A longing for simpler times?

[treadlightly]

Objectively, before electronics, were those buried in a newspaper or book any more worthy ?

You make a good point.

I would say smartphones are more all-encompassing than books or newspapers ever were. You can be hooked up to them in some way wherever you are, not just on the tube or train. You never saw people walking down the street reading the paper or a book, for instance. So, yes, they are a more powerful distraction from the world around us.

 

[Joonsy]

Am I longing for simpler times?

Anyway it got me thinking, my modern super light pack is twice that size (thinking about it so is my camera) am I over complicating things? Wouldn't it be simple to carry so little?

I started thinking back to one of Wainwrights books, A Pennine Journey where he walked around 200 miles as a young man with little more than his camera, the clothes on his back and the money in his pocket.

So why do I want to take sepia photographs, carry a heavier canvas pack and throw away my Blackberry?

there is nothing stopping you from doing the same as wainwright did today if you wish, however you first need to choose over carrying little or carrying the heavy pack. Point being you have the choice, wainwright chose carrying little, others chose carrying the heavy pack, some choose technology, some do not, i am a dinosaur whose only bit of technology is an ancient computer that has only recently been switched over from dial-up. i refuse to succumb to what advertisers tell me i should have what i neither want nor need, and that is my choice.

 

[rik_uk3]

Spoof now, reality when?

[video=youtube;kNyTqIsrk0w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNyTqIsrk0w[/video]

 

[oldtimer]

It's about choice. Nowadays we have so much more to make choices about but we have to be clear what we (a) need, (b) want and (c) what someone else thinks we want. Some things we can't make a choice about and can't do anything about: "what can't be cured must be endured" and "we must deal with the world as it is ande not what we would wish it to be" are cliche summaries of how things really are. Pining for a past golden age is something evident throughout the ages. Many of the above posts are right in pointing out that there were good and bad things about the past. But we cannot go back and pick the bits we want and reject the things we don't. Things are what they are: they always have been and always will be.

As my nom de plume indicates, I am old enough to have seen many technological and social changes generally and in our shared interest of bushcrafting in particular. I have to admit that I prefer my wind and waterproof breathable clothes to the clammy oilskins or "water resistant" cotton windbreakers I had in my youth, and am glad to be rid of the problem of packing and carrying a cotton tent that doubled in weight when wet. There was little choice 60 years ago, but that made choice easier. Outdoor leisure was not an industry and kit was ex-government or home made. One of the mysteries of my life is that my pack still weighs the same as it did 60 years ago despite, or maybe because of, all the technological changes.

One of the things I like about this site is seeing how people much younger than myself continue to enjoy the things that really matter. The night under the stars with friends or alone with the sounds of the night; the sudden sight of a startled deer the pride of achievement in lighting a fire from basics; the sharing of expertise and experiences. The internet and the computer make this possible.

I've enjoyed this thread for the memories and thoughts it has evoked in me: so thank you for that. Maybe people are wrong when they suggest that nostalgia isn't what it used to be!

 

[Harvestman]

It's about choice. Nowadays we have so much more to make choices about but we have to be clear what we (a) need, (b) want and (c) what someone else thinks we want. Some things we can't make a choice about and can't do anything about: "what can't be cured must be endured" and "we must deal with the world as it is ande not what we would wish it to be" are cliche summaries of how things really are. Pining for a past golden age is something evident throughout the ages. Many of the above posts are right in pointing out that there were good and bad things about the past. But we cannot go back and pick the bits we want and reject the things we don't. Things are what they are: they always have been and always will be.

As my nom de plume indicates, I am old enough to have seen many technological and social changes generally and in our shared interest of bushcrafting in particular. I have to admit that I prefer my wind and waterproof breathable clothes to the clammy oilskins or "water resistant" cotton windbreakers I had in my youth, and am glad to be rid of the problem of packing and carrying a cotton tent that doubled in weight when wet. There was little choice 60 years ago, but that made choice easier. Outdoor leisure was not an industry and kit was ex-government or home made. One of the mysteries of my life is that my pack still weighs the same as it did 60 years ago despite, or maybe because of, all the technological changes.

One of the things I like about this site is seeing how people much younger than myself continue to enjoy the things that really matter. The night under the stars with friends or alone with the sounds of the night; the sudden sight of a startled deer the pride of achievement in lighting a fire from basics; the sharing of expertise and experiences. The internet and the computer make this possible.

I've enjoyed this thread for the memories and thoughts it has evoked in me: so thank you for that. Maybe people are wrong when they suggest that nostalgia isn't what it used to be!

This has nothing to do with the thread itself, but I just wanted to say that there are some people on here who talk a great deal of sense. Oldtimer is one of them. Great post.

 

[British Red]

Yearning for a simpler time is self-delusional. Each era no doubt appeared more complex than the one before it. Having said that, simplifying your life is a good thing imho.

If simplifying your life is a good thing, then surely yearning for a simpler time is not "self delusional" - its simply symptomatic of being disillusioned with the material world. I know some just love an extra LED or geegaw or higher resolution soap opera. Good luck to them - if a single serving, celluloid life if what you aspire to, it has never been more available.


That said I yearned for a simpler life, I sought it out, and I achieved it - what is wrong with that?

However - as for the unreserved technology fanboys, they must be right, when has high tech new ideas ever proved to be patently stupid?

 

[boatman]

Wasn't simpler living that made these vanish, it was market forces and improved technology.

 

[boatman]

You make a good point.

I would say smartphones are more all-encompassing than books or newspapers ever were. You can be hooked up to them in some way wherever you are, not just on the tube or train. You never saw people walking down the street reading the paper or a book, for instance. So, yes, they are a more powerful distraction from the world around us.

I used to walk home from the library reading one of the newly borrowed books. Quite an easy technigue to master.

 

[SCOMAN]

If simplifying your life is a good thing, then surely yearning for a simpler time is not "self delusional" - its simply symptomatic of being disillusioned with the material world. I know some just love an extra LED or geegaw or higher resolution soap opera. Good luck to them - if a single serving, celluloid life if what you aspire to, it has never been more available.


That said I yearned for a simpler life, I sought it out, and I achieved it - what is wrong with that?

However - as for the unreserved technology fanboys, they must be right, when has high tech new ideas ever proved to be patently stupid?

Two classics of new technology that broke new ground and are making a difference in the modern world. Ah hold on......

If I remember BR you have a wonderful setup of a farmstead, I'm incredibly jealous of your lifestyle and applaud the efforts you've made.

 

[Mesquite]

You make a good point.

I would say smartphones are more all-encompassing than books or newspapers ever were. You can be hooked up to them in some way wherever you are, not just on the tube or train. You never saw people walking down the street reading the paper or a book, for instance. So, yes, they are a more powerful distraction from the world around us.

Einstein summed it up on this subject...

 

[mountainm]

Electric cars and digital storage. Yeah those ideas will never take off.

 

[tiger stacker]

Modern technology is useful, electronic books great for reference at the flick of a finger. Mobile phones, mean instant contact around the globe signal permitting.
Time consuming tasks are worth doing, experience gained is often passed on.

 

[rik_uk3]

If simplifying your life is a good thing, then surely yearning for a simpler time is not "self delusional" - its simply symptomatic of being disillusioned with the material world. I know some just love an extra LED or geegaw or higher resolution soap opera. Good luck to them - if a single serving, celluloid life if what you aspire to, it has never been more available.


That said I yearned for a simpler life, I sought it out, and I achieved it - what is wrong with that?

However - as for the unreserved technology fanboys, they must be right, when has high tech new ideas ever proved to be patently stupid?

These ideas were the Mk1's of other things.

You need to revise your trolling technique, your becoming so very obvious in your attempts to stir the pot these days, tiresome in fact.

 

[mrcharly]

Two classics of new technology that broke new ground and are making a difference in the modern world. Ah hold on......

The Sinclair C5 was utterly crap. There were better (much, much better) recumbents around in victorian times.

 

[British Red]

These ideas were the Mk1's of other things.

You need to revise your trolling technique, your becoming so very obvious in your attempts to stir the pot these days, tiresome in fact.

Rik, you have now made my ignore list, desist with your personal insults please, they break forum rules and have been reported - if you don't like my posts don't read them. Your abuse has caused at least one person to leave this forum - give it a rest.

 

[EdS]

I often wish I had been born 50 years earlier, maybe without World War 2 though!! Remember when it wasn't necessary (or possible!) to have a mobile phone.

Wild camping was available all over the countryside, where you were not allowed to read and where often forcibly removed and given a good beating by keepers areas were still remote.

Fish were abundant in the rivers and sea. UK's "great" rivers where dead due to industrial pollution
No central heating (character building!). Cold, damp housing stock compounding health problems caused by air pollution
None of the more ridiculous health and safety rules. Yep, free to be killed or maimed by as employer is free to have as dangerous work place rather than invest a little money. With no come back when accidents happend. 25% of men where not expected to draw a pension as work would of killed them one way or another by 65.
Free speech. Really, free to be arrested and given a good beating by the authorities for protesting

And it was ok to eat bread and dripping! Nothing stopping you now

The good old days

 

[SCOMAN]

These ideas were the Mk1's of other things.

You need to revise your trolling technique, your becoming so very obvious in your attempts to stir the pot these days, tiresome in fact.

That's quite rude chum. This is an interesting debate lets not get carried away and disperse participants.

 

[SCOMAN]

The Sinclair C5 was utterly crap. There were better (much, much better) recumbents around in victorian times.

It was I was being slightly flippant ;-)

 

[boatman]

How simple actually is the simple life. You must work to a rigid timetable covering perhaps three years. A timetable that must be adhered to except that the weather will grossly distort it at times or destroy one year's work.

I haven't time to list the amount of equipment that must be accumulated but think of just one production activity and count what you need for that, for example, cultivation by hand needs spades, forks, dibbers, hoes, wheelbarrow, string and lots more with never-ending possible add-ons. All to be inherited or bought and maintained and replaced. Now multiply this by all the activities associated with animal husbandry, horticulture, dairying, butchering, bee-keeping.......

Now tell me that a visit to ASDA with a credit card isn't simpler. I say nothing about the quality of life and personal satisfaction because these will differ with the individual and while I have read of many happy smallholders, lean keen men and rosy-cheeked wives, I have met several embittered with the life choices they made along with others still happy with their choices of course.

 

[Robmc]

The good old days

Oh dear! I thought I had explained that my post was supposed to be lighthearted, but I will try to explain again;

where you were not allowed to read and where often forcibly removed and given a good beating by keepers areas were still remote.

I never knew that reading was not allowed back then? My granddad always used to speak of being able to camp in far more places.

UK's "great" rivers where dead due to industrial pollution.

Certainly not where I was from in Leicestershire. The old boys in the pub used to tell me that the River Soar was so thick with fish that they called it the Silver Soar. OK an exaggeration, but do you suppose they were lieing?

Cold, damp housing stock compounding health problems caused by air pollution

Maybe you're right. But don't you think that central heating is adding to air pollution?

Yep, free to be killed or maimed by as employer is free to have as dangerous work place rather than invest a little money. With no come back when accidents happend. 25% of men where not expected to draw a pension as work would of killed them one way or another by 65.

I said the more ridiculous h&s rulse. I've nothing against h&s. I thought I had explained that one already.

Really, free to be arrested and given a good beating by the authorities for protesting.

Yeah, somethings don't change.

Nothing stopping you now

No. I thought it would be obvious that it was a joke. Never mind!

Why so angry about something so trivial as me doing a bit of daydreaming?