Seriously thoughtful When Would You Rather Live Your Life?

[bjones6416]

To tell the truth, it would be hard for me to go back even twenty years. I love the internet. Thousands of books at my fingertips, and the ability to do research for my OWN books if I wanted to. The ability to virtually drive down a road somewhere on the other side of the world. Aerial views. Satellite views. Breathtaking photos. And of course, we can discuss topics like this in real time with each other even if we live in different countries. That is huge, to me, to hear other points of view from regular people, not just people in the news.

You can have my car, my phone, my tv, whatever... just leave me a reliable internet connection and something with which to access it.

[HamsterRage]

I think those of us who've lived most/all of their lives in the modern technological age, with modern ideas about human rights and modern medicine (at least in the western world) forget all too easily just what a miserable, hard existence most people have had from the time we climbed down out of the trees.

Just as an example, try watching "The Exorcist". Do you know what the scariest part of the movie is? It's when they take that little girl to get a brain scan! Seventies medicine! They clamp her to a machine, jam a needle about a foot long in her throat and then the thing goes "Bang! Bang! Bang!" while she quivers in fear. And that's only going back to 1972.

Something tells me that, 200 hundred years from now, people will be saying the same things about us. I guess I'd rather be one of them.

[GinoXB]

I love my current life, well except for my current job, with access to the internet and the technology at your finger tips. But I do admit at times I spend WAY too much time on the internet, and this is AFTER I unsubscribed to WoW!

I clearly miss the days of my youth, born in 1971. I miss the simpler times and technology, where you had to actually sit and talk to people face to face, where it seems that this is a lost form of communication. I like watching classics like Hawaii 5-0, Kojak and other shows from the 60's and 70's as I grew up watching them. I like to look in the background to see the pristine land, the cities ( I grew up in the country ) and even the fashion and cheesy mood music playing during the show. I don't know why, even in the simpler times, with less technology it seemed as if more people were more civil and literate, not so obsessed with pop culture and reality show celebrities.

But if I had to choose any era I'd choose Revolutionary America. I love the history of that era. So much changing in the world at that time with technology, political ideology, the small infrastructure of the colonies etching out it's place in history. America at it's purest. To explore the land and see it before we changed it beyond repair. To encounter the native cultures, hopefully minus the aggression, bloodshed and disease. Actually seeing the first Americans with limited influence from the Europeans. I am part American Indian, so this always lurks in the back of my mind.

I like colonial history, politics, technology and so much more. It truly fascinates me. I think this would be my choice. I don't romanticize it as I know it was harsh times, especially as the colonies were adapting to life in the New World. But to me, it would be a world of new experiences, never ending wonder and a chance to see the Americas near pristine environments.

[dsvick]

I'm thinking a few hundred years in the future. When much of what is currently science fiction is reality. I want to be the intrepid space explorer, going boldly where no... err wait....

My answer is still the future if not quite so cliche

[CaraM]

I'd like to live in Rome during ancient times. It's my favorite time in history. However, if I lived then, I'd like to be one of the nobility and live in a marble mansion. The life expectancy in ancient times was 30 and most women died in childbirth. So that kind of puts a damper on wanting to live in Ancient Rome. But Roman noble women had rights that other women in the Middle Ages and later didn't have.

[kindlekitten]

literary issues aside, there are many periods of time that I think would have been fascinating to have experienced, however they would have had many down sides. I would have been burned as a witch during many times of lunacy. parts of my personality would have fit into the "wild west", but my existence would have been that as a rather successful brothel owner or a Calamity Jane type. to the best of my knowledge there are no female "Mountain Man" stories.

it appears that I too probably belong in the future cowgirling my way through whatever explorations might exist then. I quite often feel that I really truly am in the wrong time.

[dsvick]

[QUOTE=kindlekitten;1098530]parts of my personality would have fit into the "wild west", but my existence would have been that as a rather successful brothel owner or a Calamity Jane type.

it appears that I too probably belong in the future cowgirling my way through whatever explorations might exist then. I quite often feel that I really truly am in the wrong time.[/QUOTE

If you combine the two and become a swashbuckling, brothel owner in the future, my future self will be sure to visit on a regular basis between adventures. Umm, just to help a friend out of course.

[kindlekitten]

[QUOTE=dsvick;1098549]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

parts of my personality would have fit into the "wild west", but my existence would have been that as a rather successful brothel owner or a Calamity Jane type.

it appears that I too probably belong in the future cowgirling my way through whatever explorations might exist then. I quite often feel that I really truly am in the wrong time.[/QUOTE

If you combine the two and become a swashbuckling, brothel owner in the future, my future self will be sure to visit on a regular basis between adventures. Umm, just to help a friend out of course.

that could be arranged!

[nohmi2]

Had to edit.

[jes1]

I would like to visit the past during various eras, but definitely would not want to live there permanently. Most periods of history had too few options for women. The best you could hope for is to marry a kind man instead of a cruel one. I would also like to visit the future to see what is ahead (and maybe make a few smart investments )

[JeremyZ]

I think I would like to live in the 1780s and take piano lessons from Mozart. Or at least be well-off enough to subscribe to his public piano concerto performances.

Edit: As others have mentioned, those times would have been scary from a point of view of medicine; lots of people (including Mozart himself) were dying of diseases that are now easily cured by a 2-week prescription of penicillin. Women were considered inferior and subserviant. Wars over land and religion were commonplace and touched everyone. Internal combustion was not yet discovered, nor was electricity. There are pros & cons to all of these things. It would sure stink to go back in time to 1780, only to be killed by some bacteria of the day in the first two weeks.