3 ms·

Largely agreed. A total regression view is inaccurate and foolish. Plenty of people had shit lives before industrialization and plenty of good lives were cut sh

Largely agreed. A total regression view is inaccurate and foolish. Plenty of people had shit lives before industrialization and plenty of good lives were cut short. We can't just assume "the past is better." That's wrong in many ways. However, when we look at our lives today, we can see things that are not good, and we can find ways that those things could be good. Many solutions can come from the past. Connection to our communities and investment in our environment seem to have real benefits for us an individuals, besides the systemic benefits.

nradov 3y ago
How can solutions come from the past when we don't even have reliable information about what the past was like? Archaeological data on the lives of pre-Columbian indigenous New World peoples is extremely limited. Even much of what we think we know is probably mistaken, or at least badly distorted by modern biases.
- digging 3y ago
  Simple: we don't replicate the lives of past peoples. We take ideas from [our ideas of] the past and find out if they work for us. And... it doesn't need to be from indigenous New World people.
  - nradov 3y ago
    Hardly simple. You are talking about running huge social experiments based on guesses about what might work better. It would be interesting to see the results of such experiments, but extremely difficult to convince people to participate.
    - digging 3y ago
      > You are talking about running huge social experiments based on guesses about what might work better No, I'm not. But it's a good idea. > extremely difficult to convince people to participate Yes - easier to just stop tricking people into known-unhealthy behaviors first. > Hardly simple. The answer is simple. The implementation may or may not be [more simple than trying to replicate the lives of people in the past].

3 ms·

Largely agreed. A total regression view is inaccurate and foolish. Plenty of people had shit lives before industrialization and plenty of good lives were cut sh

by digging 3y ago

nradov 3y ago
How can solutions come from the past when we don't even have reliable information about what the past was like? Archaeological data on the lives of pre-Columbian indigenous New World peoples is extremely limited. Even much of what we think we know is probably mistaken, or at least badly distorted by modern biases.
- digging 3y ago
  Simple: we don't replicate the lives of past peoples. We take ideas from [our ideas of] the past and find out if they work for us. And... it doesn't need to be from indigenous New World people.
  - nradov 3y ago
    Hardly simple. You are talking about running huge social experiments based on guesses about what might work better. It would be interesting to see the results of such experiments, but extremely difficult to convince people to participate.
    - digging 3y ago
      > You are talking about running huge social experiments based on guesses about what might work better No, I'm not. But it's a good idea. > extremely difficult to convince people to participate Yes - easier to just stop tricking people into known-unhealthy behaviors first. > Hardly simple. The answer is simple. The implementation may or may not be [more simple than trying to replicate the lives of people in the past].