Progress, change, and stagnation

[plutherus]

Everybody reading this lives in a world that has changed radically from when they were young. And they were brought up to believe this is normal. Of course the world you live in isn't the one your parents grew up in.

But for the vast majority of humans throughout history, this hasn't been true. Nothing was expected to change. The technology you grew up with was the same technology your parents grew up with, and the same that your children would grow up with. And for most people, it probably involved poking at the ground with a sharp stick.

So what goes on there? I mean, what do people aspire to when nothing's changed in generations? I imagine clothing fashions still change, right? Do peasants dream of becoming knights? Or of owning their own land some day? Or do most people just accept that where they are in life will be where they always are? What does change? And does it change back? And what the hell do you do for fun?

Comments

[31seel.livejournal.com]

Aspire to? Hell, when the world is stable what is there to aspire to but improvement of the self & of the self's living conditions. Change is constant, things are always in a state of flux. Tech is not the defining point of either life or change.

People generally accepted where they were, just as they do today. Sure, we dream of winning the lottery, but for the most part we are content to work our 8 hours a day -- just as the peasants dreamed of being landed knights.

I imagine their idea of fun involved getting intoxicated and picking up on the opposite (or the same) sex -- possibly even some music.

WHat you don't mention is that things lasted then. Change is a glorified deity in our culture. Planned obsolesence ensures that change must happen. To build for eternity is stagnation, but that is exactly what they did in days of yore. Funny thing is, they weren't stagnant. Great works of art, philosophy, science and architecture came out of those days.

Anyway, I will ramble some more later.

[laiadapila.livejournal.com]

Do peasants dream of becoming knights? Or of owning their own land some day? Or do most people just accept that where they are in life will be where they always are? What does change? And does it change back? And what the hell do you do for fun?

You visit friends in a distant valley, drink margaritas, swim in the river and soak every photon into your skin while enjoying as much as possible the moment you are in.

Then you laugh.

And later that night when the stars are bright, you make love. It's very simple really. That's why it's so hard to find, especially when you are conscious of all the bad things outside the valley, creeping in with breath of telemarketer and smallpox, wanting to give you a blanket or making your purchase out to be free.

That knowledge of what could be makes dewdrops seem to be diamonds, and salamanders to be self-aware dragons. And you can't go back, but you change too.