Our quality of life peaked in 1974. It's all downhill now [Jackass alert]

The Guardian ^ | Tuesday December 31, 2002 | George Monbiot

[Age of Reason]

I never heard of that Ludd guy, and Rousseau's silly ideas about primatives being noble don't interest me.

[Age of Reason]

There are probably more deer in the southern US now than in 1400 AD.

If there's such an abundance of deer, why are we forced to ration deer with bag limits?

[Age of Reason]

How many people today would volunteer to give up medicine, housing, plumbing, transportation and abundant food to go live in a skin tent and die of disease or starvation (the two most common causes in primitive cultures)?

LOL.

Not many, I'm sure.

Still, I'm not sure that living off the land must have been the negative experience you describe.

Even as recently as five-hundred years ago, Open-minded European explorers were struck by the handsome appearance and happiness level among many native peoples.

And why not?

Those people lived lives on permanent vacation.

They hunted, fished, gathered, had beach parties--they must have had a fine time, and it showed in their healthy physiques.

Certainly--if by some miracle--some place somewhere in time had been lucky enough to escape the epic suffering visited upon them by continual mile-high tidal waves or lava flows from volcanoes going off all the time or having to always outrun giant iguanas or to avoid falling into crevasses that earthquakes open or dodging the grasping claws of swooping reptiles--not to mention having to placate 50-foot tall apes with sacrificial virgins--then life might actually have been fun.

[LexBaird]

If there's such an abundance of deer, why are we forced to ration deer with bag limits?

Because there are morons out there who think Bambi was a documentary. There was a 60 Minutes segment a while back on how the deer are overrunning Long Island, but the govt. can't do anything about it because of all the New Yawk liberal mush-heads don't want Bambi to be shot. They'd rather kill them by totalling their car while running them over.

[LexBaird]

They hunted, fished, gathered, had beach parties--they must have had a fine time, and it showed in their healthy physiques.

They also grew crops and domesticated animals. Maize, potatos, squash, beans, plantain, wild rice, dogs, llama. Also known to pen and farm fish.

[Age of Reason]

They also grew crops and domesticated animals. Maize, potatos, squash, beans, plantain, wild rice, dogs, llama. Also known to pen and farm fish.

That's why I said, "Even as recently as 500 years ago . . . ."

By which I meant to indicate that there was still some happiness going on despite the on-going transistion to farming.

[Age of Reason]

Because there are morons out there who think Bambi was a documentary.

What's that got to do with seasonal restrictions?

You mean deer are more like Bambi in the spring and summer, but not in the fall?

[LexBaird]

You mean deer are more like Bambi in the spring and summer, but not in the fall?

Yes. They are cutsy little fawns then.

[Age of Reason]

Yes, a world filled with morons is what you end up with when people live unnatural lives in an industrialized society.

Unnatural living inspires unnatural thinking.