of rewards from it at the moment, but I think it remains to be seen what the long term negative societal impacts will be, and whether generations to come will look back and ponder whether they'd rather have been born in the 70's/80's/90's/00's/10's. My gut feeling is that the internet - and what it brings - has developed so quickly we might not have considered what we're loosing.

 

[SestoScudo]

90s to 2010

 

[Dotini]

Part of the difficulty in determining the best time in history are the criteria used in assessing good/better/best.

If pleasure and happiness are the highest criteria, then perhaps Rome with its orgies and gladiators was best?

If net overall happiness of the global population is the criterion, then we have to take into consideration the teeming billions in poverty, starvation and conflict. If we take into consideration the condition of the animals, plants, planetary climate and sustainability then the problem becomes even more complicated.

We may choose to use only material criteria. But should we eliminate spiritual, ethical and emotional concerns?

 

[TenEightyOne]

Best time period? Now. Safest place to have been alive in history.

If this thread was about moments in history that I'd like to have seen for myself then I'd have to think a lot harder.

 

[Danoff]

I don't know, I still find that there is plenty of information or items that are hard to track down even today.

Sounds like somebody is into some freaky stuff...

Actually the availability of adult material is another consideration for this thread.

 

[Dotini]

Best time period? Now. Safest place to have been alive in history.

A global civilization founded and operated on the principle of Safety First, perhaps with Ralph Nader as it deity?

Seriously, the mere existence of nuclear weapons should be enough to vitiate that idea.

I think we are risk takers, pleasure seekers and control freaks.

 

[Danoff]

Seriously, the mere existence of nuclear weapons should be enough to vitiate that idea.

Are you saying that nuclear weapons prove we are risk takers, or that they prove we are not safe relative to history? Neither would be correct.

 

[Dotini]

Are you saying that nuclear weapons proves we are risk takers, or that it proves we are not safe relative to history? Neither would be correct.

In order to prove that nuclear weapons are incredibly dangerous to the world, do you think it would require a nuclear holocaust?

 

[Famine]

I can only really comment on my own life. I have lived in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s.

Are you aware that you are currently alive and that it's now the 20s?

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Well if we're talking about the best time period in history automotive-wise, Definitely the 1950s into the early '70s for me. Most cars were generally simple to work on, they were good-looking (opinion), and all that mattered was horsepower and/or how their real-life racing cousins defined themselves on the tracks. No computer nonsense. No gigantic Nav screens dominating the dashboard. No obsession with how well they can pick up satellite signals or Wi-fi hotspots.

Of course, today's cars are safer, more efficient, bla bla, but they're also so jam-packed with technology I personally don't care much for. 👎

If we're talking about everything (life, music, and especially gaming) it would be from the 1970s into the early 2000s from me. I am 54 now, meaning I got to see the dawn of computers. I got see videogaming evolve from the simple Atari 2600 / Commodore 64 era to what we've got today! I got to see what life was like before the Internet (better in some ways, in my opinion), before cell phones, even before call-waiting.

 

[Danoff]

In order to prove that nuclear weapons are incredibly dangerous to the world, do you think it would require a nuclear holocaust?

So far, nuclear weapons have actually proven themselves quite potent at stopping war.

 

[Dotini]

So far, nuclear weapons have actually proven themselves quite potent at stopping war.

So far, so good. But the potential for nuclear accident, anger and rage exists and grows. If things can go wrong, given enough time, they usually do. Therefore in my humble opinion the Nuclear Age is not necessarily the best period in human history, simply from a safety point of view. Conflicting global ethics, morality and spirituality are other questions which beset the current age. Economic inequality seems to be magnifying, not lessening. Human rights violations including genocide are still issues to this day. I really don't think it's the time for our global civilization to gloat, smirk and take a selfie.

 

[PeterJB]

The minute risk of being blown up in a nuclear strike is massively outweighed by the fact that it's no longer considered an achievement to live past the age of 35 without having either died from smallpox, cholera or TB or being burned at the stake for having the wrong religious views or sleeping with the wrong people.

 

[Danoff]

Therefore in my humble opinion the Nuclear Age is not necessarily the best period in human history, simply from a safety point of view.

Well so far you're not coming out ahead. If you were to trade nuclear weapons for, say smallpox, not only did smallpox kill tons of people, thus far nuclear weapons have actually seemed to prevent deaths.

Conflicting global ethics, morality and spirituality are other questions which beset the current age.

...all ages.

Economic inequality seems to be magnifying, not lessening.

kay...

Human rights violations including genocide are still issues to this day.

"Still" being the operative word there.

I really don't think it's the time for our global civilization to gloat, smirk and take a selfie.

I do.


Edit:

Treed' on the smallpox by Peter!

 

[PeterJB]

Best time period? Now. Safest place to have been alive in history.

If this thread was about moments in history that I'd like to have seen for myself then I'd have to think a lot harder.

Thread idea!

 

[Dotini]

I do.

On the very same day that that you are gloating and smirking about how now is the greatest time in human history, President Biden has come on national TV and used phrases such as "now is the time to tell you the truth", about the "long dark years", "until the economy will be on the mend" and "kids will be in school", "we are bound in loss and pain". And "history will record one of the toughest and darkest moments in the nation's history, the darkest we've ever known."

 

[UKMikey]

Gloating and smirking about our collective response to Covid being more effective than previous ages' collective response to cholera/TB/influenza/the plague... right...

What exactly about Covid makes this age worse than previous ages? Maybe it's the number of pissy people on social media. That must be it. /s

 

[Danoff]

On the very same day that that you are gloating and smirking about how now is the greatest time in human history, President Biden has come on national TV and used phrases such as "now is the time to tell you the truth", about the "long dark years", "until the economy will be on the mend" and "kids will be in school", "we are bound in loss and pain". And "history will record one of the toughest and darkest moments in the nation's history, the darkest we've ever known."

Yea... definitely not the darkest we've ever known.

Certainly the civil war was worse, no question. Smallpox was absolutely devastating. With covid, the target demographic (this is going to sound harsh but... oh well) for severe cases is the elderly, and while that's bad, it's not as bad as kids. We've been relatively spared having to watch our children die of this pandemic, and that has not always been the case, even in relatively recent pandemics.

I'm lucky enough to have kept my job too - in fact a lot of us might just be finding that our jobs are more comfortable and convenient than they used to be. Yes, the unemployment situation is bad, but not "worst in the history of the country" deprivation. I'll quote the way I entered this thread:

This exact moment is not terrific due to the pandemic. But I think maybe the end of 2021 could be pretty outstanding.

2020 was not as good as 2019 (on the whole). But I think the back half of 2021, and maybe 2022, will be hard to beat.

 

[Dotini]

I remember the early 50's, with so many kids getting polio and being put in "iron lungs".

 

[Danoff]

I remember the early 50's, with so many kids getting polio and being put in "iron lungs".

Are you trying to undermine your own point? I mean, that's fine but... unexpected.

 

[Dotini]

Are you trying to undermine your own point? I mean, that's fine but... unexpected.

Fair and balanced, I'm more than able to undermine my own point. Sometimes the "good old days" weren't really all that good.

 

[DriveSpark]

As much as the "there were no good old days" sentiment does have some logic behind it, I think there is plenty to dislike about current times too,