alt Hacker NewsI think it’s really revealing to see so many folks defending views like “hunter gathering was better” and “the past wasn’t dickensian.”
I remember the first time I encountered the former view from a person, they were an artist living in London and a communist. I nearly spat out my beer when he told me that hunter gathering was a better life for humans.
It seems to be some kind of desire to rage against progress, because industrialisation brings many downsides e.g, pollution climate change etc. Maybe because they hate the rich and powerful capitalists that rule the world.
But what they always miss from their arguments is a clear conception of just how incredibly privileged and fortunate they are to be born into an industrialised society. People are very very bad at appreciating what they are given, it seems to be an innate human trait to exhibit breathtaking ingratitude for what already is. We’re pretty good at anticipating and appreciating the new, but if it’s already there then, like a spoilt child living in a luxury home, we take it for granted.
I think one solution to this problem is to remove as many comforts from your life, temporarily. For example, for a week in winter don’t use your heating or hot water. For me, it was travelling to poor countries and living without potable or warm water, decent transport, good food, etc. that made me grateful (at least for a while).
We are definitely better at survival and safety. In modern societies we are less likely to starve, die in infancy / childhood, have longer life expectancy, etc.
But when we compare by other metrics, such as mental and physical health, it becomes more complicated. The problem is that out brains and bodies aren't well adapted to the modern world. In the past there were stresses (predators, hunger, conflict), but they were more acute, big spike of stress, but you usually had a lot of time to recover. For example, predator appears, huge spike in stress, run/fight, either you die or it's over. But afterwards (if you survived) you usually had a lot of rest. Also you more or less directly saw the results of your actions. For example, you hunt means you eat, you build shelter means stay dry, etc.
Meanwhile, modern people tend to have chronic low-level stress caused by the complicated and fast paced society: money worries, grind, bureaucracy, deadlines, school / college / university, burnout, job insecurity, notifications, news doomscrolling. Our stress systems are constantly activated which is devastating for long-term mental health. It's no wonder that we have higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicidality. Today's stress is more akin to death by thousands of small cuts. The same is for our physical health.
I'm not claiming hunter gatherers' lives were not challenging. There were a lot risks, physical hardship, famines, etc. But evolutionary speaking, our bodies / minds were more equipped to deal with those types stresses. Here is a good video that talks about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo1A45ShcMo