4 ms·

In the past century, at least in the Western world, we've developed a completely new concept of mobility. We live in a world where pretty much anyone with a pa

by 13of40 10y ago

In the past century, at least in the Western world, we've developed a completely new concept of mobility. We live in a world where pretty much anyone with a passport and $2000 can spend a week on the other side of the earth, but the caveat to that is you're depending on being able to travel quickly (who can take the time off work?) being able to depend on the physical security of the society you're traveling in, at least to some extent, and having a global financial and communication network to take care of you while you're abroad. Go back a hundred years ago and most of that's out the door. Go back 1000 years, and all of Europe was still living in walled cities. I think people traveled back then, but it was far fewer individuals doing it. (And probably a lot more walked out into the hills than ever came back...)

Fricken 10y ago
I was travelling in Lombok a couple years ago, it's an island 70 km across, next to Bali in Indonesia, and stayed with a family. The woman of the house had never been off the island, and had only travelled to the capital city of Mataram (about a 45 minute drive from her village) on a handful of occasions. It's not uncommon for people in poorer parts of the world, even today.
- PhantomGremlin 10y ago
  I grew up in New York City. When my Dad retired we moved to a fairly rural area in Pennsylvania, about 90 miles west of NYC. Our next door neighbor there, age mid 30's, had never once been to NYC, and he never saw any reason to go. This was a cultural shock for me, because who didn't want to at least visit NYC??? Some people are just less adventurous than others.
- paganel 10y ago
  My grand-mother lives in a mountainous valley in the Carpathians Mountains, she's now in her mid-80s. She has only ventured 50+ miles outside of her village I think only 2 or 3 times in her life. On the other hand, she used to have two brothers-in-law (who had grew in the same village as her) one of whom had studied at the Leningrad Polytechnic (I think that's ~2,500 km away) and the other one who had lived and worked as a secret agent in East Berlin in the mid-'50s. The world is a complicated place, always has been.
stinkytaco 10y ago
Of course it was nothing like today, but it was a far cry from the isolated, dark world I was taught about where people didn't leave their villages and nobles were in their castles fighting off barbarians who shuttled between Norway and Britain for some occasional pillaging. Skilled craftsman who worked on large projects moved between them. Arab scholars and traders brought ancient texts into Europe. Traders brought spices from the east. Viking traders who weren't pillaging Britain traveled through Russia as far south as modern day Turkey. It was a far more interconnected world than I thought when I was 12.
my_first_acct 10y ago
In 1919, John Maynard Keynes described what the world was like (for the elite, anyway) in the years before World War I (or the Great War, as it was called at that time, since no one was expecting a sequel). The world of global mobility, communication, and finance actually took shape soon after the laying of the trans-oceanic telegraph lines (that is, by the 1870s); it didn't require the jet plane or the internet. One excerpt from Keynes' book: The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such quantity as he might see fit, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep... He could secure forthwith, if he wished it, cheap and comfortable means of transit to any country or climate without passport or other formality, could despatch his servant to the neighboring office of a bank for such supply of the precious metals as might seem convenient, and could then proceed abroad to foreign quarters, without knowledge of their religion, language, or customs, bearing coined wealth upon his person, and would consider himself greatly aggrieved and much surprised at the least interference. [1] [1] http://www.econlib.org/library/YPDBooks/Keynes/kynsCP2.html http://www.econlib.org/library/YPDBooks/Keynes/kynsCP2.html

by 13of40 10y ago

Fricken 10y ago

I was travelling in Lombok a couple years ago, it's an island 70 km across, next to Bali in Indonesia, and stayed with a family. The woman of the house had never been off the island, and had only travelled to the capital city of Mataram (about a 45 minute drive from her village) on a handful of occasions. It's not uncommon for people in poorer parts of the world, even today.

PhantomGremlin 10y ago
I grew up in New York City. When my Dad retired we moved to a fairly rural area in Pennsylvania, about 90 miles west of NYC. Our next door neighbor there, age mid 30's, had never once been to NYC, and he never saw any reason to go. This was a cultural shock for me, because who didn't want to at least visit NYC??? Some people are just less adventurous than others.
paganel 10y ago
My grand-mother lives in a mountainous valley in the Carpathians Mountains, she's now in her mid-80s. She has only ventured 50+ miles outside of her village I think only 2 or 3 times in her life. On the other hand, she used to have two brothers-in-law (who had grew in the same village as her) one of whom had studied at the Leningrad Polytechnic (I think that's ~2,500 km away) and the other one who had lived and worked as a secret agent in East Berlin in the mid-'50s. The world is a complicated place, always has been.

stinkytaco 10y ago

Of course it was nothing like today, but it was a far cry from the isolated, dark world I was taught about where people didn't leave their villages and nobles were in their castles fighting off barbarians who shuttled between Norway and Britain for some occasional pillaging. Skilled craftsman who worked on large projects moved between them. Arab scholars and traders brought ancient texts into Europe. Traders brought spices from the east. Viking traders who weren't pillaging Britain traveled through Russia as far south as modern day Turkey. It was a far more interconnected world than I thought when I was 12.

my_first_acct 10y ago

In 1919, John Maynard Keynes described what the world was like (for the elite, anyway) in the years before World War I (or the Great War, as it was called at that time, since no one was expecting a sequel). The world of global mobility, communication, and finance actually took shape soon after the laying of the trans-oceanic telegraph lines (that is, by the 1870s); it didn't require the jet plane or the internet. One excerpt from Keynes' book: The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such quantity as he might see fit, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep... He could secure forthwith, if he wished it, cheap and comfortable means of transit to any country or climate without passport or other formality, could despatch his servant to the neighboring office of a bank for such supply of the precious metals as might seem convenient, and could then proceed abroad to foreign quarters, without knowledge of their religion, language, or customs, bearing coined wealth upon his person, and would consider himself greatly aggrieved and much surprised at the least interference. [1] [1] http://www.econlib.org/library/YPDBooks/Keynes/kynsCP2.html http://www.econlib.org/library/YPDBooks/Keynes/kynsCP2.html